Activision released Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops II for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 on July 9, 2026, bringing the 2010 and 2012 Treyarch games to Sony’s current consoles for the first time. Each title launched at $39.99, with a $19.99 introductory price for PlayStation Plus members through August 6. The offer cut the standard price in half, but it was temporary.
The releases close a long-running platform gap. The original PlayStation 3 editions could not be played natively on PS4 or PS5, while Xbox players retained access through backward compatibility and PC players could buy the games from digital storefronts such as Steam. The PlayStation editions are ports, not remasters. Reporting describes them as matching the versions already available through Xbox backward compatibility, rather than substantially rebuilding the games.
Treyarch developed the original titles, and Iron Galaxy handled the PlayStation conversions. Both ports retain the original Campaign, Multiplayer and Zombies modes. Black Ops is set during the Cold War, while Black Ops II features a branching narrative and a future-set storyline. The new releases bring those original experiences to current PlayStation hardware without changing their basic content.
The commercial response continued beyond the launch window. Industry reporting citing Alinea Analytics put combined sales of the two PlayStation editions above 11 million copies across PS4 and PS5. Separately, Black Ops II reached sixth place on Circana’s U.S. sales chart after the ports arrived, showing continued demand for established franchise titles on newer consoles.
The games also appeared in Sony’s September 2026 PlayStation Store download rankings. The U.S. and Canada chart included Black Ops II among the top PS5 downloads, while the European chart listed both games. Sony’s PlayStation Blog says the rankings count PlayStation Store purchases and exclude upgrades and games bundled with hardware, defining what the charts measure.
The re-release has also revived questions about how developers are compensated when publishers earn revenue from older games. Former Treyarch level designer Gavin Goslin, who worked on levels for both titles, publicly sought royalties connected to the new editions. “It’s hard to watch,” he said, in comments reported by The Lag Globe. His criticism concerns a share of revenue from the ports, not a court or regulatory ruling. The debate highlights how catalogue releases can extend a game’s commercial life while raising questions about how the people behind the original work are treated.
