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Treyarch Studio Head Mark Lamia walked onto the stage today at the Sony Press Conference to announce a bold move for his Activision-owned studio: the series would be giving Sony timed-exclusive content. Of course, he's specifically referring to upcoming content from Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, a game which is set to release this November across all consoles. Behind him, the screens portrayed the world's first glimpse into the in-game multiplayer of Black Ops 3and things looked good - real good.

The aforementioned trailer - which gamers can watch above - shows a futuristic setting with plenty of jump-based traversal, throwing knife actions, and even a very unlikely triple-kill with a single bullet. In any event, the hype-building trailer shows plenty of polished gameplay, and it seems like it was a good decision after all to switch the series to a 3 year development cycle.

The exclusivity announcement marks the end of a multi-year partnership between Activision and Microsoft, which previously saw content going Microsoft's way first. Now the tables are reversed, and Sony fans will enjoy enjoy early access to both downloadable content and early beta access. The exact terms of the agreement weren't explained in depth, so it's currently unknown how long Activision has signed-on for in regards to the partnership. In any event, it's sure to garner some controversy, since Xbox fans are likely accustomed to receiving their Call of Duty content before PlayStation users.

Black Ops 3 Sony Exclusive

As the multiplayer trailer revealed, gamers who pre-order the game now will have access to the upcoming multiplayer beta. According to Sony's President and Group CEO Andrew House, PlayStation gamers will be able to access this beta in August, gaining early access before Xbox-based players - though how much earlier this access actually is has yet to be confirmed.

The first piece of downloadable content being made available to PlayStation users first will be a map pack, though Treyarch has yet to officially provide details on the DLC. We'll post more information about this map pack as details are revealed.

The initial trailer for Black Ops 3 came out two months ago, and seemed to imply that the third iteration of the series would once again continue the story of Alex Mason and his son, David. Details about the game's campaign have been scarce, but if any time is good for more information to come out, it's probably this week at E3.

What do you think about the timed exclusive partnership, Ranters?

Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 will launch November 6th, 2015 for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

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