Iron Galaxy’s PlayStation ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 launched on July 9, 2026, and immediately shot to the top of the PlayStation Store charts – reportedly beating Grand Theft Auto VI in the trending rankings. For Xbox players watching that happen, the reaction has been a mix of frustration and envy, because their only option remains the aging, hacker-riddled Xbox 360 backwards compatibility versions.
What PlayStation Got That Xbox Didn’t
The ports arrived on PS4 and PS5 on July 9, 2026, with Treyarch having announced them on June 17 and confirming that developer Iron Galaxy is handling the project. Both releases are straightforward ports of the originals, with no significant graphical upgrades, remade assets, or major gameplay changes. DLC map packs are sold separately on top of the base purchase price.
The Xbox 360 security layers have been torn down over the years, allowing cheaters to ruin the experience. Since the Black Ops 1 and 2 ports on PlayStation 5 are siloed away from older systems, they are far less susceptible.
Black Ops and Black Ops 2 – titles released for Xbox 360, PC, and PS3 – have been playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S since 2016, soon after Microsoft began the Xbox Backwards Compatibility Program. The PS4 and PS5 are not backwards compatible with PS3 games, so until now, the only way to play these titles on modern PlayStation consoles was to stream them through PlayStation Plus Premium.
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The Hacker Problem in Plain Sight
The core complaint from the Xbox community is not just about missing a port – it is about the state of the servers they are left with. There are widespread complaints that both Black Ops and Black Ops 2 are locked to basic 720p resolution when played through Xbox Backwards Compatibility, and that hackers have infested the servers across both games for years.
This is primarily driven by the theater mode exploit. By going into the in-game Leaderboards and searching specific gamertags, players can locate and watch specific “infected clips” in Theater Mode. Watching these clips exploits the game’s code, automatically injecting a functional mod menu directly into their session.
Community reaction on social media has been sharp. One player who tested both versions posted: “As someone who has played Black Ops on both Xbox and PlayStation, I can confidently say Xbox players are getting completely screwed out of the reunion PlayStation players are having right now. The PS4/PS5 ports find games almost instantly. I haven’t encountered a single hacker, and I’ve genuinely had an amazing time playing. Whenever I tried playing on Xbox, it could take 15-20 minutes to find a match, and when I finally found one, it was always modded.”
The frustration extends beyond ruined lobbies. Warnings about hacked lobbies were issued by the community as far back as nine years ago, with posts urging players to quit if they ran into a hacked lobby, as scammers would allegedly promise “insane XP boosters and other temporary perks” only to disable your Activision account and demand money to restore access. An r/Xbox thread highlighting the account security risk quickly amassed over 1,000 upvotes, with one commenter noting that account safety – not just matchmaking quality – is the real gap between the two platform experiences.
Why a Fix Is Harder Than It Looks
As Windows Central executive editor Jez Corden noted, the server infrastructure and source code are likely “on ice,” so updating the 360 versions and weeding out hackers is harder than most would assume – which is exactly why new ports are needed.
Activision and Microsoft have so far treated the backwards compatibility versions as equivalent to the new PlayStation releases, making personalization packs free on the Xbox store for parity. But free cosmetics do not address a 15-minute matchmaking queue that ends in a god-mode lobby.
Players are also unhappy that the titles are not on Xbox Game Pass and still require paid DLC. The comparison table below shows where the two versions stand today:
| Feature | Xbox (Back Compat) | PS4/PS5 Port |
|---|---|---|
| Release | Xbox 360 era (BC since 2016) | July 9, 2026 |
| Resolution | 720p | Higher (res bump noted) |
| Hacker exposure | High (theater exploit) | Low (theater mode removed) |
| Matchmaking | 15-20 min reported | Near-instant reported |
| DLC included | Sold separately | Sold separately |
| Game Pass | No | N/A |
What Comes Next
Considering that Activision and Microsoft clearly view the backwards compatible versions as one and the same, it is hard to imagine a dedicated Xbox port happening anytime soon. Windows Central has reported reaching out to both Microsoft and Activision for comment on the disparity, with no response at the time of writing.
The situation has put Microsoft in an awkward position of its own making. The company owns Activision Blizzard yet greenlit PlayStation-exclusive ports of two of the most beloved titles in the Call of Duty back catalog, while the Xbox versions languish on infrastructure that has not been meaningfully maintained in years. Whether that calculus changes now that the PS5 versions are topping charts – and generating headlines about Xbox players being left behind – remains to be seen.
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Call of Duty: Black Ops is available on Xbox now from [price] – check the live price table above for the best deal across stores.