Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Early Access Beta Will Be Open to Game Pass Members

The early access multiplayer beta for Call of Duty Black Ops 6 will kick off next month on August 30, and Game Pass subscribers will be able to participate for the first time alongside people who pre-order the game on all platforms. This will mark the end of Activision’s marketing deal with PlayStation for Call of Duty that made early access betas for new titles only available for PlayStation players.

“This year, we’re happy to announce that the Beta goes live on all platforms at the same time,” Activision said yesterday. Following this first early access weekend on August 30 – September 4, an open beta will also be available the following weekend on September 6-9.

In the announcement, Activision said that beta players will be able to “experience the game-changing Omnimovement and other gameplay innovations” across brand-new maps and a variety of modes. For those unfamiliar, “Omnimovement” is a big change to core player movement that will allow gamers to sprint, slide, and dive in any direction. You can learn more details in the video below.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be released on all platforms on October 25. It will feature an all-new campaign set in the Gulf War era, 12 new 6v6 maps and 4 new Strike maps at launch, and round-based Zombies mode will also be making a comeback.

Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard back in October 2023, Black Ops 6 will be the first Call of Duty game to be released on day one on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and the now-discontinued Xbox Game Pass for Console. While existing Xbox Game Pass for Console members can keep their current subscription if they want to continue to enjoy new first-party games on day one, Microsoft announced the upcoming launch of a new $14.99/month Xbox Game Pass Standard tier that will include Xbox Game Pass Core benefits, access to hundreds of games, but no day-one releases like the next Call of Duty game.