Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s two beta periods are on the way

By Carli Velocci Published July 15, 2024

A squad stands together in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. — Activision

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is one step closer to release. Activision announced on Monday that the upcoming shooter will be hitting early access and open beta soon.

Players who preordered the game will get access to the early access open beta, which will run from August 30-September 4. That’ll be followed by the regular open beta, which is open to everyone, from September 6-9. That means early access participants will have an extra day to try out the game ahead of release on October 25.

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A post on the Call of Duty blog also clarifies that you can join the early access period if you subscribe to Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass PC, or Game Pass Console.

The news was first spotted by CharlieIntel, which posted on X (formerly Twitter) that there was now information on the Xbox website announcing the beta. Turns out, this updates was timed to the first episode of the COD Pod, Xbox’s official Call of Duty podcast, which officially announced the dates.

Activision

Black Ops 6 will be available across most platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’ll also be on Game Pass at launch, marking the first time the series has been this accessible since Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard in 2023. This will coincide with some big price hikes and tier tweaks for the subscription service.

You can still preorder the game, with a standard edition costing $70 and a Vault Edition for $100. Players that own the Vault Edition will be able to play any operator from the Hunters vs Hunted Operator Pack.

Activision pumps out a Call of Duty game every year, so you might think Black Ops 6 will be more of the same. But if our preview this summer was any indication, it could actually do a lot to reinvent the franchise. Treyarch, which has typically been the lead on the Call of Duty: Black Ops series, is behind this entry, and is leaning more into spy blockbusters of the 1990s to coincide with its Cold War themes, along with a new traversal system called Omnimovement.

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Contributor, Games

Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…

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Although it's one of the most successful video game franchises out there, Call of Duty's quality varies significantly from game to game, with some fantastic entries in the series, but many mediocre ones as well. But which Call of Duty games are worth your time and which ones should you skip? To answer that question, we've ranked all the mainline entries in the series, with details about why you should or shouldn't play a particular game.

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Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?

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When Microsoft announced that it was acquiring Activision, the big question on everyone's mind was what would happen with Call of Duty. Well, it took months of legal battles, but the deal finally went through and the first CoD game to release officially under Microsoft is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. Xbox has held firm to its commitment to put all of its first-party titles onto Game Pass on day one for all its subscribers, but is it honoring that deal for the biggest game of the year? We know it isn't an Xbox exclusive and is still cross-platform, after all. If you have an Xbox and a subscription to Game Pass, you might not need to spend any money on Black Ops 6, but only if you meet one specific requirement.
Is Black Ops 6 on Game Pass?

The short answer is yes, Black Ops 6 is on Game Pass, but not at every tier. Prior to Black Ops 6 launching, Xbox restructured its Game Pass tiers a bit with new pricing and benefits. What you need to know is that you now need to either be a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate subscriber to get access to any first-party day-one titles.

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You might want to wait a bit to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Steam

A player runs in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer.

It's Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launch day, which means potentially millions of players are hopping into the new single-player campaign, the updated multiplayer mode, and Zombies. While posts online about the performance of the game seem to be minimal, there have been reported issues on PC, specifically via Steam.

It's been a common story lately about players being mad at third-party launchers on Steam, and that remains the case for Black Ops 6. Call of Duty's is called Call of Duty HQ (COD HQ), and it's a hub for players to manage their game installs, whether they want to only download certain game modes or launch a specific game. It seems as if players can only switch between modes through the launcher and have to go through multiple menus to boot the game up. In the worst cases, they can't launch the game at all.