Treyarch has big plans for Black Ops 4 in 2019. On January 8th, the community received an official update about what they can expect to see later in the year. In their Black Ops 4 January update, Treyarch mentioned the team is making a strong effort to improve Zombies — new features and challenges will be added to the game type. Many Blackout updates are in the pipeline as well.

Finally, after months of anticipation, players received an update about League Play (Black Ops 4 ranked gameplay) and when it will be released.

Zombies

• Multiplayer camos — such as the Diamond, Gold and Dark Matter camos — will now be available in Zombies.

Players love to show off their unique weapon camos, and now they will have that opportunity when facing off against the undead. To earn these prestigious skins, players had to complete specific multiplayer challenges, such as getting a certain number of headshots, to unlock a camo for that gun. Treyarch plans to add a “Mastery Camo progression system,” that will allow players to unlock camos from multiplayer after they complete weapon challenges specifically designed for Zombies.

• New Zombies game mode and balance changes coming.

A new game mode known as Gauntlets (no specific details on it yet) will be available in the Voyage of Despair campaign. Treyarch also mentioned upcoming balance changes to existing Elixirs and the addition of three new Elixirs on PS4. Finally, according to the official Black Ops 4 January update: “there’s a very Zombies-specific date coming up next week,” so Zombies enthusiasts should get a more detailed look at all the upcoming features soon.

Blackout

• Updated looting interface for console players to be added in Blacks Ops 4 Patch 1.11.

Treyarch only briefly mentioned Blackout in their Blacks Ops 4 January update, but this is a much-needed change for the console community. Currently, Xbox One and PS4 Blackout players are dealing with frustrating looting glitches, such as not being able to pick up certain items on downed enemies, that are negatively impacting the quality of games.

Multiplayer: League Play

• League Play will be added by the end of January.

The Black Ops 4 competitive season is going to be a huge focus for Treyarch this year. The highly anticipated ranked competitive playlist, known as League Play, will be released at the end of January. This is good timing and should get players excited for the upcoming Call of Duty World League (CWL) Pro League, which returns in February. League play will strictly use CWL rules. The schedule for this game mode will be different from previous iterations. League Play events will now be shorter (will last two or three days), but they will be more frequent, based on actual CWL pro player schedules.

The biggest change is the addition of an unranked playlist known as Scrims. Even though this will not be ranked, it will still use skill-based matchmaking, and allow players to practice for ranked League Play events (that will most likely start at the end of the week). Each League Ladder will include a group of 50 players, and Treyarch will provide more information about the ranking system around the official release date of League Play.

Also, according to Treyarch’s Black Ops 4 January update, they hope to release the World League Hub at the end of January. The World League Hub will be the Black Ops 4 home for everything related to esports and competitive play.

General Updates (All Platforms)

The featured playlists for this week are: Endurance Chaos Moshpit, Mercenary Capture Moshpit, Mercenary Hardcore Moshpit, Deathmatch Moshpit, and Map Pack Moshpit.

There were also some stability improvements given to Torque’s barricade, the Mantis scorestreak and damage dealt to Strike Team members.

For a more detailed look at the update see the official release here