CoD: Black Ops III To Receive Modding And Map Tools

Call of Duty: Black Ops III [official site] looks just about weird enough to be interesting. Whether it's Jeff Goldblum's zombie-splatting magician, the introduction of full-on Chaos powers or the general rocket-powered leap into a robo-soldier sci-fi future, BLOPS the Third does not appear to be constrained by reason. Of course, it may still be restrained by corridors but on the server and modding side we can expect some freedom. Treyarch have announced that modding and map-making will be coming to the game sometime next year.

Here's what we can expect and when:

We’ve been listening to one of your top requests and are excited to announce that modding and mapping are coming to Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 PC!

We’ve still got a lot of work left to do, but here’s our current plan:

You will be able to create Maps & Game Modes and more!

We will include Unranked Dedicated Server Files with the tools so you can run servers with modded content anywhere you choose.

We will provide an Unranked Server Browser so you can easily find and join servers with modded content.

Closed Alpha target date: March 2016

The game itself is out on Friday so if you're not interested in playing until all of these treats are in place, it might be worth hanging back until March 2016. BLOPS isn't going anywhere. It'll be waiting, and so will Goldblum. He's been trapped inside the game for all time, like an insect in amber.

There's a disclaimer, of course.

Please remember that this is software development, so things don’t always work out exactly as planned. Sometimes features slip or drop off altogether, sometimes they get replaced with other, more awesome features as we hit into limitations of our original plans.

If all of this comes to pass, I'm hoping a combination of user-created game modes and mapping tools will allow me to enjoy CoD multiplayer for the first time since World War II. I want to go full robot. I want to free Goldblum from the zombie mode and drop him in the middle of a robo-war. Until more details emerge - and Treyarch's Cesar Stastny reckons there will be periodic blog updates - I'm going to assume that whatever tools are eventually available will be extremely limited. It'd be fantastic to be pleasantly surprised and, like the chaotic sci-fi weaponry itself, this is hopefully a step in the right direction.

Oh, and feast yer eyes on this:

Watch on YouTube

Because I am apparently the oldest man in the world, I didn't realise Cara was a famous person. And when I found out that she is a famous person, I assumed that Kevin was a famous person as well. I've spent the last five minutes trying to work out who he is:

Kevin Bacon

Kevin Keegan? Is this likely? Haven't seen him recently

Kevin Costner (possible)

Kevin and Perry (that's two people)

Kevin Smith

Kevin Sorbo (is playing one of the robots, so no)

Kevin Federline (not rapping enough)

Kevin Spacey (almost certainly)