Development[edit]

In May 2009, publisher Activision was rumored to be looking for licensing regarding Vietnam War-era
[25]
music which led to speculation that Call of Duty 7 would be set in Vietnam. In May 2009, Treyarch
employee David Kim revealed on his LinkedIn profile that he would work as a senior animator on
[26]
Call of Duty 7. In November 2009, only a few days before Modern Warfare 2's release, Activision
[27]
officially announced a new Call of Duty title for 2010 through their third quarter financial call. In
February 2010, a casting call for Call of Duty 7 led to speculation that the game would be taking
[28]
place during the Cold War era with some battles taking place in South Vietnam. On April 30,
[29]
2010, Black Ops was officially announced.
The game runs on an enhanced World at War engine (which itself was improved from Call of Duty
[30]
4's) at 60 frames per second across all platforms, excluding the Wii. It features a streaming
texture technology (also seen in Modern Warfare 2), making bigger levels possible such as
[31]
"Payback" where the player controls a helicopter. Lighting effects have been improved as well.
[32]
Call of Duty: Black Ops supports 3-D imaging rendered by the engine itself. This feature is
[33]
available on the PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 versions.
For Black Ops, Treyarch focused only on this game unlike past practice. However, it had different
[34]
teams, each working on separate game modes. Treyarch used a motion capture technology
similar to the one used in James Cameron's film Avatar, which allows accurate facial expressions,
[35]
capturing the whole performance of the actor. The studio also consulted special forces veterans
from both belligerents of the Cold War: Major John Plaster (US Army-Ret.) who served in the
[36]
MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War, and former Soviet special forces operative Sonny Puzikas.
The latter taught Treyarch how Spetsnaz soldiers would react in combat, such as rolling out of the
line of fire. Spetsnaz AIs in the game have been modeled after him, from his tactics and his
[37][38]
movements to his face. Although having a historical background, the classified aspect of these
[39]
Cold War black operations allowed the studio to create its own fictional story. The game also
[40]
allows players to turn down the blood and turn off the profanity.
It was announced on November 9, 2015, that Black Ops would become backwards compatible with
[41]
the Xbox One. It was originally meant to be available for backwards compatibility in December
[42]
2015, but the date was later changed to some time in 2016. Black Ops was originally the
[43]
sixth-most requested Xbox 360 title to become backwards compatible with the Xbox One. On
[44]
May 17, 2016, the game was made available through Xbox One's backward compatibility. Shortly
[45]
after, it was reported that sales of the Xbox 360 version had increased by 13,000 percent.

Audio[edit]
 [46]
Black Ops features the voices of Sam Worthington as Alex Mason, Ed Harris as Jason
[47]
Hudson, Gary Oldman reprises his role as Viktor Reznov from World at War and also voices Dr.
[46] [48]
Clarke, James C. Burns voices and provides performance capture for Frank Woods and Ice
Cube voices Joseph Bowman, whose appearance is likened to him as well, and is also the
[49][50]
multiplayer announcer for the SOG faction. Gene Farber voices Grigori Weaver, Emmanuelle
[51][52]
Chriqui plays a live-action character called Numbers, Eamon Hunt voices Nikita Dragovich,
Andrew Divoff voices Lev Kravchenko and Robert Picardo voices Secretary Robert McNamara.
Dimitri Diatchenko, an American born actor and musician voices the Spetsnaz faction and several
other characters due to his strong Russian accent.
Call of Duty: Black Ops features Vietnam War era music including "Sympathy for the Devil" by The
[53]
Rolling Stones (played during a gameplay sequence, the credits, and as an easter egg in the
[54]
multiplayer map Nuketown) and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son". Eminem's
"Won't Back Down" (featuring Pink) is used for the credits as well, and additionally appears as an
Easter Egg in the Zombie map "Five". In the Call of the Dead zombie map the song "Not Ready to
[55]
Die" by American heavy metal band Avenged Sevenfold is featured as an easter egg. The
original