Carry Forward might be coming to Black Ops 7

The ESRB recently rated Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which confirms the game is completely the necessary steps for its release later this year. While the rating itself isn't surprising — Call of Duty is always rated "M" — the description for the game is what drew some eyes from the community.

The ESRB description features some interesting language that appears to indicate that the Carry Forward system might be coming to Black Ops 7. This is the same system we last saw in MW3 in 2023, which made all of a player's skins and cosmetics from MW2 transfer over to the new game.

The official ESRB description is fairly standard, depicting a game with intense violence, blood and gore, strange language, and other normal Call of Duty elements. However, the description also says the following near the end of it:

"Some weapons feature marijuana/joints/paraphernalia: players' characters inhaling marijuana from a bong-like structure attached to a rifle. The game includes customizable cards as part of players' identities; some cards depict female figures designed with deep cleavage and/or revealing outfits."

Naturally, Call of Duty is no stranger to Operator skins or other cosmetics that depict marijuana or revealing body parts. However, what makes this so interesting in the ESRB description is that a Call of Duty game never launches with this kind of content already available by default. While these types of cosmetics are almost certainly going to arrive during the post-launch cycle of Black Ops 7, the ESRB wouldn't be basing its rating on that content since it's not in the game yet.

The language that describes this content makes it seem like the ESRB is talking about existing cosmetics in Black Ops 6. The "bong-like structure attached to a rifle" almost certainly refers to the KSV weapon blueprint from the "Dank Days" skin bundle that we currently have in Black Ops 6.

While Activision and Treyarch theoretically could have a similar weapon blueprint available for the launch of Black Ops 7, that seems highly unlikely. We've never seen that kind of cosmetic available right from the get-go of a Call of Duty title. The in-game store doesn't even fully open until the Season 1 update, which is usually a few weeks after the initial launch.

So, unless Activision is drastically changing up its cosmetic strategy, the ESRB seems to be referring to the Dank Days bundle in its rating description for Black Ops 7. That really only means one thing: Carry Forward is coming to the game.

If this theory holds true, then players should have access to all of their currently unlocked cosmetics from Black Ops 6 when Black Ops 7 is released. This means all of your Operator skins, finishers, and other cosmetics would be available in the new game. And, according to the ESRB, all of the weapons in BO6 might be transferring over to Black Ops 7 as well. We saw this in MW2 to MW3 when Carry Forward was first introduced.

Time will tell if the Carry Forward system will be in Black Ops 7 or not. We should hear more either at the worldwide reveal for BO7 at Gamescom or at the annual COD Next event in late September.