Iron Galaxy is porting both classics to PS4 and PS5 in July. PS5 features not included.
Treyarch has confirmed that Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 are on their way to PlayStation consoles, but Activision wants players to understand exactly what that means before getting too excited. These are ports, not remasters, and the distinction carries real consequences for anyone hoping to return to either game on PS4 or PS5 with meaningful improvements.
What Activision and Treyarch confirmed
The announcement came through Treyarch’s account on X, confirming that both games are in the process of being ported to PlayStation. The releases are targeted for July, though no specific date has been given. Both titles will arrive with all three of their original modes intact: campaign, Zombies and multiplayer.
Iron Galaxy, a studio with a strong track record in ports and remasters, has been brought in to handle the work. Activision confirmed to press that the games will be available on both PS4 and PS5. Pricing, DLC inclusion and whether the two games will be sold as a bundle remain unannounced. The releases had been rumored for some time, with listings appearing on South Korea’s ratings board ahead of the official announcement.
doubts on new ports of black ops one and two [BO] [BO2]
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What to expect from the ports
The fact that these releases span two PlayStation generations is a strong indicator of what they will not include. Native PS5 features such as 120Hz support are unlikely. The games, described as ports rather than remasters, will not be rebuilt from the ground up for current hardware.
There is also a more technical concern specific to games from this era. Black Ops and Black Ops 2 were built with physics and gameplay characteristics tied directly to the player’s framerate. Adjusting that relationship would require substantial additional development work, and nothing in the current announcements suggests that kind of effort has gone into either release.
The hacked lobbies problem
The larger question mark hanging over both ports is what happens to multiplayer. If the releases connect players to the same server infrastructure that hosts the original PS3 versions, the hacked lobby issue that has long plagued those platforms will follow them into the ports.
On PS3 and Xbox 360, those older consoles no longer receive security updates, allowing players to inject code, manipulate game files and alter the experience in ways that make lobbies nearly unplayable. If that infrastructure carries over, that problem will arrive on PS4 and PS5 as well. Activision has not addressed this publicly.
Why PlayStation gets these ports now
Xbox consoles can run both Black Ops titles through backward compatibility, a feature PlayStation has never offered for PS3 games. PlayStation 4 and PS5 users have had no official way to play these games on modern hardware, which is what these ports are designed to address.
The strategy mirrors what Rockstar did in 2023 when Red Dead Redemption arrived on PS4 without a full remaster. Activision and Microsoft appear to be counting on nostalgia and accumulated demand from PlayStation players who have had no access to these titles on current hardware. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 generated $500 million in its first day of sales when it originally launched, and that commercial weight makes these ports a logical business decision even in their most basic form.