Activision has officially announced the launch date for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and it arrives on October 25. The reveal was part of the Xbox Showcase that went live on June 9, but more specifically during the Call of Duty Direct that Microsoft held after the official showcase. Microsoft and Bethesda did the same thing with Starfield before its launch in 2023, and this year the direct was nearly 30 minutes of new information and dev insights. This included gameplay details and even some footage as well as the launch date for the game.
Most notable was the time Activision plans to release the next Call of Duty game. But there was also lots of details about how the game will feel, what features players can expect, and how certain aspects of the game will change. For example, Zombies is returning to its roots with round-based combat instead of the open-world gameplay featured in Modern Warfare III. Something that diehard zombies fans are sure to be very excited about. In addition to the new features, Activision also laid out dates for everything from early access to pre-order times.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 early access might begin about a week before the launch date
Once again Activision is giving players plenty of incentive to pre-order the latest Call of Duty title. This includes early access, which could potentially start about a week before the launch date. A tweet from CharlieIntel on X from June 9 shows a screenshot of the release date for the game on the PlayStation Store. While the game officially releases on October 25, PSN had it listed for release on October 17, which is about a week early.
This could have just been a listing error. As of now the PlayStation Store listing shows a release date of October 24 at 9PM PDT. So it seems that Sony has caught the error and changed the time. That being said, it can’t be ruled out that October 17 may be the early access time.
Activision has confirmed that pre-ordering the game comes with early access to the open beta. Also worth noting, however, is that the PlayStation Store release date that was previously listed and the early access to the open beta may not be the same thing.
Zombies returns to round-based gameplay
With Modern Warfare III, Zombies was pushed into an all-new direction with the open-world map setting that players experience with Warzone. This will not be the case with Black Ops 6. Treyarch is taking the Zombies experience back to round-based gameplay with unique zombies maps. It’s even continuing the Dark Aether narrative that was introduced in Black Ops Cold War.
Players will also take on familiar faces from the past version of Zombies in that game. As opposed to using your player operators. You can pre-order Call of Duty: Black Ops right now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
New Omnimovement system announced
Another new change coming to the game is the Omnimovement system. Movement in Call of Duty is always a hot topic. And it seems like with every new release Activision changes something to try and refine it. Omnimovement is this big change for Black Ops 6. And by the sounds of it, it’ll be a pretty advanced way for players to get around the map. This includes moving sprinting, diving, and backpedaling in any direction. Not just forward and backward, but side to side as well.
“For the first time ever, players can sprint, slide, and dive in any direction (forward, sidestepping, and backpedaling) and move like a true Black Ops action hero,” Activision says. Black Ops 6 will also introduce new intelligent movement changes that are meant to reduce the amount of button presses to initiate a string of movement actions. To that end, there are three new movement options you can enable or disable. This includes Sprint Assist, Mantle Assist, and Crouch Assist.
