Does A Campaign Free Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 For The PS3 And Xbox 360 Mark A Change In How Developers Will Deal With Past Generation Gamers?

The inevitable march of progress can be a difficult thing for many people as throughout modern history, the introduction of a newer and better technologies have forced some consumers to move away from trusted and beloved devices in an effort to keep up or to have desired features.

Never has this case been more apparent than with the release of a new console. Those who can afford and find a new system eagerly obtain it and look forward to all of the new games that will be coming for it along with all the new and shiny features offered by a new system.

For those who are unable to update their system, they are often left hoping they will not be left behind by game developers until they can afford to make the leap to a new system.
Microsoft and Sony have had the good fortune to have many of their third party titles as well as exclusives supported for their older systems in many cases up to two years after the launch of a new system which for many is fair as it allows users to upgrade and developers a window to fully take advantage of what the new systems have to offer.

This year however has been a challenging one for those still using their Playstation3 and/or Xbox 360 systems as their primary form of gaming.
Many fans looked forward to the pending release of Dying Light only to be told that well into production; they would not be getting the game as the limitations of the past generation systems did not allow developers to portray the game without drastically compromising their vision.

Warner Bros followed suit later on by announcing that Mortal Kombat X would also be skipping the past generation as the technology of the older systems did not allow them to fully display their vision for the game.

This in turn brings us to Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, the pending chapter in what has become the best-selling game franchise in the world.

Activision knows there is a very large base of PS3 and Xbox 360 gamers out there and have in the past offered free upgrades to the new systems for those who purchased past games such as Call of Duty: Ghosts for their older systems.

Treyarch has announced that Black Ops 3 will indeed come for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 systems but will not feature the solo campaigns that will be a core part of the PC, Xbox One, and PS4 system. Their explanation was that since the game offers the option to have 4 players co-op the solo campaign, it would not be possible to do this on the older systems and rather than make the campaign a solo player experience, they opted to leave players the Multiplayer so they can enjoy what for many is the core part of any new Call of Duty game.

It will be interesting to see if the 2016 Call of Duty release will support any of the past systems, my guess is approaching three years after the launch of the new consoles, they may simply move on but strong sales of the past generation versions may cause a delay in this plan.

My question to you is this, should game producers be willing to offer scaled down versions of their games so those who have not been able to upgrade yet can still play the new games, or should gamers accept that if you want to play the new titles, then you will be forced to upgrade? It is a slippery slope as let us not forget how games like Star Wars: the Force Unleashed had to drop a segment from the Wii version in order to work on that system.

As a gamer would you be willing to accept a game that is likely going to be full priced that has features missing that are common in other versions, and I do not mean better graphics and framerates?

For now, progress marches on and we will have to wait and see how the campaign free Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is embraced by owners of the last generation gaming systems, but you can bet, the industry will be watching.