Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 is under immense pressure to perform, especially with other shooter titles gunning for the crown this year. During Tokyo Game Show 2025, Treyarch Associate Creative Director Miles Leslie and Beenox Lead Designer Marc-Antoine Saindon shared their thoughts about the upcoming installment in the acclaimed Call of Duty series, which, coincidentally, shines a spotlight on Japan.

Call of Duty Black Ops 7 Interview

Japan as a storytelling device and playable space

Leslie recounted how a small research trip to the country expanded into something much larger as team photos and references kept coming back from the field, and the team continued to add them to the game. “They’d send something to me like, ‘oh my god, that’s amazing. I have to put this in the game’… it just kept growing, and it felt right”

Throughout the course of development, the team had to balance authenticity with creative freedom, as Leslie says that “We have not recreated any place one‑to‑one. It was important for us to take all the ingredients across all of Japan and transport it into Black Ops. So I hope they get excited about seeing their home in the game, Black Ops style.”

All of this work resulted in Japan turning out to be not just a narrative and mechanical tool but was used to breathe new life into Black Ops 7.

Classic maps remade for Japan

Maps have always been the lifeblood of a Call of Duty game, and Black Ops 7 is no different as fan favorites have been adapted to the new setting rather than reskinned. Leslie said the team playtested the remasters with new mechanics in mind, looking for opportunities to “make it fit right for the game” while avoiding spoiling what players love about the originals.

The team detailed 18 launch multiplayer maps: 16 brand-new maps, three of which are remasters, in the initial lineup. Notable maps include:

• Toshin – a Tokyo Bay map with distinct navigation options and wall‑jumping opportunities.
• Forge – a Guild R&D facility in Tokyo Bay offering vertical interior and rooftop gameplay.
• Raid – remastered, now set in the hills of Tokyo and built to evoke the fan memory while adapting to new movement tools.
• Hijacked / Express – reimagined in Japan and tied into Bay‑area map connections and narrative beats.

The Importance of Verticality and a Larger Scale

Saindon also highlighted how wall‑jumping partly dictates how a map flows and how it also empowers player expression. “The wall jump allows us to do things we didn’t do before in the maps and adds a layer of verticality that we didn’t have in BO6.”

“With the addition of the wall‑jump… the players can be very creative while moving around the map.”

Saindon framed wall‑jumping as one of several tools to “bend the rules around that skeleton” of traditional Black Ops design.

Leslie also pointed out how the introduction of large‑scale battles and skirmish modes accommodates gadgets and traversal that don’t fit in tight competitive maps. Simply put, gadgets from the campaign, grapple hooks, kinetic jumps, wingsuiting, “don’t feel right” in 6v6, so larger 20v20 formats allow those tools to shine.

New competitive modes, such as Overload, are designed to utilize more of the map, promoting objective movement and encouraging varied play across wider areas.

Bridging lore with returning characters

Black Ops 7 continues narrative threads from previous entries, notably links to Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 6, with returning characters like David Mason and Raul Menendez appearing alongside new faces. Leslie said that this was “really difficult… what characters to bring back and not bring back. One is to tell the right story”.

However, the team also focused on opening up the series to newcomers, saying that if you’re new, “you still are going to fall in love with these characters” because their background is explained. If you’re a veteran, these callbacks will register as fan service.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches on November 14 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, and PC.