Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches on October 25, and Activision has revealed more details of what players can expect for multiplayer at launch. This includes a look at the remaining maps that were not showcased in the beta, as well as improvements planned for the game based on player feedback, such as spawn adjustments and movement changes.
Black Ops 6 is set to launch with 16 brand-new multiplayer maps. The beta featured a total of eight maps for players to test out early, with many leaning toward the smaller size. Activision confirms that while most of the beta maps were small, many of the remaining maps are more medium-size.
As shown in the images below, the eight additional launch maps provide a variety of map locations, including the outskirts of an international soccer stadium, a safehouse in the Bulgarian mountains, and a 6v6 snowy Vorkuta map that takes players back to the setting of Black Ops 1’s prison break mission with Mason. There’s even a small Gunfight-size map called Warhead that features a version of Nuketown that’s already been mostly destroyed by a barrage of missiles.
Black Ops 6’s map selection for the Call of Duty League and Ranked Play will be announced in the coming months. “We’re excited about the map variety we’ve got this year, and we always take competitive play into consideration for multiplayer,” Activision said.
In addition to showing off the remaining maps, Activision details that the two weeks of the Black Ops 6 beta gave enough feedback to make necessary spawn improvements. Specific details are not revealed as to what spawn adjustments were made, but the publisher says the spawn system is always being assessed, and the developer will continue to make necessary updates to spawns “through launch and beyond.”
Treyarch’s Omnimovement system is one of the key new features of Black Ops 6, allowing players to sprint, slide, and dive in any direction. While we felt the movement was very fluid and fun to use during our hands-on time with Black Ops 6, Treyarch is already making adjustments to further improve fluidity and allow players to tune their sprint behavior to their individual playstyle. This includes a slight increase to a player’s initial slide speed, improvements to movement animations in third-person view, and adjustments to the new Intelligent Movement settings.
Headshot damage is also changing based on player feedback. The publisher explained by saying, “A common piece of feedback we saw was that low headshot damage reduced the impact of skillful play and made it difficult to challenge certain power positions. We agree with these points and are working on adjustments to many weapons to reward players who land multiple headshots during an engagement.”
Of course, the publisher also revealed that they don’t want the changes to headshot damage to significantly affect the consistency of the time-to-kill in Black Ops 6, so the developer will continue to monitor the effectiveness of headshots during launch and beyond.
Another area of improvement is the game’s overall performance. Black Ops 6’s beta featured some freezing and hitching issues, and the publisher says the sources of those performance problems have been found and corrected. Other areas of performance improvements include resolving general script errors and addressing UI-related issues, as well as overall improvements and fixes to Call of Duty’s asset streaming.
Smaller adjustments mentioned for launch day include improvements to the Winner’s Circle feature, a reduction to the overall camera motion for the sprint, tac sprint, and slide movements, and a Kill Counter for the HUD to track player progress toward killstreaks. Activision also says weapon balancing will be done, but those specific details will be shared in the patch notes arriving with the launch of Black Ops 6.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launches worldwide on October 25 across Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC. Make sure to check out all the details revealed for Black Ops 6’s release, including campaign details, Zombies, and multiplayer features.