'Call of Duty: Black Ops 2' multiplayer gets public debut at Gamescom

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be playable by the public at Gamescom in Cologne next week, nearly three months in advance of its November 13th release date, Activision announced today.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be playable by the public at Gamescom in Cologne next week, nearly three months in advance of its November 13th release date, Activision announced today.

Activision and developer Treyarch will host Black Ops 2 multiplayer action at the game's booth, A21/B30-A31/B30 in Hall 6, on Xbox 360 consoles. The publisher's partnership with Microsoft runs deeper than that: Microsoft is making an event out of the multiplayer premiere, livestreaming it on Xbox Live throughout North America and Europe.

Coverage hosted by Major Nelson and AceyBongos will be broadcast daily on the service, beginning at 12 p.m. ET on August 15th, and the premiere will be archived for on-demand access. The stream will also be available online at the Xbox site in Europe, the Call of Duty homepage, the Black Ops 2 Facebook page, and Treyarch's TwitchTV channel. After the multiplayer premiere on August 15th, the Black Ops 2 booth will welcome fans from August 16th-19th, when Gamescom is open to the public.

Fans in attendance at Gamescom will undoubtedly have to deal with huge crowds and long lines if they want to get their hands on Black Ops 2. Audio equipment manufacturer Turtle Beach will be on hand to help out: the company's booth — C10 in Hall 6.1 — includes its own tournament area, and Call of Duty players can compete there for VIP passes that will let them skip the line at the Black Ops 2 booth.

Until the show begins next week, you can watch the first Black Ops 2 multiplayer trailer below.