Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 devs 'straight up turned down' skin deals with 'big, big brands' following Tactical Beavis backlash

In 2023, our Morgan Park wrote about the phenomenon of Cosmetic Uglification, in which shooters of the modern era are inevitably swallowed by a rancid mire of crossover skins until they've lost all semblance of a cohesive visual identity. In the years since, things have only become more dire, culminating in Black Ops 6 reaching the damning aesthetic nadir of Tactical Beavis.

Thankfully, the higher powers doing the decisionmaking in the shooter market have finally clocked that a lot of people hate this shit. In an interview with Dexerto's CharlieIntel, Treyarch senior director of production Yale Miller said Activision has cancelled crossover skin deals to focus on cosmetics that "make sense for Black Ops 7."

(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

After Battlefield 6 devs declared their intent to keep the players in their modern military game looking like modern military guys, thereby delivering the coup de grace in their campaign of eating Call of Duty's lunch, Activision issued a sheepish commitment to "calibrate" its skin philosophy for Black Ops 7.

Earlier this month, that commitment suddenly looked a lot more firm, as Activision confirmed that players' cosmetics wouldn't be carried forward into Black Ops 7, thus banishing Jay and Silent Bob to forever linger amongst the battlefields of the past. According to Miller, Activision's cosmetic recalibration isn't just cutting off previous missteps. It's even cancelling collaboration plans that were already in motion.

"There are opportunities that we have had lined up that, after some of our conversations, we straight up turned down," Miller said. "Big, big brands, big things, and we’re like, 'No, we’re not gonna do that because it just doesn’t fit.'"

(Image credit: Activision)

While it sounds like Black Ops 7 will feature fewer American Dads, Miller said players shouldn't expect Call of Duty to suddenly return to a fully "grounded" look. Instead, Black Ops 7 devs still intend to stick to some of the more absurd cosmetics—like the mannequin skins from the Black Ops 6 Nuketown Block Party event, or the TEDD Operator from the Vault Edition of Black Ops 7—if they think it fits the vibe.

"All intentions [are] to stick to stuff that we can, hand on our heart, say, 'Yeah, that feels Black Ops,'" Miller said. "That’s really our goal."

You'll notice that Miller didn't explicitly say that crossover skins were off the table—just that skins should "feel like" they fit. While that's theoretically an improvement over complete visual slop, all it takes is a few skins that chip away at a game's visual identity before you've given yourself a license to start throwing aesthetic spaghetti at the wall. That's how we got here in the first place.

Still, a world where I don't have to know that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are dying to a killstreak somewhere is better than the alternative.