Battlefield 6's latest free trial kicks off today alongside Season 4's mid-season update, and while that mightn't be especially notable in itself, the timing is moreso: it coincides with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4's highly anticipated, and stuffed, beta.

Modern Warfare 4's first beta session, which was announced in July, kicks off this Friday, 21st August and runs until Tuesday, 25th August. This means there's some overlap with Battlefield 6's newly announced free trial, which starts today and continues until Tuesday, 25th August. So if you're interested in playing both games, there's actually plenty of time to try out Battlefield 6 before jumping into Modern Warfare 4 over the weekend.

Battlefield Studios has, of course, hosted similar free trials to coincide with major Battlefield 6 updates in the past, but Call of Duty and Battlefield also have a history of this kind of counter-programming. Last year, Black Ops 6 held a week-long free trial coinciding with Battlefield 6's release week. A little over one month later, Battlefield 6 returned the favour by going free for a week shortly after the disappointing launch of Black Ops 7. So Battlefield's latest free trial perhaps isn't all that coincidental.

Either way, Battlefield 6's new patch introduces the long-awaited Top Gun collaboration, so it's a pretty solid occasion to open the game up to new players. Both of Season 4's new maps are part of the trial, as is the Carrier Strike game mode featuring plenty of its own Top Gun elements. In fact, seeing as Fighter Sweep - the other Top Gun-branded mode in this update - is already part of Battlefield 6's free-to-play Redsec, the cross-over event's entire package is free as a result.

As for Modern Warfare 4, the first leg of its beta has a stuffed line-up of maps and modes - including a campaign mission, which is a first for a Call of Duty beta. It'll be interesting to see the response to each game.

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