As the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 era gives way to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, support for the former has begun to dwindle away, most recently with Activision's decision to drop campaign mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops III for last generation consoles.
In an interview with Gamespot, producer Jason Blundell discusses his support for the decision, saying that it is his job to "push the current gen consoles" as far as he can, adding:
"When I heard that an old-gen version was going to be made outside of Treyarch, and found out the things that would have to be cut in order for it to work, I was fully behind Activision's decision to remove it."
He goes on to say that despite popular misperceptions of waning demand for story based modes, campaign mode in Call of Duty is still an experience players want:
"This was an active topic at Treyarch, until our numbers showed us that, regardless of what you read on forums, players spend a good amount of time in all modes."
"I'll say this, and this is my personal view, the death of storytelling and the death of campaign is the death of society. As a medium, we have to tell stories. For Black Ops, it's absolutely essential to continue the art of storytelling."
Activision has said that the campaign mode was cut from Call of Duty: Black Ops III because the multiplayer experience was simply too "ambitious" (read: hardware intensive) to be accommodated on last generation consoles. It is in development with Beenox and Mercenary Technology, as opposed to the game's main developer Treyarch. The game launches across all platforms on November 6.
