Black Ops designer says original team sees 'not a dime' from PS5 ports

It is hard to watch old levels turn into new money. That is the view of Gavin Goslin, a level designer on Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2, after stripped-back PlayStation versions of both games became surprise bestsellers.

Goslin set out his frustration in a message posted on LinkedIn, as reported by Video Games Chronicle. He is a Treyarch veteran who worked as a level designer, building the missions and multiplayer spaces players move through, on both original games.

Activision released PS4 and PS5 versions of the two shooters without warning on July 9. The originals date to 2010 and 2012. These were ports, meaning editions adapted to run on newer consoles, sold as digital downloads.

Sales followed fast. The two PlayStation ports sold more than 11 million copies combined, according to GameSpot. Black Ops 2 finished as the best-selling game in the United States for July 2026, according to Circana, the retail tracker that measures US game sales.

Goslin described the re-releases as basic US$40 digital re-releases with zero new features. No remake. No added modes. Just the old games, made available again.

“They are printing money off of work completed over a decade ago,” he wrote.

In the same post he added: “its 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.” His point was direct. The ports are selling well, but the people who made the originals see no royalties, or ongoing payments for reuse of their work.

For players picking them up, this is the odd shape of the story. The games on sale are the old games, running on new machines. The names in the credits have not changed. The money around them has, and the designer who helped build those worlds says he has felt that gap keenly.