Treyarch's design director Dvid Vonderhaar is getting tired of your questions, so for the last time: no, Treyarch is not developing Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for anything other than Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
But, that doesn't mean another developer isn't.
Vonderhaar, Treyarch, and Activision have all made it very clear that Treyarch is only handling development of this year's Call of Duty on current-gen systems on PC. Vonderhaar, who's starting to feel like a broken record, reconfirmed as much on Twitter earlier this week.
@andrewaustin20 I feel like a broken record RN. The only announcement made was that @Treyarch is developing PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
— David Vonderhaar (@DavidVonderhaar) May 21, 2015
What's odd, though, is how Treyarch and Activision are handling the announcement. Rather than just flat out saying Black Ops 3 will only be on current-gen systems and PC, they keep skirting around the question, referring only to the "development" of the game on these systems.
Heck, even on the Black Ops 3 pre-order page, Activision maintains that "actual platform availability and launch date(s) to be determined."
I believe Treyarch isn't developing Black Ops 3 for anything other than current-gen consoles, but Activision's refusal to rule out last-gen systems leads me to believe that the game — in some shape or form — will be released on Xbox 360 and PS3. And like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare before it, development of Black Ops 3's last-gen version will probably be handled by another studio. For those unfamiliar, Sledgehammer Games handled the development of Advanced Warfare for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, while Transformers developer High Moon Studios worked on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.
Activision's refusal to rule out the Xbox 360 and PS3 as platforms coupled with Treyarch's specific phrasing on development strongly suggests that a Call of Duty is coming to Xbox 360 and PS3. Maybe Activision is waiting to announce it at E3. Or maybe these last-gen versions won't arrive on the same day (November 6) as the current-gen versions. Maybe even the heavily speculated Wii U version will be included… Who knows.
Point being, there's something odd going on with Black Ops 3 regarding the Xbox 360, PS3, and even Wii U. As I've stated in the past, it would be crazy for Activision to not bring its most popular franchise to last-gen systems considering the large install base already established. Sure, Xbox One and PS4 sales have been booming, but not bringing your signature title to last-gen systems would be suicide. Surely investors would not be happy about that, and let's be honest, that's what matters most to Activision.
