Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War multiplayer footage leaked by streamer
Activision’s official multiplayer reveal for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was supposed to take place on Wednesday, September 9. It seems, however, that we’re getting an early preview thanks to Twitch streamer.
The video shows a 6v6 match taking place in a Miami-themed map, with players required to protect a VIP until extraction. From the footage shown, the game doesn’t seem to have a tactical sprint, or even doors—no crashing into rooms like in Modern Warfare.
Other visible features include health bars above opponents heads and the franchise’ trademark killstreaks.
As for the actual action on display, veterans may note that Black Ops Cold War seems to have a higher time to kill (TTK) than Modern Warfare. That said, it’s a bit hard to truly judge the game’s TTK from spectator mode footage.
As for where the footage came from, it was most likely from a preview session for content creators ahead of the official reveal Wednesday. Further details on the game’s multiplayer are set to be revealed then.
What is known is that Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer will share progression with Call of Duty: Warzone, the free-to-play battle royale.
According to Activision’s FAQ page for the game, Black Ops Cold War will add inventory items that can be used in both games. In fact, Activision may have already hinted at this with the Bay of Pigs SKS guns that Warzone players were able to acquire during Black Ops Cold War’s launch event.
The FAQ states that Warzone players “will still have access to Modern Warfare content they earned previously, like Operators and weapon blueprints.”
This seems to be linked to a shared battle pass system between both Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. This battle pass will likely be able to unlock post-launch content with “unified progression” across both games.
As for how the battle pass works, it’ll most likely take a similar approach to how Warzone’s current battle pass works, which unlocks “base weapons, customization items and more” by playing the game.
Given Warzone’s success, it makes sense that Activision is linking that game to their next mainline Call of Duty game.
Not only does this reward players who are currently invested in Warzone, but it also gives them an incentive to move on to Black Ops Cold War. This is important considering that the upcoming game is a full-price retail game.
Activision president Rob Kostich has already stated that the company sees Warzone as a “great platform for us to share new franchise news and information directly with our community like we haven’t done before.”
One question that some players may have, is whether the shared battle pass progression will also extend to last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. While Warzone started out as an extension of that title, it has grown into its own thing over the past few months.
Also, the Modern Warfare and Black Ops sub-brands traditionally don’t cross over. However, the latter sharing progression with Warzone shows that the Activision is willing to break tradition if it makes financial sense. So it may yet happen if the company sees value in such a move.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is set to launch on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Microsoft Windows PC (via Battle.net) this fall.
