Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 to launch globally without early campaign access

Activision has announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will not offer early access for its campaign mode, breaking from the recent tradition of giving pre-order customers early access to the campaign.

Instead, the game will have a unified global launch across all modes—Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies—on October 25, 2024.

According to Charlie INTEL, an Activision representative said that the team is fully focused on the launch date and is thrilled about everything the game will bring, from Campaign to Multiplayer and Zombies.

"This year, we made the decision to ensure the community gets to dig in to any and all modes that they want at the same time, so we are back to one massive global launch moment October 25th. As such, there is no Early Access beat this year for Black Ops 6, just the countdown to launch."

This marks a significant change from the pre-order incentive offered with recent Call of Duty titles, where players who pre-ordered the game were granted early access to the campaign mode.

The incentive allowed those who primarily focused on multiplayer or zombies to complete the single-player campaign ahead of time, so they could concentrate on ranking up and unlocking content when the multiplayer and Zombies modes became available.

For many, this was a chance to experience the story without feeling left behind in the competitive aspects of the game.

As such, the announcement has been met with community dissatisfaction, with some players going as far as to speculate on the real reason early access is no longer a pre-order incentive.

In any case, this approach will likely become the standard for Call of Duty going forward.

Earlier this year, Activision and Microsoft announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be coming Day One to Xbox Game Pass. “We’re excited to confirm that Game Pass members will be able to jump into Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 on day one with Game Pass,” the announcement read.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches October 25, 2024 on the Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. Black Ops 6 will be Day One on Xbox Game Pass.