Black Ops Ports Made Bank, But OG Devs Saw Nothing

Ever wonder who actually cashes in when a classic game gets a surprise re-release? The recent Call of Duty: Black Ops ports were a massive hit, but according to one original developer, the people who made the games didn't get a cut.

Activision recently dropped ports of 2010's Black Ops and 2012's Black Ops 2 on PlayStation, and they were an instant success. A report says the two games combined sold more than 11 million copies on PS4 and PS5. That's a huge number for games that are over a decade old, and it shows just how much love there still is for those classics.

Gavin Goslin, who worked on the games at Treyarch, took to LinkedIn to share his mixed feelings. He said it's amazing to see the games still performing well in 2026, but it's also "bittersweet." Why? Because the "suits" at Activision are raking in all the money, while the original developers don't see a dime of it.

"I poured my life into those games, spending countless, brutal hours in crunch alongside an incredibly talented team to make sure they were perfect," Goslin wrote. "Seeing our blood, sweat, and tears still dominating the charts in 2026 is amazing, but it's hard to watch the suits rake in giant financial windfalls from our old code while the actual creators don't see a dime of it."

He didn't stop there. Goslin called for change: "If executives are getting massive bonuses off the longevity of these classics, that wealth needs to be shared retroactively. Legacy revenue should mean legacy rewards for the devs who survived the crunch to build them."

It's worth noting that these re-releases aren't remakes or remasters—they're straight ports with no new features or significant updates. And that's exactly what fans wanted: the games in their original state. Before the ports, the only way to play them on PlayStation was to dig out an old PS3, since they were never made available via backwards compatibility on PS4 or PS5. That pent-up demand clearly paid off.

Activision marketing boss Tyler Bahl told The Game Business, "The Black Ops ports were huge successes. We thought they would do well, we didn't think they would do that well." He credited pent-up demand for the success and said Activision is trying to learn from it for Modern Warfare 4 and future Call of Duty games. The next Call of Duty release is Modern Warfare 4, which arrives on October 23. After that, Activision has teased that a new sub-franchise is coming.

So, what do you think? Should developers get a cut when their old games get re-released and make bank? Let us know in the comments!