The game is being developed by Treyarch which, along with Black Ops, has also worked on Call of Duty: World at War. Activision will be publishing.

Running on a “heavily modified” build of the Black Ops II engine, the game is currently being developed exclusively for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are still unconfirmed and Activision has at least hinted that a Wii U version could be in development.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III is currently slated to release on November 6th 2015.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

The official announcement and reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops III was accomplished by way of a social media driven advertising campaign that quickly went viral and was the fascination of the Call of Duty market for some time. In the multiplayer portion of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, a series of images started to appear scattered throughout the stages.

The images came tagged with QR code for the social media image and video sharing app, SnapChat. These were added into the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 builds of the game, but didn’t make it into the PC build.

Scanning the code would see the Call of Duty SnapChat account being added to your friend list which then would allow you access to a brief video which was quickly, and correctly, assumed to be a teaser for Black Ops III.

Following these teaser “Snaps”, the first official reveal trailer for the game came on April 26th of 2015. Following this teaser/reveal trailer, more gameplay information came to light. This included the return of the much loved Zombies mode.

Also confirmed was early Beta access for gamers if they went out and pre-ordered the game for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, at this time PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U builds haven’t been confirmed.

The Black Ops series has been confirmed to be the most played game in the Call of Duty series history. Speaking about this at a Q1 earnings call for 2015, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg has said, “Nearly 100 million players have played Black Ops and Black Ops 2, making Black Ops the most played series in Call of Duty history.”

In regards to supported frame rates and resolutions, it has been confirmed that the PlayStation 4 build will run at 60fps at 1080p, the PC build can scale to 4K at 60fps (not confirmed to be uncapped) and the Xbox One build is yet to have its final resolution and frame rate disclosed.

Also confirmed to be returning to the game is the option to play as a female character. Speaking about this, Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia has said, “It’s not just a female head on a male body. It’s a different set of animations for the entire game.”

Story

Being a sequel to Black Ops II, this game is set in the same continuity and takes place some forty years after the events of Black Ops II. You’ll still be in control of a team of Black Ops soldiers as with previous games.

During this time both the scientific and technological frontiers have moved forward at an alarming pace, resulting in unprecedented growth in their respective industries.

As these technological advances carry over into the world, the human populace start to integrate robotics into their lives. This inherently was given military applications, thus bringing the super-soldier into being. All this unprecedented growth brings people to speculate about the possibility of an impending robot uprising.

Gameplay

At its core, the gameplay of Call of Duty: Black Ops III is the same as previous entries into the Call of Duty franchise, meaning that it’s still a first person shooter with customisable weapon load-outs and classes in multiplayer.

That being said, there are a number of new features that will alter how players move and shoot in the game alongside some returning features.

The game is going to feature an all new movement mechanic that has been described as being a “momentum-based chained-movement system,” which would most likely be similar to that which is found in Titanfall thanks to the inclusion of boosted jumps, assisted sliding and mantling (ledge climbing) whilst remaining in control of your weapon.

Also included in the multiplayer suite, which is the most popular portion of any modern Call of Duty game, is a new class system that refers to characters as Specialists. This Specialist upgrade system will allow players to highly customize and tailor their personal characters to their liking. It also offers weapon and character XP, and branching upgrade paths. This is likely put in place to help make characters and players feel more unique and suited to individual players tastes. This is likely going to be coupled with the Gunsmith and Camouflage Designer features.

The now popular Zombies mode will be returning in Black Ops III but in its own dedicated narrative that is separate from the main story campaign. Call of Duty: Black Ops III will also be the first game in the series to support four player co-op for its story campaign.

Characters

At this time, a character roster hasn’t been revealed for Call of Duty: Black Ops III.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Treyarch’s fist ever Call of Duty game for new generation devices has been confirmed to be Call of Duty: Black Ops III, continuing the most successful Call of Duty sub-series forward, and bringing it into the current generation. The game was confirmed with a short announcement teaser video today, which you can check out above.

It also appears that this game will take place in the far future- Black Ops was in the Cold War era, Black Ops II was in the near future. Black Ops III will take place in a ‘twisted version’ of the future, which means Exo Suits will also be returning.

We know all this because while Activision themselves said little, saving most of it for the official April 26th reveal of the game, an enterprising Twitter user who goes by the name of @ThaTiemsz has managed to dredge up the following official description of the game from the Call of Duty website:

“Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is the first title for next-gen hardware in the critically acclaimed Black Ops series. Developed by Treyarch, the award-winning creator of the two most played games in Call of Duty history. Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 deploys players into a dark, twisted future where a new breed of Black Ops soldiers emerges and the lines are blurred between our own humanity and the technology we created to stay ahead, in a world where cutting-edge military robotics define warfare. With three unique game modes: Campaign, Multiplayer, and Zombies, it providing fans with the deepest and most ambitious Call of Duty ever.”

So, yes, that sounds pretty hype worthy. Plus, Treyarch is making it, and Treyarch Call of Duty games are always the very best. So personally, I can’t wait to see what this game is all about.