Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

PS4 gets first dibs on Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 multiplayer beta in August

Add as a preferred source on Google

Activision announced recently that a multiplayer beta version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will launch for the PlayStation 4 next month. Xbox One owners and PC players will get their shot at the global pre-release a week later.

The beta will run for five days on each available platform. Access is limited to players who have pre-ordered Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 at select retailers.

Recommended Videos

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will be the first entry in the long-running first-person shooter series to offer a worldwide multiplayer beta since 2008’s Call of Duty: World at War. The upcoming beta will feature a small selection of maps and modes included with the full version of the game launching in November.

“During the beta,” developer Treyarch notes, “fans will have an opportunity to try the new momentum-based, chained movement system, find the perfect Specialist to fit their play style, get a feel for the new multiplayer maps, and more.”

Sony announced at this year’s E3 that all Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 content will be available first on PlayStation platforms, ending the series’ long-standing Xbox exclusivity agreement. The past few entries in the Call of Duty series have featured DLC that launched first on Xbox platforms, with equivalent PlayStation and PC releases arriving a month later.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3‘s multiplayer beta will kick off for PlayStation 4 owners on August 19, and will continue through August 23. Xbox One and PC players can join the action from August 26 through August 30.

Players can secure access to the upcoming beta by pre-ordering Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 at Amazon, Best Buy, or GameStop. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 premieres on November 6 for the PlayStation 4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC platforms.

Danny Cowan
Former Contributor
Danny’s passion for video games was ignited upon his first encounter with Nintendo’s Duck Hunt, and years later, he still…
I played Halo: Campaign Evolved, and its cinematics show what a Halo series could’ve been
Halo’s remake looks ready for Hollywood. So where is the show it deserves?
Adult, Male, Man

There is a moment early in Halo: Campaign Evolved where I stopped thinking about the remake as a game for a second. I was watching one of its newly rebuilt cutscenes. Master Chief, Captain Keyes, Cortana, the Pillar of Autumn, and the enormous scale of everything around them suddenly appeared a lot more cinematic than ever before.

I played the original Halo: Combat Evolved in the early 2000s, and in my head, this was exactly how it looked and felt. The first Halo title introduced intergalactic war to me long before Star Wars, and the cinematic tastefully adds enough minor touches that enhance Bungie's original work from decades ago.

Read more
Xbox is fixing one of the PC app’s biggest annoyances with download speed
A new Smart Download Client promises faster, more consistent download speeds for games and updates.
Xbox's logo used during the Extended Games Showcase

Waiting for a massive Game Pass download to finish could soon become a little less painful. Microsoft has begun testing a new Smart Download Client as part of the latest Xbox Insider Alpha Skip-Ahead update. The feature is designed to speed up game installs and updates by automatically connecting users to the fastest available content server. While it's currently limited to Xbox Insider testers, early reports suggest the improvements are also making their way to the Xbox PC app, potentially solving one of the platform's longest-standing frustrations.

How the Smart Download Client works

Read more
A metallic Hall effect keyboard and a 59g mouse are Lenovo’s latest upgrades for snazzy gaming setups
The Legion R7 RT75 keyboard and Y7MG mouse bring 8K polling to both sides of your gaming setup
Computer, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard

Magnetic gaming keyboards and lightweight mice are hardly unusual anymore, but Lenovo is trying to push both ideas a little further with its latest Legion peripherals. The new lineup includes the Legion R7 RT75 keyboard and Legion Y7MG mouse, and both support an 8,000Hz polling rate for players who want every input delivered to their PC as quickly as possible.

Of course, Lenovo has styled these peripherals to be as bold and eye-catching as possible without getting in the way of practicality. The keyboard has a hefty metallic design with translucent keycaps and RGB lighting. Compared to that, the mouse is more tame and traditional in design, but it also has an RGB strip that appears to belong on an alien spaceship. (via NotebookCheck)

Read more