The Black Ops 3 multiplayer beta revealed that both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 ran the upcoming installment in the Call of Duty series at 60FPS for a majority of the time. The Xbox One and PS4 version of Black Ops 3 are being developed by Treyarch, with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 being developed by Beenox.
The folks at Beenox have been doing their best with the Xbox 360 and PS3 version, but have had to make some sacrifices – the game's campaign being one. Apparently, Treyarch's ambitious vision for the Black Ops 3 campaign could not effectively run on the older consoles, so it was cut.
There's something else that has had to take a back seat in the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of Black Ops 3, the framrate. Unfortunately, the last-gen consoles cannot hit the 60FPS mark that the Xbox One and PS4 version can, which means that the Xbox 360 and PS3 version is looking at 30FPS.
“I’d say that we tried to hit that target [60fps]," said Beenox creative director Thomas Wilson to Develop. "It becomes harder when you’re working on current gen platforms. We’re basically looking more at something like 30fps. But still, the experience is very enjoyable, otherwise it’s not Call of Duty.”
Beenox has been careful not to make Treyarch and players feel as though they have been limited by the power last-gen consoles. In order to keep anyone from feeling limited, they have been slowly reducing the aspects of Black Ops 3, doing their best to keep the game intact.
“What we do is we basically, step by step, reduce the polycounts on each asset, reduce the amount of memory that each effects will take, and then eventually we make sure that we maintain that core experience intact," said Wilson.
“The challenge really is to make that fit in memory, make sure that the experience is good and that you have a great frame rate. So there’s always a big challenge in doing that because of course the main developer will try to make the most kick-ass new-gen game possible. We don’t want them to think about constraints, we want them to go out there and have fun.”
The game may be 'totally viable' on older consoles, but releasing a game without the campaign and capped FPS doesn't leave you feeling like its as viable as they want. What is frightening is that if Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is struggling with keeping the Xbox 360 and PS3 version on par with the Xbox One and PS4 version, what does this mean for every other game that develops for both generations?
