How the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrade works

(Image credit: Activision)

After years of anticipation, Black Ops is finally back. And with new consoles launching either side of it, many fans will want to experience Call of Duty's cinematic chaos on a shiny next-gen machine. The bad news, however, is that the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PS5 and Xbox Series upgrade system is more than a little convoluted. Unlike the free optimisation patches released for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X titles, many next-gen upgrades will be locked behind a paywall. For the new Call of Duty, this upgrade path is especially confusing. With several different editions of Black Ops Cold War available across PlayStation and Xbox from November 13, we've prepared a comprehensive breakdown of how to upgrade to the Black Ops Cold war PS5 and Xbox Series X versions.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War PS5 upgrade path

Regardless of when you're planning to upgrade to a new console, it makes sense to future-proof your new game purchases, so let’s break down the next-gen upgrade options on PlayStation. Thanks to PS5 launching in both diskless and disk-based variations, there will be different upgrade paths for each SKU.

If you are buying a physical PS4 copy of the new Call of Duty, you can upgrade that to a next-gen version for an additional $10 (UK pricing TBC). This upgrade will only work if you buy a PS5 with a disk drive because you’ll need to keep that PS4 Black Ops Cold War disk in while you play.

If you're going digital on PS4, however, you have two options. Firstly, you can buy the digital PS4 edition for £59.99 / $60 and then pay a fee to upgrade your game later. Secondly, you can simply buy the £64.99/$70 cross-gen bundle, which comes with both PS4 and PS5 copies and will work on either the PS5 Digital Edition or its disk drive-toting bigger brother.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Xbox Series X upgrade path

Xbox buyers can choose between an Xbox One disc and an Xbox Series X/S disc. The former costs $60/ £59.99 and contains zero next-gen upgrades, while the latter costs $70/£64.99 and will play on both consoles. It’s worth noting that, like with the PS4 version, the basic Xbox One disk will play on your shiny new Xbox Series X, but without the next-gen enhancements.

For those who like deathmatches of the digital variety, the Xbox upgrade path functions very similarly to PlayStation's. $60/£59.99 gets you the Xbox digital standard edition, with a $10 (UK price TBC) upgrade unlocking the Xbox Series features. Alternatively, you can get the cross-gen bundle for Xbox for $70/£64.99 and not have to worry about disks or upgrades as this comes with Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War for both gens.

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Tom is a freelance journalist and former PR with over five years worth of experience across copy-writing, on-camera presenting, and journalism.

Named one of the UK games industry’s rising stars by Gamesindustry.biz, Tom has been published by world-leading outlets such as: Fandom, The Guardian, NME, Ars Technica, GamesRadar, Engadget, IGN, Techradar, Red Bull, and EDGE.