Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 FAQ — Release date and time, platforms, locations, time period, and more

Black Ops is back! It has been nearly four years since a Black Ops title held the Call of Duty torch, but Treyarch Studios and Raven Software have come together yet again for the next installment in the blockbuster franchise. Thanks to a longer-than-usual development cycle, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will burst onto the scene with a brand-new movement system, thousands of new animations, a rework of the hitbox system, a return to round-based zombies, and so much more.

Players got their first look at the upcoming action spy-thriller during the 2024 Xbox Games Showcase. Call of Duty publisher Activision had a decade-long marketing agreement with PlayStation that limited how Xbox was able to market the ongoing franchise. Not only has the marketing deal between Activision and PlayStation expired, but Xbox has successfully closed the deal to purchase the publisher and studios behind Call of Duty for a record-breaking $70 billion. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was the first game from the franchise to be unveiled during an Xbox showcase since the Xbox 360 era.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is the first title to be released since the marketing deal was exhausted, ushering in a new era of Call of Duty as an Xbox property. The benefits of the PlayStation marketing deal like console-specific Operators and extra Create-a-Class loadout slots are now a thing of the past. Call of Duty fans can look forward to a more equal gaming experience regardless of where they play.

• Buy for Xbox: $69.99 at Best Buy | $69.99 at Amazon
• Buy for PlayStation: $69.99 at Best Buy | $69.99 at Amazon
• Buy for PC : $69.99 at Steam | $69.99 at Microsoft Store

What is Call of Duty: Black Ops 6?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - The Story So Far - YouTube

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In the timeline of narrative events, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 takes place after Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and before Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, while following up on a sub-story that was introduced during Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and referenced in flashbacks of the 1980s during Black Ops 2. Players can expect to encounter familiar faces from the Black Ops franchise, including Russell Adler and Frank Woods, while also meeting a new cast of characters.

While Treyarch Studios is billed as the main developer for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Raven Software's narrative team took the helm for developing the game's spy-action thriller-inspired campaign.

The game is broken down into three main gameplay modes: Single-player campaign, competitive multiplayer, and cooperative Zombies. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is built upon the shared engine that was the unifying factor for the Call of Duty franchise starting with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022), and will require the Call of Duty HQ launcher currently housing for Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Warzone. It will be the first Black Ops title to be included with the launcher.

In an interview with Treyarch Studios leadership during Call of Duty: Next, director of production Yale Miller and associate director of design Matt Scronce both expressed their thoughts on the Call of Duty HQ launcher, describing efforts to rework the launcher to player feedback as "a journey to get to where we want to be."

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 release date and time

Historically, Call of Duty titles have typically launched on the first or second Tuesday of November. That has changed a couple of times in recent years, however. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will take an earlier release date, much like some of its predecessors.

Previous Call of Duty titles have provided players with an early access period to the campaign as a reward for preordering, but Black Ops 6 will not offer that perk. All players, on all platforms, regardless of preorder status or Game Pass subscription, will gain access to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in its entirety on October 25.

The game will release at 00.00 Eastern on October 25 on PC across Battle.net and Steam, and it is a simultaneous release across the globe. That means 05.00 in the UK, and 21.00 Pacific time on October 24 in the U.S.

For console players on Xbox and PC players through the Microsoft Store, things are a little different. It follows the usual trend of becoming available at midnight on October 25 in your local time zone for most players, though folks west of the East Coast of the United States should get access when the clock ticks over to midnight Eastern.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 campaign gameplay

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will continue with the Safehouse hub that was introduced in Black Ops Cold War, allowing players to select missions, learn about allies, solve puzzles, and collect lore or upgrades before continuing with the story. This is a change of pace from the Modern Warfare subseries' more linear storytelling method.

Missions will take players across the globe, through the harsh Russian Tundra, across Middle Eastern deserts, and through Southern Europe and the US, all without the support of the government's military. This is due to a CIA infiltration conspiracy that has made a fugitive of Adler. Set in the early 1990s, Black Ops 6 will put players right in the middle of political upheaval and unrest, and require the team to go rogue and to work together while trusting no one.

While many attribute the Black Ops series exclusively to Treyarch Studios, the development of the campaign for Black Ops 6 was helmed by Raven Software. The studio also previously provided lead development for the campaign of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Every single Activision studio had a hand in bringing Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to fruition.

