Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War beta date may be early October

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (I will never get used to writing that whole title out) is the unsurprising Call of Duty 2020 offering we’ve long been waiting for. And we may get our hands on it very soon if the latest leaks are anything to go by.

Activision embarked on a long and frankly annoying viral marketing campaign ahead of revealing the game, planting a host of cryptic messages and puzzles within Modern Warfare‘s Warzone. Streamers spent weeks going through it all, which clearly pointed towards the long-rumoured Treyarch-led Black Ops game set during the Cold War.

And thus, Black Ops Cold War was revealed. Yay?

We first reported on the Cold War-era Black Ops setting twelve months ago (!!!) after reports of division and developer troubles at Sledgehammer Games. At the time, the word was that Sledgehammer had teamed up with Raven Studios (developer of Modern Warfare Remastered) to develop a Cold War-era  Call of Duty, before that was ditched completely.

This year stood to put an end to the three-pronged developer cycle for Call of Duty games, which has been in place since 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts. With Infinity Ward having taken the reigns with last year’s Modern Warfare, Sledgehammer was expected to lead Call of Duty 2020, with Black Ops 4 developer, Treyarch, leading 2021’s entry. That philosophy appears to be out the window, with Treyarch now leading development and set to release Black Ops Cold War later this year.

Whatever your thoughts are on the decision, game and developers involved, we are returning to Black Ops — again — albeit this time with a slightly different setting. If anything, Black Ops has really been the only game to offer anything even remotely close to being a reasonable narrative, at least since the conclusion of the original Modern Warfare series, so there’s something to look forward to.

And now, according to some recent leaks out of COD Tracker, we appear to have firm insight as to when we’re going to get our hands on Treyarch’s latest.

The report claims that players of the Arabic version of Modern Warfare, Warzone, and, surprisingly, Call of Duty: WWII, noticed a store alert for the Black Ops Cold War beta.

Based on the leaks, the beta will be released on October 4 on PS4, and so we can probably assume it will hit Xbox One and PC 1-2 weeks later.

Activision has already confirmed that a beta for Black Ops Cold War will be available, although they haven’t detailed when it will be released or if there will be any form of platform exclusivity, but we can probably assume it will come to PS4 first, if not exclusively for the duration of the beta. Additionally, you can guarantee a place in the beta — or probably early access — by pre-ordering the game, not unlike the beta access in past years for Call of Duty games.

Should the beta be released on October 4, it will be a firm month-and-a-bit out from the release of the game on November 13. Fingers crossed for a beta sooner rather than later.