Call of Duty: Black Ops III's multiplayer beta hits all three platforms in August

Home / News / Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s multiplayer beta hits all three platforms in August

It’s been several years since Activision ran a pre-release online beta test for a Call of Duty game – not since 2008’s World at War – but the publisher is giving series fans a taste of Black Ops III next month on the three lead platforms.

Earlier this month, Activision said the PlayStation 4 beta would be first out of the gate on Wednesday, 19 August, and now we know that it will last five days, ending on Sunday, 23 August. That’s five days for Sony players to start blasting away in the latest multiplayer experience.

But it won’t be long before Xbox One and PC players get to jump into their own respective beta tests: both of those start up on Wednesday, 26 August and end on Sunday, 30 August.

Activision says the beta test offers multiple maps and a chance to try out the momentum-centric movement system, which looks a fair bit like Titanfall‘s amped-up, parkour-esque player navigation. However, you’ll need to pre-order the game to guarantee access to the beta, although we suspect there will also be code giveaways via social media and such.

What about Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? Sorry, last-gen holdouts: there’s no Black Ops III multiplayer beta for your aging platforms, but at least you’ll have a full game to look forward to later this year. We’d guess that the experience will be trimmed down to some extent, plus the project has been handed off to another studio, but at least you’ll have something when it hits on 6 November.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III looks to cap off the trilogy with another futuristic entry – like last year’s Advanced Warfare, which isn’t directly related – that builds off of the era-hopping storyline of 2012’s Black Ops II. With the series’ first four-player cooperative campaign and another big Zombies adventure found alongside the multiplayer mode, it ought to be another massive, entertaining ride.

[Source: Activision]

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Andrew writes features, news stories, reviews, and other pieces, often when the UK home team is off-duty or asleep. I'm based in Chicago with my lovely wife, amazing son, and silly cats, and my writing about games, gadgets, esports, apps, and plenty more has appeared in more than 75 publications since 2006.