Call of Duty: Black Ops, the seventh episode of the Call of Duty series was developed by Treyarch and published by Activision. The title is available on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii platforms. It was released on November 9, 2010. Players in the United States were able to buy Call of Duty: Black Ops by pre-ordering it for $59.99. http://www.callofduty.com/buy

Treyarch is the developer of Call of Duty: Black Ops, not Infinity Ward, who worked on previous installments. Treyarch has also worked on previous CoD titles - Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War were developed by the California studio.http://www.treyarch.com/

Prior to the official announcement of the game, which was made on April 30, 2010, the game's website had been launched. Players could find several trailers, rumors and discussions about Call of Duty: Black Ops on the site. On May 18, 2010, during the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, the full length trailer of the game was aired, and millions were able to see the features of the next Call of Duty video game. http://uk.videogames.games.yahoo.com/a6/news/call-of-duty--black-ops-confirmed-4455a6.html

To develop Call of Duty: Black Ops, Treyarch consulted two Special Forces veterans. Since the game focuses on black ops soldiers, Major John Plaster and operative Sonny Puzikas explained their experiences on duty. According to Mark Lamia, Treyarch’s studio head, both servicemen helped the developers understand what it was like to be behind the enemy lines:

"(Plaster) was able to talk through what it was like being in the SOG and in particular his experiences during the Vietnam War era and the kind of, at the time, classified and sort of black operations that he was a part of. He talked about everything from his training to missions to tactics. He reviewed our characters, our weaponry and, aside from the inspiration and drawing upon some of the history he was able to talk about, he was able to advise us on very practical matters. Like a SOG behind enemy lines would be wearing this, doing this and carrying this."http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/05/more-on-call-of-duty-black-ops-with-treyarch-studio-head-mark-lamia/1

While Major John Plaster is an SOG, Sonny Puzikas is an ex-soviet special forces operative. Lamia explains:

"He has come into studio as well, and offered his advice and expertise on how Soviet special forces trained, the weaponry they used and what it was like to be in that force. When you meet with these people you can't help but feel inspired about what they are telling you and it opens up new avenues of gameplay."http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2010/05/more-on-call-of-duty-black-ops-with-treyarch-studio-head-mark-lamia/1