Mike Ybarra, the current chief executive officer of daily fantasy sports betting app PrizePicks, who you're more likely to recognize as the former president of Blizzard Entertainment, has some thoughts about Battlefield 6 taking on Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 this fall, predicting that EA's shooter will "boot stomp" the latest entry in the annual series that helps keep his former company afloat, and that FPS fans will be better off for it.
"Battlefield will boot stomp CoD this year," his post on X (formerly Twitter) reads. "But the real win here is CoD won't be lazy anymore, and we'll all get better FPS games for it."
Replying to someone commenting on his post, Ybarra expanded on his thoughts and criticism of the Call of Duty series dating back to 2016, saying, "CoD has gone downhill for years since then. It's a mess. Cheating, heavy UI/install, rainbow colors. People are sick of it. Luckily BF will force them to change it."
In another reply to someone accusing him of being "bitter," Ybarra writes, "CoD will get better because BF will be great. You're blind if you don't see that. Bitter? No, glad I'm not part of the end of Xbox. Upset they can't lead teams to make good games? Yes. Because they layoff all those people for leaderships mishaps."
Strong words from someone who was at the top end of company leadership at Blizzard for a few years, and who also worked at Microsoft for almost two decades before that. Ybarra left Blizzard and subsequently Microsoft in 2024, alongside the massive 1,900-employee layoff at Activision Blizzard King that came shortly after Microsoft officially closed on its acquisition of ABK.
Between his time at Microsoft, then Blizzard, and then Microsoft again, Ybarra was on the leadership end of his fair share of mishaps that resulted in layoffs. That's not to say they were all directly his own mishaps, but it feels odd, to say the least, to hear him generalize leadership in this way, as if we're meant to think he wasn't around for any of the bad stuff at Blizzard and Microsoft.
All that said, he has a point that an incredible Battlefield game that gives Call of Duty some serious competition in the shooter market can only make Activision and the Call of Duty team work harder to beat Battlefield the next year, and the same goes for Battlefield Studios working to get the better of Call of Duty.
Healthy competition in the market means better games for players, but for that to happen, Battlefield 6 has to stick the landing when it arrives on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on October 10, 2025.
At least it's had a strong start, since, on Steam, Battlefield 6 surpassed the record concurrent player count of Call of Duty in just its first open beta.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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