Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be on Battle.net, not Steam

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The big surprise platform change was revealed during today's reveal livestream.

Much of what we say in today's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 reveal event, including Zombies, battle royale, and the absence of a single-player campaign, was expected. But Treyarch did drop one big surprise: The PC version of the game will be released exclusively on Battle.net.

"Those of us at Blizzard have been friends with Treyarch for many, many years. When it came to working on Overwatch, we consulted with Treyarch on a number of features," Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan said. "With all the features of Battle.net, I think it's going to be pretty amazing what Black Ops 4 is going to have to offer." 

Black Ops 4 will be fully integrated with all of Battle.net's social features, including friends lists and the ability to talk to other players across other Battle.net games. The PC version will also support 4K resolutions and HDR, ultrawide monitors, and uncapped framerates—and yes, there will be dedicated server support.

Black Ops 4 will be the first Call of Duty game released on Blizzard's digital platform, and Activision confirmed that it will be there exclusively—it will not be released on Steam. Much of what was revealed during today's event, despite Treyarch's self-professed affinity for risk-taking, was entirely expected, but not releasing a Call of Duty game on Steam? That's a bold move.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will be out on October 12.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.