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Because of Black Ops 6's non-linear storytelling, the Call of Duty team has had to release story intel to bring players up to speed with previous events that led to the timeline for Black Ops 6. The events that trigger Black Ops 6 begin in the original Call of Duty: Black Ops, set 30 years prior in 1961 with Sgt. Frank Woods, Alex Mason, and Joseph Bowman as they conduct "Operation 40" during the Bay of Pigs invasion and attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro. This secretive, "off the books" assassination attempt goes awry once it is discovered the team has assassinated a body double in Castro's place.

During the attempted exfil, Alex Mason is captured and sent to a Russian gulag, where he meets Viktor Reznov. Mason is brainwashed as part of the Numbers Program to become a Russian sleeper agent who will assassinate President John F. Kennedy—or at least, he would have if Reznov hadn't also brainwashed him during their time in the gulag to instead hunt down the Russian agents responsible for betraying Reznov in the Battle of Berlin.

Mason resists his programming and does not kill President Kennedy, after which he is sent to Vietnam with Woods and Bowman on orders to assassinate Soviet General Nikita Dragovich, Colonel Lev Kravchenko, and German Scientist Friedrich Steiner. Mason and Woods are once again captured, while Bowman is KIA. Prisons are no match for Black Ops agents, however, so Mason and Woods make quick work of breaking free. When the pair find Kravchenko, Woods stabs him in the back before pulling him out of a window in order to save Mason. Kravchenko is presumed dead, having pulled a pin on a grenade prior to the fall. Woods survives, however, and is recaptured and moved to another POW camp.

Mason survives and escapes. During a mission on Rebirth Island, Mason hallucinates that Reznov is with him and carries out an assassination on Steiner, leading to CIA handler Jason Hudson questioning Mason about the Numbers Program. If you've ever heard a Call of Duty fan recite the phrase "The numbers, Mason! What do they mean!?"—this is where it came from.

With Steiner dead and Kravchenko presumed as much, Mason is sent on one final mission to a Russian ship stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. There, he must stop a broadcast intended to awaken the sleeper agents infected by the Numbers Program. After completing his mission, Mason and Dragovich meet for the finale, with Mason drowning Dragovich in the end.

With the Black Ops timeline in full swing, we fast-forward approximately 13 years to the early 80s for Black Ops Cold War. It's during Cold War that we see the next segment of the story where Mason, Woods, and Hudson return to join forces with new operatives, including Russell Adler and the player character who is simply code-named "Bell".

Adler has an axe to grind with "Perseus", a Soviet spy leading a rogue organization in their efforts to dismantle the Western Powers' influence. President Ronald Reagan greenlights a mission to hunt down and kill Perseus, with Adler assembling a team consisting of Helen Park, Lawrence Sims, and Lazar Azoulay to carry out the mission. Before the team can stop Perseus, he becomes aware of a CIA-ordained program known as Operation Greenlight, in which neutron bombs are planted in major European cities. These bombs are rigged to self-destruct in the event of a Soviet invasion. Perseus plans to hijack and detonate the bombs to cripple Europe, then blame the US for the attack.

Adler and Bell must infiltrate the Russian KGB's headquarters to discover the identities of sleeper agents before pursuing Perseus to a hideout in Cuba. Unfortunately, the mission goes awry and Perseus is able to escape with detonation codes for the neutron bombs. In a strange twist, Adler begins administering psychedelic drugs to Bell at the Black Ops safe house to help Bell remember their time in Vietnam together. Unfortunately, this reveals that Bell and Adler never actually served together in Vietnam and that Bell's memories were falsely implanted. Bell was originally a lone survivor of the first mission to connect with Perseus, and the memories were implanted to encourage Bell to trust Adler.

The hunt for Perseus continued in post-launch content for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, where it was revealed that various Perseus splinter cells are spearheaded by Vikhor 'Stitch' Kuzmin. Kuzmin and Adler had previously encountered each other in 1968, with Adler torturing Kuzmin and removing his left eye. Kuzmin then worked with Steiner to develop Nova 6, the toxic gas that consumes Rebirth Island, and the various other maps seen in Call of Duty: Warzone. Kuzmin kidnapped and brainwashed Adler, but Hudson and Mason are able to rescue and deprogram him.

To get the next piece of the timeline, we have to travel back to the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. While Black Ops 2 is set in 2025, we learn via flashbacks that in 1986, Hudson tells a now-retired Mason that Woods has been captured by Raul Menendez of the Menendez Cartel in Central Africa. Mason reluctantly leaves his son, David, to join the rescue operation for Woods, finding him in a shipping container on the Cubango River in Angola.

