Black Ops 2's emblem editor is back, and players are already making swastikas with it

Activision quietly dropped remastered ports of Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 this week — both originally from Treyarch, released in 2010 and 2012 respectively. The ports are PlayStation-exclusive and cost $40 each, developed by Iron Galaxy.

The games are upscaled to 1080p and largely faithful to the originals, but they're barebones by modern standards — no FOV sliders, no high refresh rate support. Iron Galaxy did make some cuts: Wager Matches are gone from Black Ops 1. What nobody expected to survive the port, though, was the emblem editor — the layered, shape-based custom image tool that let players build surprisingly detailed artwork directly in-game. It's back, fully intact. And within days of launch, influencer JakeSucky posted a screenshot roundup showing exactly what the community is doing with it: swastikas, a depiction of 9/11, a KKK member, and an image of Charlie Kirk's assassination. The emblem editor is genuinely powerful — stacking primitive shapes, symbols, and color layers lets dedicated players recreate almost anything, from a convincing Mona Lisa to cartoon racism. Both outcomes are happening simultaneously.

The emblem editor was a signature feature of Treyarch's early Black Ops era and always carried this exact tension. Back in 2010 and 2012, player moderation couldn't keep up with it, and the same problem exists now. There's still no option to disable custom emblems entirely — meaning if you don't want to see whatever your opponent has cooked up, you have no recourse. Critics are pointing out that Iron Galaxy had the opportunity to add that toggle and didn't.

The PC community is locked out entirely, which stings given that's where a large chunk of the original playerbase lived. At $40 per game with no cross-platform availability and no modern quality-of-life features, these ports are a tough sell beyond pure nostalgia — though the emblem editor discourse is doing plenty of free marketing regardless.