Call of Duty’s Blackout battle royale beta will house up to 80 players per match

Treyarch will be breaking new ground for Call of Duty next week, testing the waters of its battle royale mode, Blackout. It seems as though the developers aren’t holding back too much with stress testing, revealing that there will be up to 80 players per match during the beta period.

Internal testing was pegged at 100, similar to pre-established battle royale rivals, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite: Battle Royale. This has since been lowered for public testing in order to polish the games itself. “What’s really more important to us than a number is that the gameplay experience is as refined as it can be, that’s it the ideal perfect format for what players are going to play,” Treyarch co-studio head Dan Bunting explains in an interview with Game Informer.

“Whenever we launch a game as a beta or whatever, that’s the beginning of something,” continues Bunting. “We’re going to actively be participating in the community and taking feedback, making changes and adapting, evolving the game as feedback rolls in. So there’s a lot that can go on that can happen beyond that first impact of the game going out there.”

Blackout will kick off its private beta on Monday 10th September at 5pm GMT/10am PT, exclusively for players on PlayStation 4. This will be followed by Xbox One and PC players who have pre-ordered Black Ops 4, starting 14th September at 5pm GMT/10am PT, with it opening up to everyone on PSN, Xbox Live or Battle.net just 24 hours later. The beta period closes on the 17th September, once again at 5pm GMT/10am PT.

KitGuru Says: Like a lot of our readers, I am finding the battle royale genre a little too oversaturated too quickly, but it will be interesting to see what Treyarch has in store given its previous efforts in the series. I will miss the single-player campaign, however. Will you be hopping into the Blackout beta test?

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