Call of Duty: Black Ops III

Just as on PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Black Ops III was released on November 6, 2015, again as a separate title developed by Beenox instead of Treyarch. This version for the older console generation does not include the story campaign or the follow-up Nightmares mode - it offers only multiplayer and the cooperative Zombies mode, adapted to the Xbox 360's lower performance.

Multiplayer does retain the basic movement elements that newly defined the series in 2015, namely wall running and double jumps, but runs with fewer players per match, simpler graphics, a smaller map selection, and a more limited set of playable Specialists than on Xbox One or PC. The Zombies mode offers its own simplified set of levels, different from the full version for the new console generation.

For Xbox 360 owners who had not yet moved to Xbox One in 2015, it was a way to at least partially play the current series installment without having to invest in a new console. This version never offered the complete experience including the campaign, however, and players who wanted to know the full story of the game had to turn to the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, or PC release.

In creating this version, Beenox focused exclusively on the game's networked side, so it also offers its own leaderboards and a progression system unlocking weapons and equipment independent of how far the player got in the Xbox One 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 motifs than as 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 Xbox One - additional maps for this edition came out in a more limited form and with some delay compared to the next-gen platforms, further underscoring that this was a side product intended primarily to keep the player base on the older console engaged.

Why play it: For Xbox 360 owners who wanted to keep following the series even after the shift to the new generation, this is a side product with a more limited and delayed DLC offering compared to Xbox One.