New Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Multiplayer Feature Is a First for Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is adding a new communication feature to the game’s multiplayer component with the introduction of a ping system. While it may seem like a common feature now that any multiplayer game should adopt, it’s one that’s been totally absent from Black Ops multiplayer modes in the past. This new ping system will be live in the game’s beta that’s starting soon and will give players new ways to communicate with and direct their teammates during matches whether you’re already using voice comms or not.

The arrival of the ping system in the beta was confirmed in Treyarch’s latest briefing on what players can expect from the test when it arrives on the PlayStation 4 platform first on October 8th. The ping system will be live across the multiplayer mode and all its different game types to ensure players are able to communicate the same way regardless of what game they’re playing.

“For the first time in Black Ops Multiplayer, we’re adding a locational Ping system as a feature across all MP modes, allowing you to ping objectives, loot, locations, and enemies for your teammates during a match,” Treyarch said. “From Team Deathmatch to Fireteam: Dirty Bomb, you can use the Ping system to communicate non-verbally with your teammates for increased coordination.”

It has been a while since a new Black Ops game was released, and in that time, we’ve seen ping systems progress towards what’s essentially a standardized feature for major multiplayer games now. Apex Legends adopted a robust ping system upon release and was followed by Fortnite afterwards, so it only seems natural to have one in Black Ops Cold War now as well.

For those who want to use it during the beta, Treyarch said it’ll be mapped to the D-Pad on controllers and is bound to “Z” on PCs. You can change different ping layouts in the settings menu and have access to quick options like double-tapping the ping button to target any nearby dangers. Treyarch also added that players will be able to ping Scorestreaks, so next time you’re calling out a location of some airborne Scorestreak, you won’t have to have your teammates guessing where it’s located.

It was also confirmed that the beta would add a FOV slider on all platforms which may not be a big deal to PC players but will be extremely useful to console players who want to toy around with the settings.