Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War's Zombies Onslaught mode is a 12-month PlayStation exclusive

Activision has unveiled Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War's co-operative Zombies Onslaught mode, which, in news sure to send eyeballs a-swivelling, is confirmed to be a timed PlayStation exclusive that won't be heading to other platforms for a full year.

Zombies Onslaught is separate to this year's main Zombies narrative - Die Maschine, which is still coming to all platforms at launch - and is described as a "two-person, fast-paced" co-op experience that drops participants, complete with their custom load-outs, onto one of several locations derived from Cold War's various multiplayer maps.

Here, players are confined to a limited "orb" area ("Dark Aether damage" is inflicted if they stray outside) and waves of zombies will begin spilling in. Once a sufficient number have been eliminated, the orb, and the habitable area, will move - and as each game progresses, waves will introduce more "resilient, faster and deadlier" zombies, including powerful Elite enemies.

The ultimate goal is to stay alive and rack up as many points as possible by continuing to pick off Elites. Bronze, Silver, or Gold rankings are awarded based on the number of Elites killed, and these, in turn, will enable players to unlock rewards for use across the entire game.

The stickler, of course, is that Activision, working alongside Sony, has elected to make this chunk of the overall Cold War experience exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PS5 for an entire year - a rather brazen move given the outcry that followed a similar decision in 2019 to restrict Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's Spec Ops Survival mode to PS4 for 12 months.

At the time, Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward's Taylor Kurosaki told fans that matters of platform exclusivity were "complicated decisions that are above our pay grade."

Activision hasn't directly commented on the issue of Cold War's exclusivity window, but a glance at the usual Call of Duty community hangouts suggests the response is more a collectively resigned sigh than anger this time around.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War comes to PS4 and PS5 on 13th November 2020. Slightly less Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War comes to Xbox One, Series X/S, and PC on the same day.

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