Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 devs confirm the FPS is launching without the controversial Riot Shield

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33 weapons but the Riot Shield is nowhere to be found

Modern Warfare 2
(Image credit: Activision Blizzard)

After years of fans complaining about the Riot Shield, it looks like the devs of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 are taking pity. The full list of launch weapons for the upcoming FPS is here, and the controversial shield is nowhere to be found.

You can check out the full list on the official site for a complete breakdown of the 33 weapons that'll be available when Black Ops 6 launches on October 25. A quick scroll suggests and a full 'control+F' confirms that there's no Riot Shield here. As IGN notes, this confirmation has been a major source of celebration among players who've grown sick of everyone turtling behind these shields in multiplayer.

There weren't any Riot Shields in the Black Ops 6 beta, and even then players were taking notice. As one Reddit user put it, "I realized one of the reasons it was so fun was there were no dumb idiots running around with riot shields/turtle shells." Historically, Treyarch - the developer taking the lead on Black Ops 6 - has not included Riot Shields in its own Call of Duty titles, but with a three-year streak of the weapon appearing in recent entries fans had reason to be nervous.

Of course, it'll take more than the presence (or absence) of one controversial weapon to make or break Black Ops 6. We'll see how the game fares when it releases across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on October 25, and you can get the Black Ops 6 preload now to prepare yourself for launch.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 won't offer early access to its campaign mode, breaking a new trend set by the latest Modern Warfare games.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.