Black Ops 4 raises the bar for Multiplayer mode that increases tactical gameplay and player choice, along with the biggest Zombies offering ever with three full experiences at launch, and Blackout, where the Black Ops universe comes to life in a massive battle royale experience featuring iconic characters and locations from all four Black Ops games in a one-of-a-kind offering that is uniquely Black Ops.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 transforms the established universe played by hundreds of millions of fans with the largest gameplay experience ever created in the series.

Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the original Call of Duty Zombies, Black Ops 4 also debuts an entirely new and unprecedented Zombies experience that’s the biggest Day One offering in franchise history – with three fully-featured Zombies experiences at launch – IX, Voyage of Despair and Blood of the Dead. With immersive new adventures, a brand-new cast of characters and a nefarious new enemy, Black Ops 4 Zombies will feature the deep gameplay and easter eggs that the rabid community of fans devours. It also includes the most customizable action to-date, new systems for creating and completing community challenges, and social systems designed to connect players. Black Ops 4 also reintroduces difficulty levels and an in-game tutorial to onboard new players to the Zombies universe, while giving hardcore players the option of ratcheting up the challenge. Additionally, Zombie Rush is a brand new mode that streamlines the gameplay experience, introducing enticing new challenges to grizzled veterans, while creating a whole new tempo of gameplay for newcomers.

Activision and Treyarch today announced details for the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Multiplayer and Blackout Betas.

Black Ops 4 will feature not one, but two Betas. The Private Multiplayer Beta kicks off on August 3rd, first on PlayStation 4, followed the next weekend by the Xbox One and PC. Then in September, a brand-new, uniquely Black Ops, battle royale experience comes to life in a first-ever hands-on with our new mode, Blackout, first on PlayStation 4.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us at Treyarch because – not only are we putting more content into players’ hands earlier than ever before – we get to break new ground by hosting two separate Beta experiences,” said Co-Studio Head Dan Bunting. “Games are better when they’re a result of a dialogue with our community. Not only does it improve the game’s quality, but it allows us to respond to player feedback and custom-craft the experience to how players engage most with the game. We want launch day to be a celebration that players around the world can enjoy together, and we know it won’t stop there - we will always work tirelessly to improve, grow, and evolve the game beyond launch.”

The Multiplayer Beta schedule can be found here:

• PlayStation 4 (Starts: August 3 at 10am/PT – Ends: August 6 at 10am/PT)
• PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (Starts: August 10 at 10am/PT – Ends: August 13 at 10am/PT)
• PC Beta Early Access (Starts: August 10 at 10am/PT) *PC exclusively on Battle.Net
• PC Open Beta (Starts: August 11 at 10am/PT – Ends: August 13 at 10am/PT)

Participation Has Its Rewards: All participants in the Beta will receive a unique, one-of-a-kind calling card that they can proudly display. And for every player that achieves max rank in the Beta, they will earn a Permanent Unlock Token to apply to any piece of Create-a-Class content when the game comes out.

For the Private Multiplayer Beta, players will begin fighting through six maps – two of which will make their first public appearance. Additionally, fans will play new Specialists and reacquaint themselves with returning Specialists Nomad and Prophet, who will be bringing with them brand-new gameplay mechanics built for Black Ops 4. Some additional intel…

Modes of Play
The Private Multiplayer Beta will feature fan-favorite game modes like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, and Search & Destroy, alongside our brand-new objective-based game mode, Control, which was designed to bring out the best of Black Ops 4 Multiplayer gameplay.

In Control, teams alternate rounds between attacking and defending two static objectives. Each team has a limited number of lives in this first-to-three wins match-up, so strategic strikes and defensive positioning are key, making for some fast and frenetic gunfights.

Gearing Up

• We’ve brought the Pick 10 system back to Create-a-Class to give players complete customization over their loadout, and with its return comes a few new changes.
• Load out with Special Issue Equipment that’s designed exclusively for each Specialist without costing a point against Pick 10.
• Gear is an all new slot designed to up the ante on your style of gameplay. Need cheaper Scorestreaks? COMSEC Device. Heal faster? Stim Shot. Gain an advantage in situational awareness? Acoustic Sensor. Only one piece of Gear can be used per loadout, so choose wisely.
• Weapons now have unique sets of attachments, including a new class of powerful attachments called Operator Mods, to really focus each gun on its individual role in combat.

PC

Working in partnership with Beenox and Blizzard, the PC Multiplayer Beta will be exclusive to Battle.Net.

“The PC beta will continue the dialog between us and our players. Every piece of feedback helps us to deliver the most balanced, most fun and most polished Call of Duty you have ever played on PC,” said Co-Studio Head, Mark Gordon. “Through our partnerships with Beenox for development and with Blizzard providing us with infrastructure, tools and network – we are bringing a custom experience to PC.”

Getting the game into the hands of players provides the studio team the chance to communicate directly with the players: player data helps inform development decisions around performance, the process of fine-tuning specs, and the optimization of features. And this is even more important given the amount of customization developed to accommodate the widest range of hardware possible.

