Black Ops 7 remains one of the most anticipated releases of the year, despite how Battlefield 6 may have overshadowed its star. Call of Duty’s popularity and dominance, however, doesn’t seem to care much about fan competition; there will be people who like it.
Black Ops 7 also looks to be a substantial deal for the series, with an incredibly stuffed package in terms of content and several behind-the-scenes decisions aimed at changing long-standing traditions that we once thought were unchangeable.
If you’re looking forward to the release of this year’s substantial Call of Duty game, this guide will answer every question you may have about the game so you can best prepare for the release.
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Black Ops 7 Early Access
We start with Black Ops 7 does not offer any form of early access on any platform. Regardless of which version of the game you pre-order, everyone will be able to join in the fun on the same day.
Black Ops 7 also – unfortunately – doesn’t bring back the ability to unlock the Campaign early, which is a shame because this year’s Campaign supports co-op and even has a first-of-its-kind, repeatable post-campaign mode that takes place in an open world. This is something you should come back to throughout the game, so it’s disappointing that at launch it will be fighting with multiplayer and zombies for our attention.
Black Ops 7 preload times
It is possible to pre-load Black Ops 7 which will be available on Monday, November 10. The good news is that it will be available on all platforms. Players on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S will be able to pre-order the game on the same day and time.
Here’s when preloading will become available:
- 9:00 a.m. PT (San Francisco)
- 12:00 ET (New York)
- 17:00 GMT (London)
- 18:00 CET (Berlin)
- 21:00 GST (Dubai)
Black Ops 7 preload size
Black Ops 7 pre-load includes the full game – campaign, multiplayer and zombies. Therefore, you should expect it to be quite gigantic, so make sure you free up enough disk space on your computer/console.
Activision hasn’t revealed the final download size for either platform yet, but you can expect it to be over 80GB. The game requires over 100 GB of free space, so it makes sense.
Black Ops 7 release times
Unlike preload, Black Ops 7 startup times are a bit more complicated. The official release date of the game is Friday, November 14. That said, depending on where you are in the world, as well as your chosen platform, you may be able to play this game on Thursday, November 13.
For PC – Steam and Battlenet – Black Ops 7 will be available at the following times:
- 21:00 PT (San Francisco)
- 1:00 a.m. EST (November 14) (New York)
- 5:00 GMT (November 14) (London)
- 6:00 CET (November 14) (Berlin)
- 9am GST (November 14) (Dubai)
If you are on the west coast of the United States, you will be able to play on the computer in the evening November 13meaning European players will be able to join in the early morning hours November 14.
However, for PlayStation, Xbox, Game Pass, and the Xbox app for PC, Black Ops 7 will be available instead unlock at midnight local time. This is a regional rollout, so expect the game to be unlocked between 3:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time ON November 13depending on where in the world you are.
Black Ops 7 PC specs
Activision has released three sets of PC specs for Black Ops 7. The first is the absolute lowest tier, the second is a more balanced spec. The third and final set of requirements is for players who want to maximize the visual quality of the game or those who want very high frame rates at modest settings.
Minimum computer specifications
What you need to play Black Ops 7 on low difficulty.
- operating system: Windows 10 64-bit (latest update).
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1400 or Intel Core i5-6600.
- ARIES: 8GB.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 470 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / 1060 or Intel Arc A580.
- VRAM: 3GB.
- Storage: SSD with 116 GB of free space at launch.
Recommended computer specifications
60fps in most situations with all options set to High.
- operating system: Windows 11 64-bit (latest update).
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X or Intel Core i7-6700K.
- ARIES: 12GB.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 or Intel Arc B580.
- VRAM: 8GB.
- Storage: SSD with 116 GB of free space at launch.
Competitive/Ultra PC Specs
Competitive specifications for owners of high refresh rate monitors. The Ultra specification allows Black Ops 7 to run in 4K resolution at high frame rates.
- operating system: Windows 11 64-bit (latest update).
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X or Intel Core i7-10700K.
- ARIES: 16GB.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9070XT or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080/5070.
- VRAM: 16GB.
- Storage: SSD with 116 GB of free space at launch.
Recommended GPU drivers
To play, Black Ops 7 requires the latest GPU drivers to be installed on your computer. All drivers listed below are already available for download, so they must be installed before launch.
If you are going to play the game with an Intel Arc GPU, make sure the resizing bar is turned on. Here how to enable resizable bar on intel arc graphics processor.
- Nvidia: 581.42
- AMD: 25.9.2
- Intel:32.0.101.8132
Black Ops 7 TPM 2.0 and secure boot
You’re probably tired of these terms, but Black Ops 7 – like Battlefield 6 (and many other state-of-the-art multiplayer shooters) – rrequires TPM 2.0 enabled and secure boot on your computer. This is usually a two-step process where you first enable the feature in your computer’s UEFI (BIOS) and then enable it in Windows.
If you’ve done this before to play another game, you don’t need to do it again for Black Ops 7. If you don’t know what this means, there’s very helpful article on how to enable all these security measureswhich you should definitely read if you’ve never dealt with this sort of thing before.
