Blopped and Loaded

Black Ops 6 launch guide: pre-load, release times and PC specs

It's the middle of October and wouldn't you believe it, we're just days away now from the release of this year's Call of Duty, Black Ops 6.

Image credit: Treyarch, Raven Software, Activision.

Guide by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor

Published on Oct. 16, 2024

It’s almost time to get our hands on Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, the highly-anticipated return of developer Treyarch, with everything that entails. Treyarch is known for its distinct take on Call of Duty campaigns and characters, as well as its unmatched mastery of round-based Zombies.

This year, the developer is also innovating in multiplayer (and everywhere else) with debut of new movement mechanics the team has dubbed Omnimovement, which frees up your character to be able to dive in any direction, go prone on your back and perform some pretty fun action hero moves.

In this guide, will take you through everything you need to know ahead of the game’s launch on October 25. Read on for more.

Black Ops 6 pre-load times

The pre-load schedule for Black Ops 6 is pretty straightforward, so you won’t need to do any work to figure out what time that is where you are.

The Black Ops 6 pre-load becomes available simultaneously for everyone across all platforms - that’s PC (Steam, Battle.net, Windows Store), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. The times below also go for anyone with a Game Pass membership across PC and Xbox, seeing as Black Ops 6 is part of the Game Pass line-up.

Here’s when the pre-load begins:

Monday, October 21 at 9am PT.
Monday, October 21 at 12pm ET.
Monday, October 21 at 5pm UK.
Monday, October 21 at 6pm Paris/Berlin.
Monday, October 21 at 8pm Dubai/Gulf.
Tuesday, October 22 at 3am Sydney.

The pre-load includes the full game, meaning the single-player campaign, Zombies, as well as multiplayer. Warzone is not included in this package, as the current version will continue to run unchanged until the launch of the first season, when the integration begins.

Black Ops 6 launch times

Understanding when Black Ops 6 will go live in your region is a bit more tricky than figuring out the pre-load situation. The game has different launch times depending on your platform, even before you factor in regional time differences.

PlayStation, Xbox Store, Windows Store, and Game Pass will all follow regional roll-out times. In other words, there is no fixed time when the game is going to launch that you can convert to your regional equivalent.

Black Ops 6 will unlock from 4am to 11pm PT on October 24. If you pre-ordered a digital copy, or pre-loaded the game, your store and console dashboard will show a countdown that indicates when you’ll be able to start playing.

The only platforms with a fixed launch time are Steam and Battle.net, where the game will unlock everywhere at 9pm PT on Thursday, October 24. Here’s what that translates to worldwide:

Friday, October 25 at 12am ET.
Friday, October 25 at 5am UK.
Friday, October 25 at 6am Paris/Berlin.
Friday, October 25 at 8am Dubai/Gulf.
Friday, October 25 at 3pm Sydney.

Would you prefer a map? | Image credit: Treyarch, Raven Software, Activision.

Can you play the Black Ops 6 campaign early?

In perhaps one of the most bizarre decisions made with this year’s game, you will not be able to the Black Ops 6 campaign one week early like you’ve been able to with Modern Warfare 2 and last year’s Modern Warfare 3. We were hoping the trend would continue, seeing as it offered players enough time to digest the narrative before jumping into multiplayer and Zombies.

Most players will likely skip this year’s campaign as a result, seeing as everyone will be eager to start playing multiplayer and Zombies on day one alongside their friends instead.

Black Ops 6 PC requirements

If you’re going to be playing Black Ops 6 on PC, be that through Game Pass, Steam or Battle.net, you may want to see whether your PC is ready for it, and the type of experience you can expect based on your hardware.

Below, we’ve included the three sets of PC system requirements Treyarch published. For the best possible performance, make sure to download and install the latest GPU drivers, too. That’s 560.70 for Nvidia, 24.8.1 for AMD, and 32.0.101.5972 for Intel.