Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War integrates with Warzone in December

A soldier beckoning players towards a premium battle pass. — (Image credit: Activision)

During an Activision earnings call it was announced that Call of Duty: Black Ops – Cold War will integrate with Call of Duty: Warzone shortly after launch. Blops launches on November 13, but won't become a part of Warzone until sometime in December.

Activision first announced in September that Blops and Warzone would work together, with progression linked across the titles and all post-launch updates being free for all players. On the same call Activision president Rob Kostich said: "All the awesome new Black Ops Cold War weapons and operators you unlock and your level 1 to 55 progression will be usable in Black Ops and in Warzone."

The key is that no gun gets left behind. The battle royale has been a massive success so far (Kotick says it's been downloaded by over 80 million players), and the way Activision is approaching this marks a new kind of one-upsmanship in the 'service games' genre. Players now expect battle passes and new content as a matter of course, which is all well and good, but by tying-in the 'main' Call of Duty entries Activision is giving the game a yearly thematic overhaul that will be hard to compete with.

PRODUCTS

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."