Woods is then sent on a CIA-backed mission to capture Menendez in Nicaragua, but becomes enraged during the encounter and throws a grenade that accidentally kills Menendez's sister, Josefina. In 1989, Woods and Mason, loaded with doubt that the grenade killed Menendez along with Josefina despite the CIA's declaration, are sent to Panama to hunt down a target dubbed Nexus One. While armed with a sniper, Woods spots Nexus One and is directed by Hudson to take the shot, despite a bag over Nexus One's head preventing him from confirming the target's identity. Unbeknownst to Woods, Hudson had been taken captive and was forced to give the kill order, resulting in Woods being tricked into executing Mason as Nexus One. Alex's son, David, witnesses the execution of his father.

Menendez then appears and shoots Woods in the knees, and Hudson sacrifices himself so that Woods may live. The whole debacle is ultimately an act of revenge for Woods' killing of Josefina, and leaves Woods wheelchair-bound when we see him again in 1991 for Black Ops 6.

Everything brings us to the events of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, where the enemy has eyes everywhere and there's no one to trust. Every conspiracy is true, and the truth lies. To date, Treyarch and Raven Software have showcased play through of one campaign mission, dubbed "Most Wanted." The mission follows Black Ops agent Trey Mitchell into a swanky event for Senator Bill Clinton, where he must find Russell Adler and help him escape. We see a variety of retro tech, like a camera that can trick a retina scanner and a homing, explosive throwing knife at play. We're also introduced to new heavy operators in the video play through.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 PvP multiplayer

The PvP multiplayer environment for Call of Duty titles treads a fine line annually between keeping the core experience that players know and love in check, while simultaneously adding something new to keep it fresh and engaging. For Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Treyarch Studios has dared to hone in on movement, redefining the way Operators and players engage with their surroundings and each other in a variety of new ways.

The largest change is the introduction of Omnimovement, a new system that improves and redefines character movement to be more realistic and seamless. With Omnimovement, players are no longer limited to sliding forward or dolphin diving out in front of enemies. Instead, they can now sprint, slide and dive in any direction. Successfully diving backward can allow a player to feel like their favorite 90s era action star, hurling backward to land on your back while blasting at a foe with a shotgun or other weapon.

Along with Omnimovement, Treyarch has introduced an all new way to take cover with Supine Prone. Gone are the days of laying prone on your belly and being spotted by enemies as your entire Operator spins like a top while you look around. Instead, Supine Prone allows the player to rotate while in the prone position, giving more freedom and tactical flexibility to look around and engage with surroundings without leaving the safety of cover.

Treyarch Studios took the lead on the development of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 multiplayer. Players can look forward to 16 brand-new maps available on day one, with 12 of those maps being exclusive to 6v6 modes, while four are designed for small map lovers on Strike modes with 2v2 or 6v6 variants.

Oft requested features, Classic prestige and theater mode, will also be returning to Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. With the introduction of seasonal content and battle passes, prestige mode had previously been changed to only allow players to reach a certain level, with the caps being raised incrementally with post-launch seasonal content.

There was no risk or reward to this prestige system, as players only needed to commit time (or double XP tokens) to reach the max level cap each season. Classic prestige will require players to give up their progress on weapons and challenges in order to start their level count over again and move up in rank. There will be 10 classic prestige ranks available at launch, with a master prestige consisting of 1000 levels to follow up on once you complete the classic challenges. A unique and valuable set of rewards will be available to those who hit the cap of prestige master.

Theater mode will give players the chance to relive their action-hero moments as they work their way through ranks and challenges. However, some features like theater mode will not be available to players on last-gen consoles like the Xbox One X|S or PlayStation 4.

Multiplayer maps

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is confirmed to have 16 brand-new maps at launch, all of which are designated as small to medium. Extra small maps are relegated to the Strike playlist.

Core 6v6 maps include:

• Babylon
• Derelict
• Lowtown
• Payback
• Protocol
• Red Card
• Rewind
• Scud
• Skyline
• Subsonic
• Vault
• Vorkuta

Strike maps include:

• Gala
• Pit
• Sand House
• Stakeout

Multiplayer modes

The following modes are confirmed for Black Ops 6 at launch:

• Kill Order
• Team Deathmatch
• Domination
• Hardpoint
• Face Off
• Gunfight

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Zombies

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will return to the classic round-based Zombies mode for cooperative multiplayer. A group of 4 players can squad up together to take on increasingly difficult waves of zombies on two brand-new maps, Terminus and Liberty Falls.

