Treyarch explains why last-gen COD ditched its campaign

While Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 expands with its biggest Zombies mode yet and a raft of rewards for veteran players, it's also slimming down to fit the limitations of older consoles. Fans were, unsurprisingly, pretty miffed when they learned the last-gen versions of Black Ops 3 would drop the campaign, but in the latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine campaign director Jason Blundell explains it was better to omit the story mode entirely than offer a paired down version.

"Let’s just take a simple system, a really simple one – the weapon that you have," explains Blundell. "So it’s a co-op game. let’s imagine I have my customised weapon and I’ve made it with a stock and all this extended mag and so forth. For you as a co-op player to see what weapon I have, you have to have loaded in the memory – in resident memory – every single weapon customisation. Current-gen memory just can’t do that. You’d have to have everything loaded otherwise you just can’t see what I’m carrying. You know you could simplify things down, but I think [Activision] made the right choice because I would hate for people to get an experience that wasn’t true to the vision of it. As the director I’m incredibly passionate about the experience being a pure experience, that you get what I was trying to have you get.

The latest issue of Official Xbox Magazine, with Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 on the cover, is out now. Download it here or subscribe to future issues.