Ex-Call of Duty designer “who survived the crunch” in order to launch Black Ops 1 & 2 calls out executives “raking it in” from sales of remasters
Former Treyarch level designer Gavin Goslin, who spent over 15 years at the studio, has criticized how Activision executives are profiting from recently released PlayStation ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) and Black Ops 2 (2012), while the original developers receive no compensation.
The ports achieved massive commercial success, selling 11.2 million copies combined and generating approximately $435 million in sales in July 2026 alone. Goslin, who endured “countless, brutal hours” of crunch during development, expressed frustration that executives are “printing money off of work completed over a decade ago” while the original creators “don’t see a dime.”
In a LinkedIn post, Goslin argued that this disparity highlights “a fundamental flaw in how our industry values its talent.” He called for developers to receive royalties when legacy games are ported to new systems, describing it as “bittersweet” and “hard to watch” to see the commercial success of games he helped create without any benefit to the original team.
The situation underscores broader industry issues regarding developer compensation, particularly around remastering and porting older titles that require minimal additional effort compared to their original development.
Sources
- Ex-Call of Duty designer “who survived the crunch” in order to launch Black Ops 1 & 2 calls out executives “raking it in” from sales of remasters
- “The Suits” Made All The Money From Call Of Duty: Black Ops 1 And 2 Ports, OG Dev Says
- Former Call of Duty Dev Says ‘It’s Hard to Watch’ Xbox Make Money From Black Ops PlayStation Ports
- COD Black Ops 1 and 2 dev says it’s ‘hard to watch’ the new ports selling well while ‘the actual creators don’t see a dime’