Sony, Microsoft publishing Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 in Japan

By Danny Cowan Published August 18, 2015

Sony’s Japanese branch confirmed that it will publish Treyarch’s military-themed first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 for the PlayStation 4 and PS3 in Japan, taking over regional publishing duties from Activision.

Rival console manufacturer Microsoft followed up with its own announcement that it will publish the Japanese Xbox One and Xbox 360 editions of Black Ops 3.

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Publisher Square Enix was previously in charge of producing localized Call of Duty games in Japan. The company started publishing Activision’s series in Japan with 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and the partnership continued up until the release of last year’s Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.

This week’s announcements arrive shortly after Sony revealed that it had secured timed exclusivity for Call of Duty series DLC, ending Microsoft’s yearslong agreement that saw DLC released for Xbox consoles first. All DLC released for Black Ops 3 will now hit the PlayStation 4 and PS3 first, with equivalent Xbox 360 and Xbox One releases arriving a month later.

Sony previously partnered with Activision for the Japanese release of Bungie’s first-person shooter Destiny. Published by Sony, the Japanese versions of Destiny are exclusive to PlayStation platforms in the region.

Square Enix initially split its Japan-region Call of Duty releases between subtitled editions and versions featuring Japanese-dubbed dialogue. The company later opted to release its games with subtitling exclusively. Sony revealed that the upcoming PlayStation 4 and PS3 editions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will feature both subtitled and dubbed dialogue on the same disc.

Continuing the popular Black Ops subseries, Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 features a single-player campaign and numerous multiplayer modes, along with a retooled zombie mode with voice acting from Jeff Goldblum, Heather Graham, and Ron Perlman.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will premiere worldwide on Nov. 6. A preorder exclusive multiplayer beta will launch on August 19, and will continue through August 23.

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