Black Ops Cold War’s Zombies Onslaught PlayStation exclusive for a year

Deep breaths. One of the most highly-anticipated new Call of Duty releases in recent memory won’t be available in all its glory on all platforms. That is, a small mode. Zombies Onslaught will remain PlayStation exclusive until November 1st, 2021.

Now, it’s imperative to remember that Zombies Onslaught is not the entire Zombies game mode of Black Ops Cold War. It’s merely a sub-mode inside Zombies. This will surely alleviate some of the pain of Xbox and PC gamers.

But the truth is, only on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 will you experience the entire Cold War experience. There’s no way around that.

Disappointed fans already made their voices be heard in the comment sections on social media sites. Even the official PlayStation trailer for Zombies Onslaught got its share with lots of dislikes.

Once you drop in, the onslaught begins; the Dark Aether Orb will confine your duo to a specific space on the map, where the undead will begin spawning in. Killing these zombies will power the Orb. Kill enough Zombies and the Orb will move. While you’re inside the Orb, you won’t take Dark Aether damage from outside the specific map zone the Orb protects, helping keep players alive as they fight increasingly difficult undead enemies, with each “surge” bringing more resilient, faster and deadlier zombies.

Exclusivity deals aren’t anything new. Especially for blockbuster franchises like Call of Duty. Zombies Onslaught promises a dedicated two-player co-op mode with a twist. It uses regular multiplayer maps and fills them with the undead. It’s essentially a horde mode style endeavor.

To be fair, the mode will not remain exclusive to Sony’s consoles forever. Next year, on November 1st, players on the PC and Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S will get access to Zombies Onslaught.

But the ugly truth is, the Call of Duty franchise is an annual series. And together with a new entry, most of its player base migrates to it. As such, a one-year exclusivity covers pretty much the most important period.

You can learn more about the Zombies Onslaught mode in the PlayStation Blog article posted by Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Lead Write James Mattone.