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.
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.
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.