Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Alongside the full-fledged release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, a PlayStation 3 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops III also came out on November 6, 2015. This wasn't the same game adapted for older hardware, though – this version was developed not by Treyarch but by studio Beenox, and it's a fundamentally different product: it contains no story campaign whatsoever, not even the alternative Nightmares mode that accompanied the campaign in the main version, only multiplayer and the cooperative Zombies mode.

The reason was the performance ceiling of the PlayStation 3 generation, onto which the full game couldn't technically fit while retaining the quality Treyarch was targeting for the new consoles. Activision therefore decided to offer owners of the older generation at least the multiplayer and Zombies portions of the game, adapted to the PS3's lower performance – with a limited number of players per match, simpler graphics, a smaller map selection, and a more limited roster of Specialists compared to the PS4 version.

For players who hadn't yet moved to PlayStation 4 in 2015, this was a compromise solution: they could play multiplayer with the same wall-running movement mechanics as on the new generation, but without any way to play through the game's story. Anyone who wanted to experience the Black Ops III campaign had to get the PS4, Xbox One, or PC version – that option never existed on PS3.

In creating this version, studio Beenox focused solely on the game's online side, so it also offers its own leaderboards and a progression system unlocking weapons and gear independently of how far a player got in the PlayStation 4 version. This is also why part of the community at the time viewed this edition more as a standalone multiplayer title built on Black Ops III's themes rather than a full port of the main game, and reviewers rated it separately from the next-gen release.

Unlike the main version, it also lacked DLC support to the same extent as on PS4 – additional maps for this edition came out in a more limited form and with a certain delay compared to the next-gen platforms, further underscoring that it was a side product intended primarily to keep the player base on the older console.

Why play it: This is more of a niche version for those sticking with the old console - additional maps arrived later and in a more limited form than on PlayStation 4.