Black Ops 3s boss explains why COD needs a three year dev cycle now

With most of the studios on the CoD roster working on two-year cycles, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 developer Treyarch is breaking the mould by giving the latest instalment an additional year of development. In the latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, studio head Mark Lamia reveals the longer turnaround has made all the difference.

"Without a three-year cycle, we wouldn't have been able to take the kind of risks that we took on this game, frankly," he says. "We would not have been able to overhaul our entire AI system that supports the kind of engagements in an open-playspace like we have."

Alongside adding new features such as its Terminator-style robots, Lamia explains that extra time was vital to crafting a grander vision for its Black Ops sub-series. "We would not have been able to overhaul our rendering technology to make it as advanced as it is to be able to render the size of the environments or the volume and density of activity and art in it in that amount of time. We wouldn't have been able to overhaul our entire movement system because what goes along with that is a bunch of iteration on map development that took almost a year in and of itself."

With Treyarch openlyshowcasing early builds of Black Ops 3to other CoD studios , this extended development time as enabled the California team to take creative risks. "We wouldn't have gone as... deep as we have in every single area of the game," he adds. "I don't think that could have been done in less time."

The latest issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, with Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 on the cover, is out now. For more info on the latest instalment pick up a copy here or subscribe to future issues.