Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Beta Dates Announced
The Black Ops 6 beta will begin in late August.
Activision has announced when the beta for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will take place in advance of its October launch. Roughly one month before any new Call of Duty game is released, Activision will hold a beta phase to put that new installment's multiplayer through its paces. With Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, this strategy will prove to be no different, although there are some changes in how this year's beta will be rolling out to players.
Taking place from August 30th until September 4th, the first weekend of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta will transpire across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms. This initial beta will be the one in "Early Access", which means it will only be open to those who have pre-ordered Black Ops 6 in advance. The following weekend from September 6th through September 9th, Activision will then open up the beta to anyone and everyone that would like to take part.
The surprising aspect of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta this year is that those on PlayStation won't have early access to a beta weekend of their own. Due to previous marketing deals with Sony, past Call of Duty entries would feature PlayStation-exclusive beta periods that only those on PS5 and PS4 could experience. Since the Call of Duty franchise (and all of Activision) is now owned by Microsoft, though, it seems that these days of PlayStation exclusivity for the first beta is now a thing of the past.
As for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, this year's game is set to release on October 25, 2024, and will come to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. In addition, Black Ops 6 will be a day-one addition to Xbox Game Pass, making it the biggest title ever to hit the subscription platform upon its release. Due to upcoming changes Microsoft is making to Game Pass, though, Black Ops 6 will only be accessible to those who are subscribed to Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass for PC, and those grandfathered into Game Pass for Console. Xbox Game Pass Standard, the new tier of the platform set to arrive soon, will instead no longer feature day-one releases of any sort.
