Here's exactly when you can start preloading Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War

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PC players will have to wait a lot longer than consoles.

call of duty black ops cold war
(Image credit: Activision)

We're almost a week out from the launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War, the first game with a campaign led by Raven Software. With Treyarch leading development on multiplayer and the continued popularity of Warzone, it's shaping up to be an interesting year for the series. Like last year's Modern Warfare, Cold War is also shaping up to be a hefty download whether you're on a PC or a next-gen console.

Thankfully, Activision will soon be rolling out preloading for those who've preordered the game. The catch? PC players will have to wait a full five days longer.

Black Ops - Cold War preload times

  • PC: November 10 @ 10:00 AM PT
  • PS4 & Xbox One: November 5 @ 9:00 PM PT
  • Xbox Series X: November 10
  • PS5: November 12

Why the five extra days for PC players to wait? Who knows. Call of Duty has historically been a console-focused series, so it's not too surprising that consoles are the first platforms ready to pull the trigger. The delay could also have something to do with Beenox, the support studio that is handling the PC port of Cold War (it also handled the PC port of 2019's Modern Warfare).

Either way, three days notice should still be ample time to start your downloads and be off to the races when Cold War finally drops. In case you didn't hear, Activision has revised the storage requirements for Cold War on PC, so your download may be even shorter than you were expecting.

Morgan Park
Morgan Park
Staff Writer

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.