In addition to unveiling Multiplayer and Zombies, the team also introduced Blackout – the new battle royale-style experience that combines Black Ops’ signature fast, fluid, guns-up combat, with fierce new levels of survival competition across iconic Black Ops settings re-imagined at a colossal scale. Blackout is an experience unlike any other game or mode in Call of Duty history, where players will have to scavenge, strategize, compete and survive to win. Featuring the largest map ever built in Call of Duty – 1,500 times bigger than Nuketown – Blackout thrusts players into a collision course as they play as classic characters spanning the history of the Black Ops series including the original Call of Duty Zombies Origins cast. Battling solo or in teams, players will engage in diverse combat complete with ground, air and sea vehicles across a gamespace unlike anything ever in Call of Duty. Players will encounter fan-favorite Black Ops map locations and call upon a massive arsenal of Black Ops weaponry and equipment as the winner-takes-all action creates a new way to play Call of Duty.

For the PC, Treyarch is co-developing with Beenox, who together are working closely with Blizzard to optimize Black Ops 4 for Battle.net. Black Ops 4 represents the largest development team assembled for a PC title in the series. Black Ops 4 on PC will have uncapped framerate, 4K resolution and HDR, support for ultra-wide monitors and the ability for players to extensively customize the performance and visual quality for their specific hardware. In addition, players will be able to select from pre-set control options, including options for left-handed players, or fully customize the keyboard and mouse controls to their preference. In addition, Treyarch and Beenox worked closely with the team at Blizzard to incorporate Battle.net’s social systems, security, and server stability into Black Ops 4, to prepare for the release on Battle.net on October 12.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has three distinct modes of play:

• MULTIPLAYER:  Call of Duty:  Black Ops 4’s multiplayer experience delivers the most tactical depth to-date. Featuring a gritty, grounded combat experience, Black Ops 4 Multiplayer is set between Black Ops 2 and Black Ops 3 and serves as a prequel to the game’s Specialists and their backstories. Multiplayer has been revamped to a whole new level, designed to offer more choice, reward more styles of play and create an even more intensely competitive experience.
  • SPECIALISTS: Specialists return in a big way: their weapons and equipment are unique to each, so combining Specialists based on style of play and game mode adds a new level of strategy and team creativity – it’s all about synergy.
    • Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 features a combination of new and re-imagined Specialists, all of whom have distinct combat profiles and abilities.
  • TEAMWORK: Multiplayer in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 places an emphasis on tactical teamplay that rewards all play styles that contribute to a team’s success, not just individual performance or K/D ratio. Players can combine their talents with other players to become force multipliers, making the team more superior than any one player could be on their own.
    • Players are strong on their own, but unstoppable as a team, especially when they combine Specialists in strategic ways to work together.
  • PLAYER MOVEMENT AND GAMEPLAY PACE: The pace of Black Ops 4 has evolved, without slowing down the speed of the player. Combat is more tactical, yet more fluid than ever.
  • Black Ops 4 multiplayer is a grounded experience, with no thrust-jumps or wall-running.
    • It also introduces a new manual health system that you must strategically employ: choose when to regenerate your health as it recharges on a cooldown.
• ZOMBIES: This year marks the 10-year anniversary of Call of Duty Zombies, as Black Ops 4 delivers the biggest Zombies offering at launch ever with three full Zombies experiences.
  • NEW STORY/CHARACTERS: Black Ops 4 Zombies marks the beginning of a brand-new storyline with new characters.
    • Voyage of Despair is set aboard the RMS Titanic, an iconic and monumental setting where our four protagonists discover the truth that befell the doomed passengers on that fateful night.
    • Set in ancient Rome, IX thrusts our four protagonists into a coliseum where ritual sacrifices may be required.  
    • Expanding on the fan-favorite Mob of the Dead, the third map Blood of the Dead features the Origins characters from the previous Zombies storyline visiting the purgatory dimension of Alcatraz.
  • MORE CUSTOMIZATION : In Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Zombies will be the most customizable experience to-date, giving players access to customizable options that allow players to change the fundamental rules and systems of the Zombies gameplay experience.
    • Black Ops 4 Zombies will include Custom Games and new Game Modes, which will deliver a more personalized Zombies experience – allowing players to tailor the challenge and difficulty to their play style, and experience the game in a new way.
• BLACKOUT: Blackout is a celebration of the Black Ops community, introducing a brand-new Battle Royale style mode steeped in the Black Ops universe. Blackout pits the most players ever in franchise history against each other, in the biggest map in Call of Duty history, all with the signature Black Ops combat players know and love.
  • BLACK OPS PLAYABLE CHARACTERS AND FAN-FAVORITE LOCALES: Blackout will feature classic playable characters from previous Black Ops games with a colossal map that features locations inspired by fan-favorite Black Ops multiplayer maps, including iconic areas from Nuketown and Firing Range.
  • CLASSIC WEAPONS AND VEHICLES: The mode will feature classic Black Ops weapons with different ammo types and equipment that players will loot and scavenge in the map. Players will also find and drive land, sea and air vehicles.

With the biggest dedicated PC development team ever in the series, Black Ops delivers a fully-optimized PC experience. Everything from the visuals to the controls has been built and optimized for PC gamers in every way possible.

• DEDICATED PC DEVELOPMENT: Treyarch is working closely with Beenox to develop Black Ops 4 for PC, featuring an uncapped frame-rate, 4k resolution and HDR, and support for ultra-wide monitors.
• FIRST CALL OF DUTY GAME ON BLIZZARDS’ BATTLE.NET: Through its partnership with Blizzard, Black Ops 4 will be available on the Battle.net online platform.  The game will include all the social features of the Battle.net platform, which includes staying connected to friends playing other games on Battle.net or staying connected to the Battle.net mobile app.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on October 12th. Fans can pre-order now and get access to the Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Private Beta.