Black Ops Cold War Season 1 release date moved to 16th December

The release date of Black Ops Cold War and Warzone Season 1 has been moved from 10th December to 16h December, Activision has announced.

While the official reason behind this delay is that the developer needs "a few more days to finalize everything", the reason might be that they don't want to compete with the launch of Cyberpunk 2077, which is set to be released on the same day.

Activision promises that Season 1 will be "the largest free content drop in Black Ops history", which will include the integration of Operators, weapons, player progression, and Battle Pass rewards across Black Ops Cold War and Warzone.

Warzone Season 1 free content

Leaks are pointing out towards Rebirth Island as a new Warzone map (Picture: Activision)

The launch of Black Ops Cold War Season 1 will include the first-ever merge between two Call of Duty games.

Warzone, which was originally developed as a part of Modern Warfare, will integrate with Black Ops Cold War in Season 1, and Treyarch has prepared a huge amount of new content for this occasion.

The most exciting thing is the first new map for Warzone. While it is not yet officially revealed which map will that be, numerous leaks are strongly suggesting that we are heading to Rebirth Island, which will be a smaller, faster map, with smaller lobbies and close-quarter combat.

With the start of Season 1, Warzone will become richer for over 30 Black Ops Cold War base weapons, plus numerous Blueprint variants.

Treyarch is preparing another surprise for Warzone players, which they call "a new Gulag experience" where players will "face down fellow prisoners", which might be connected with Alcatraz, a famous prison.

Black Ops Cold War Season 1 free content

(Picture: Activision)

For Black Ops Cold War, Treyarch is bringing a lot of new and completely free content, so here's everything that we can expect to get for free when Season 1 launches:

• The return of 2v2 Gunfight with four new maps
• A massive new Fireteam map
• The return of Raid, the legendary Call of Duty: Black Ops II 6v6 map
• New Zombies modes
• Season Challenges
• Seasonal Prestige system launch with 1,000 Season Levels
• New free-to-acquire weapons

Black Ops Cold War Double XP and Double Weapon XP Weekend and Free Bundles

Because players will need to wait another week for the release of Season 1, Activision is bringing some free goodies as a way to thank them for their patience.

Treyarch will be enabling Double XP and Double Weapon XP in Black Ops Cold War from 10 am PT on Saturday, 12th December, until the launch of Season 1.

But that's not all, the developer will also reward players with free Pre-Season bundles. Log in anytime between 10 am PT on 8th December and 11 pm PT on 15th December to claim these two bundles below:

“Field Research” Bundle

• 1 Epic Operator Skin (Park)
• 1 Epic SMG Weapon Blueprint
• 1 Epic Reticle
• 1 Epic Calling Card
• 1 Rare Weapon Charm

“Certified” Bundle

• 1 Epic Operator Skin (Garcia)
• 1 Rare Assault Rifle Weapon Blueprint
• 1 Epic Reticle
• 1 Epic Weapon Charm

In the next two weeks, during the pre-season period, Treyarch is planning to deploy several new updates to prepare things for Season 1 launch. Expect updates to come on 8th December, 15th December and 16th December.