Black Ops 6 Zombies - Characters and Story Intel Drop - YouTube

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6's Terminus map is set on the terrifyingly dilapidated Terminus Island Complex in the Philippine Sea. The Pre-WWII mining operation was opened in 1932 before becoming a U.S. Naval base in the 40s. It sat dormant until 1965 when it was converted to a CIA outpost and then fell into the hands of Project Janus in 1986, who constructed a subterranean laboratory in the abandoned mining caves.

Liberty Falls, the second launch map for Zombies, is set in an idyllic West Virginian town that serves as ground zero for the outbreak. Players can visit the church overrun by dark aether, zip line across rooftops, and aim for a strike at Liberty Lanes.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 - Liberty Falls Trailer - YouTube

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Both maps will be rife with easter eggs, but players who want to fully experience the Zombies lore can now take advantage of a brand new Directed Mode to guide them through the quests. Directed Mode will cap rounds, preventing the squad from becoming overrun before upgrading vital weapons and equipment at the pack-a-punch. Side Quests, Easter Eggs, Trials, and the Rampage Inducer are all disabled in Directed mode, but of course there's always the option to play Zombies uncapped and unrestricted in all of its terrifying glory if you so choose.

The following Perk-a-Colas will be available on both new maps at launch:

• Deadshot Daiquiri: Aiming down sight moves to enemy critical location. Increase enemy critical damage.
• Elemental Pop: Every bullet you fire has a small chance to apply a random Ammo Mod effect.
• Jugger-Nog: Increase maximum health by 100.
• Melee Macchiato: Replace weapon gun butt with a deadly punch that sends enemies flying.
• PhD Flopper: Immunity to all self-inflicted damage and status effects. Dive to prone triggers an explosion, which increases the higher you fall. Immunity from fall damage while diving to prone.
• Quick Revive: Reduce the health regen delay time by 50%. Reduce the time it takes to revive an ally by 50%.
• Speed Cola: Increase reload and armor replating speed bonus by 30%.
• Stamin-Up: Increase movement speed.

GobbleGums, Augments, and Wonder Weapons are also returning to Zombies. More Zombies info can be found in our Zombies Intel Drop.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 platforms

Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard King was met with intense scrutiny by global regulatory bodies, who expressed concern that Call of Duty would become an Xbox-exclusive title to foreclose on Sony's PlayStation consoles. To acquiesce to these concerns, Microsoft signed multiple decade-long contracts with Sony, Nintendo, NVIDIA, and Ubisoft to bring Call of Duty to multiple platforms.

There has been no mention of Black Ops 6 coming to the Nintendo Switch, nor has Ubisoft confirmed it will be available on it's Ubisoft+ service at launch. However, we do know that the game will be released simultaneously across Xbox One and Series X|S families of consoles, PlayStation 5 and 4 consoles, and PC via Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, and Steam. NVIDIA GeForce NOW subscribers can stream Black Ops 6 on the cloud on release day provided they have purchased the game on Steam or Battle.net.

Black Ops 6's inclusion in the Microsoft Store is relatively new for modern Call of Duty releases, preceded only by Modern Warfare 3 when it was added to Xbox Game Pass. Black Ops 6 is only the second Call of Duty title to embrace Xbox's Play Anywhere program, allowing PC players to unlock Xbox achievements for the game without playing on the console. The PC port of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 was developed by Beenox.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 install size

Xbox has recently announced three new additions to the Xbox console line up, with a special edition Galaxy Xbox Series X hitting retail shelves with 2 TB of storage. You may need that space if you're a Call of Duty fan, as the anticipated file size for Black Ops 6 is listed as 309.85 GB on the Xbox store. The listed install size is an approximation that assumes the player has the Call of Duty launcher installed with all elements of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Modern Warfare 3, and Warzone installed along with Black Ops 6.

Activision has confirmed that the final install size for Black Ops 6 will be adjusted down by launch, and players can choose to uninstall certain modes if they are not actively playing them. This includes the choice to uninstall each game's campaign, multiplayer, or cooperative elements like Special Ops, DMZ, and Zombies or Warzone.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and internet connectivity

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Xbox Game Pass

Subscribers of Game Pass for Console or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will have access to the full Digital Cross-Gen Bundle of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 on Xbox consoles, while PC Game Pass subscribers will have access to the PC Standard Edition of the game in the Microsoft Store. The Game Pass edition of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will provide subscribers access to preorder benefits, including the Woods Operator Pack and Open Beta Early Access.

Game Pass subscribers who want to utilize their subscription to play Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are limited to the Xbox console or Microsoft store version of the game. Those looking to play on PlayStation consoles, via Battle.net, or on Steam will need to purchase a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 in order to do so.

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