Black Ops 4 battle royale beta preloading has begun, early access is available to everyone

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout beta will go live on PC at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on September 15, or at the same time a day earlier if you've already preordered the game. If you haven't preordered but want to get in early anyway, that can also be arranged.

Anyone who watches at least an hour of Ninja, Shroud, Summit1G, or TimTheTatman on Twitch between 10 am and 2 pm PT on September 14—during which time I assume they'll be streaming Blackout—will also be given early access to the beta. Just be sure you've linked your Battle.net account to your Twitch.tv account before you start, or else it won't count—you can do that here.

To ensure you don't waste any precious time downloading the Blackout beta when you could be playing it, you can preload it right now on Battle.net. Regardless of when you start playing, the beta will come to an end at 10 am PT/1 pm ET on September 17. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 comes out in full on October 12.

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.