Black Ops 7 remains one of the year’s most anticipated releases, despite how its star may have been outshone by Battlefield 6. The popularity and dominance of Call of Duty, however, doesn’t much care for fanboy rivalries; people who like it will show up for it.
Black Ops 7 is looking like a big deal for the series, too, with an incredibly stuffed package in terms of content, and a few decisions behind the scenes to alter longstanding traditions that we once thought could not be altered.
If you’re looking forward to the release of this year’s big Call of Duty game, this guide will answer every question you might have about the game to get you as prepared as possible for launch.
Black Ops 7 early access
Starting things off, 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 the fun on the same day.
Black Ops 7 is also – sadly – not bringing back the early unlock for Campaign, 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 environment. It’s something you’re meant to come back to well into the life of the game, so it’s disappointing that it’ll be fighting Multiplayer and Zombies for our attention at launch.
Black Ops 7 pre-load times
Pre-loading Black Ops 7 is possible, and will become available on Monday, November 10. The good news is that it will be going live across all platforms. Players on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S will be able to pre-download the game on the same day and at the same time.
Here’s when the pre-load becomes available:
- 9am PT (San Francisco)
- 12pm ET (New York)
- 5pm GMT (London)
- 6pm CET (Berlin)
- 9pm GST (Dubai)
Black Ops 7 pre-load size
The Black Ops 7 pre-load includes the full game – Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies. This is why you should expect it to be pretty sizeable, so make sure you free up enough space on your PC/console’s drive.
Activision has not revealed the final download size for any platforms just yet, but you can expect it to be over 80GB. The game requires over 100GB of free space, so that makes sense.
Black Ops 7 launch times
Unlike the pre-load, launch times for Black Ops 7 are a little more complicated. The game’s official release date is Friday, November 14. That said, depending on where you may be in the world, as well as your platform of choice, you may be able to play it on Thursday, November 13.
For PC – Steam and Battlenet – Black Ops 7 will go live at the times below:
- 9pm PT (San Francisco)
- 1am ET (November 14) (New York)
- 5am GMT (November 14) (London)
- 6am CET (November 14) (Berlin)
- 9am GST (November 14) (Dubai)
If you’re on the West Coast of the United States, you’ll be able to play on PC in the evening on November 13, which means players in Europe will be able to join in the early hours of the morning of November 14.
However, for PlayStation, Xbox, Game Pass, and the Xbox App on PC, Black Ops 7 will instead unlock at midnight local time. This is a regional roll-out, so expect the game to unlock between 3am and 10pm PT on November 13, depending on where you may be in the world.
Black Ops 7 PC specs
Activision has provided three sets of PC specs for Black Ops 7. The first is the absolute lowest end, followed by the more balanced spec. The third and final set of requirements is designed for players who want to max out the visual quality of the game, or those who want very high framerates at modest settings.
Minimum PC specs
What you need to play Black Ops 7 on Low.
- OS: Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update).
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1400, or Intel Core i5-6600.
- RAM: 8GB.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 470, or Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 / 1060, or Intel Arc A580.
- VRAM: 3GB.
- Storage: SSD with 116GB available space at launch.
Recommended PC specs
60fps in most situations with all options set to High.
- OS: Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update).
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 1600X, or Intel Core i7-6700K.
- RAM: 12GB.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 6600XT, or Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, or Intel Arc B580.
- VRAM: 8GB.
- Storage: SSD with 116GB available space at launch.
Competitive / Ultra PC specs
Competitive specs for owners of high refresh rate monitors. Ultra specs to run Black Ops 7 at 4K at high framerates.
- OS: Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update).
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X, or Intel Core i7-10700K.
- RAM: 16GB.
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 9070XT, or Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 / 5070.
- VRAM: 16GB.
- Storage: SSD with 116GB available space at launch.
Recommended GPU Drivers
Black Ops 7 requires installing the latest GPU Drivers on your PC before you can play. All the Drivers listed below are available to download now, so you should install them between now and launch.
If you’re going to be playing the game with an Intel Arc GPU, make sure Resizable Bar is enabled. Here’s how to enable Resizable Bar on your Intel Arc GPU.
- Nvidia: 581.42
- AMD: 25.9.2
- Intel: 32.0.101.8132
Black Ops 7 TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot
You’re probably sick of seeing those terms at this point, but Black Ops 7 – much like Battlefield 6 (and many other modern multiplayer shooters) – requires TPM 2.0 as well as Secure Boot to be enabled on your PC. This is usually a two-step process where you’ll first need to enable it in your PC’s UEFI (BIOS), before you enable it under Windows.
If you’ve done that previously in order to be able to play a different game, you don’t have to do it again for Black Ops 7. If you’re confused about what any of that means, there’s a very helpful article about how to enable all those security measures, which you should definitely read if you’ve never had to deal with any of that stuff before.