I've been holding onto my theory about Black Ops III for a very long time. That being said, I'll explain why:
- I believe that the original idea for 2015's Call of Duty was supposed to be an original title. Based on the screenshot provided and after the challenges, the game could have been called "Dark Ops".
- The main theory was because of the campaign not having anything to do with the previous Black Ops titles at the time. No mention of Woods, Mason, Weaver, Hudson, etc. The events that took place never effected the premise of the story and the entirely of the narrative was completely original.
- My theory is that with the mild backlash against Advanced Warfare, there was a fear that an unfamiliar IP would cause people to lose interest in the series and not turn a profit. In response, Treyarch had to re-label Dark Ops into "Black Ops III". In order to meet the quota, the campaign only mentions Menendez for half a minute during the campaign mission "Rise & Fall", along with ADDA agreement (Allied Drone Defense Act). Otherwise, you could have removed that conversation and it wouldn't do anything against the story.
- There was even the leaks surrounding the original development of BO3 as a new IP separate from the original previous games. The title was planned to be more open world, but it was scrapped. https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/zvhw3y/early_images_of_black_ops_3s_scrapped_open_world/
Oh yeah, Black Ops III was still the worst campaign in the entire series. The only mild silver lining was the music and the "Train Go Boom" meme.