Although some of us got the good news that the PC version of the popular franchise would not be delayed, Infinity Ward made it hurt once again by stating that there would not be any support for dedicated servers in the game. The game will use Infinity Wards server technology, “IWNet”, which doesn’t allow users to host their own servers.
Player hosted servers are quite popular among the PC FPS crowd, often visiting servers that their friends are on instead of using the auto matchmaking features that the console users are accustomed to. The ability to host servers also allows for the hosts to run various mods and special game mods, which gave the PC an edge for players looking for a custom experience.
We’ll see how this bombshell will effect the sales of the game for console vs. PC and if there is any outcry from the PC faithful.
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October 18, 2009 at 7:16 pm
This is a rather tough pill to swallow. It’s a big middle finger to fans who preferred to run their own servers, and especially to clans. It, in most aspects, defeats the purpose of even developing and trying to sell the game for PC’s. That’s the only reason why anyone would buy it for the PC if they own an Xbox 360, so that they can play with mods and run servers with their friends.
It does, however, prevent people from illegally downloading the game and running it through private servers via third party software like Hamachi. That’s a good move on the developer’s part considering it ensures an actual purchase. It seems a bit…Microsoft-y though.
October 18, 2009 at 7:22 pm
As someone who has been playing the Call of Duty series competitively for a number of years, this is quite a blow. Every CoD iteration has needed a least a few tweaks in order to make it competition ready. Does IW really care about the competitive crowd? Not really. Well, I take that back: they like the competitive console players. This is another move to mainstream PC games and kill off the customization we’ve grown accustomed to.
A lot of us live or die by how we ping to a server. Where a server is located makes a huge difference. I will not play on a California server, as it leaves me at a huge disadvantage to those on the West Coast. I really doubt IW’s fancy-but-likely-to-underperform networking technology will do much good when the server decides to make some moron running a 128/k DSL line out of San Diego the server host.
Sigh.
October 18, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Just as an aside, this reminds me of when I bought Deus Ex 2 for the PC. The UI was awful and clearly designed for a console. The levels were small and compact, obviously designed to lessen the stress of loading times on a console. What a waste of a game.
October 18, 2009 at 7:51 pm
I remember that. That annoying waste of programming made me so angry when compared to the original.
October 19, 2009 at 7:30 am
The only reason I can think, gameplay wise, for them to do this is host migration. That’s one of the big features for consoles and I’m guessing they decided after all that time and effort to get it working, they might as well throw it onto PCs as well.
October 25, 2009 at 1:15 pm
This is ridiculus..they just do this so if new maps come out you have to buy them..Like with xbox and so on..I love the COD series..have played the complete series..I preordered cod MW2.. but gues what..I canceled it..just to make a statement..I dont want to play on a frigging userserver made by a producer just so i have to pay for new features or maps..They try to milk the cow..but the cow is dry..hahahahaha..No way im gonna buy that game..no more..if ya preordered it..Cancel the order…just to show them, dont mess with the people who made the game this big..first there was only the pc version and later the console came..so read this Invinity aka Activision..give us dedicated servers..Ohhh and what if their server fails? ya cant play, or you lose all your items, and so on? no way.. let me store it on my pc..numnutz…