‘Call of Duty: Black Ops III’ Is Getting a Pricey Zombies Pack

Wait, which Call of Duty are talking about again? Didn’t Activision just announce Call of Duty: WWII? (They did.) And what’s this about World at War? If game years are like dog years, isn’t that thing practically dinosaurian?

Yes but no. Call of Duty: Black Ops III, which arrived in November 2015, is apparently doing enough business that Activision’s going to release another surplus of downloadable content. In this case, it’ll be a jumbo-sized gathering and remastering of eight zombie maps from World at War (2008), Black Ops (2010), Black Ops II (2012). It’s called Call of Duty: Black Ops III Zombies Chronicles, will siphon $30 from your coffers, and be available early to PlayStation 4 buyers on May 16. I’m not seeing release dates for other platforms at this time.

World at War is where this whole “Nazi zombies a la carte” business started. In fact that’s what it was called back then, just “Nazi Zombies.” It was so smartly done, that taken along with its multiplayer modes, you could almost overlook World at War‘s mediocre story and campaign…sort of like last year’s Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare.

For Call of Duty wonks, of which given annual franchise sales there are presumptively many, here are the eight maps specifically:

If you hop in between May 16 and 23, you can earn double XP and other rewards as part of an “8 Days of the Undead” promotional shtick. That counts both for those playing Black Ops III itself on any platform as well as Zombies Chronicles early on PlayStation 4, says Activision.

All of which seems destined to keep Black Ops III alive and kicking. And so I’ll just leave you to mull over that Zombies Chronicles story trailer, flush with high-definition flyovers of things that are quite dead and kicking.