The trophy lists for the upcoming PlayStation 5 versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 suggest that Activision is planning to ship the re-releases without several gameplay features that defined the originals.
A comparison of the trophy achievements reveals significant omissions. Theater mode, which let players rewatch and reposition cameras during past matches, is gone. So too are trophies tied to wager matches, a competitive playlist where players risked in-game currency to unlock unique modes.
The wager matches themselves were the draw for many players. Gun Game cycled players through different weapons with each kill, while One in the Chamber forced players to hunt for ammunition by eliminating opponents. These modes became staples across later Call of Duty titles, though future iterations stripped away the gambling mechanics.
Black Ops 2's League Play competitive ranking system also appears to be absent based on the missing trophies associated with it. That particular cut may be the most logical, given the difficulty of maintaining a thriving ranked community for a nearly 15-year-old game.
Theater mode catered to content creators during YouTube's formative years, when replay capture and editing tools were far less prevalent than today. Removing it now seems less critical than it once would have been.
The trophy list does not guarantee these modes are gone entirely. Activision could have simply removed achievements without cutting the underlying code, though the wholesale deletion of associated trophies across both titles makes that scenario unlikely. The company has kept the bulk of other trophies intact, suggesting selective rather than systematic changes.
Regulatory scrutiny around loot boxes and gambling mechanics in games has intensified since Black Ops launched in 2010. Wager matches operated on real stakes, making them potential regulatory targets. Activision may have opted to sidestep the issue by excluding them from the ports rather than attempting to restructure how they work.
The company has confirmed that the July releases will include campaign, multiplayer, and Zombies modes. A specific launch date has not been announced. The versions were initially expected to arrive sometime this month on PS4 and PS5.
Author Emily Chen: "Stripping out wager matches just feels unnecessary, especially when the gambling angle could have been redesigned rather than removed entirely."
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