Call of Duty Black Ops 6 beta dates revealed, and for the first time it's happening at the same time on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC

The official Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 beta dates have been revealed, along with the early access that'll be available if you pre-order the game starts on August 30.

As announced in the new Call of Duty podcast on YouTube , folks with a pre-order of Black Ops 6 will be able to take part in the early access beta from August 30 to September 4, and then the full open beta for everyone will run from September 6 to September 9. The beta starts and ends on those days at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BT.

There are a couple of pretty significant changes to this beta period in the wake of Microsoft's acquisition of Call of Duty publisher Activision . As Charlie Intel noted, this will be the first Call of Duty beta in the series' history to happen at the same time on all platforms, bucking the trend of launching first on PlayStation.

Furthermore, Xbox Game Pass subscribers will have access to the same early access beta that comes with pre-orders of the game, but over on the Call of Duty blog it seems there's a pretty major caveat for certain subscribers. "For Game Pass Console subscribers, Game Pass Core may also be required for MP Beta access," reads the fine print on the blog.

Xbox recently announced yet another Game Pass price increase as well as a new subscription tier that doesn't include day one releases. Meanwhile, the Console tier is being scrapped entirely and won't be available to new subscribers, even though existing Console subscribers will be able to keep their plans indefinitely.

With Game Pass price hikes sparking debate, indie developers are rising up to remind us how vital the Xbox subscription can be "to the tune of staggering numbers".