Studio design director David Vonderhaar talks to us about the eSports features and multiplayer infrastructure in place for Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. In particular he discuss the Ban and Protect system, CoDcasting, and Arena play (that replaces league play from Black Ops 2) in depth.
"Call of Duty eSports has seen a lot of good growth over the years," says Vonderhaar. "And we are really big fans of that scene and we want to do things to support it. So this game has done a lot of things to support it..."
Speaking of the ban and protect and the specialist draft that takes place after that, Vonderhaar had this to say:
"There's this whole new strategy and meta layer that's happening. This is all going on before you even play the game."
"Normally in multiplayer if you wanted to be Ruin Overdrive I could also be Ruin Overdrive. In fact our whole team could be Ruin Overdrive if we wanted to be. Now in a public game you're not necessarily playing with people that you know, you're playing with maybe a couple of friends or by yourself. But when you're playing competitively you're usually playing with people that you know. So it's very important for us to make sure that the game has a wide spread so if you pick Ruin Overdrive I cannot eventhough I'm on your team. So there can be two Ruin Overdrives in the game, but they have to be on different teams."
The Ban and Protect system will be highly customisable meaning you'll be able to play the game the way you want to, and for major competitions it also offers some interesting choices when setting up the format.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will see release on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on November 6.
