Modern Warfare 2

Many members of the media have been trying to get a hold of Infinity Ward to clarify their decisions regarding the PC port of Modern Warfare 2. Kotaku managed to get the developer's community manager Robert Bowling on the horn but unfortunately he didn't address the issues PC gamers have had with the upcoming shooter directly (no dedicated servers, no word on mod support, etc).

Instead Bowling generalized their decisions regarding the PC version, saying once again they wanted to make the game more accessible to the average player. He dismissed the people who have complained about the changes as a loud minority saying, "We have 14 million players on Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The hardcore gamers make up a smaller core of that, and PC gamers are the smallest group of that core. It is a very vocal community and they are all online."

Bowling also feels that because their community is so highly invested in their games, " . . . we should justify every design decision to them." However he also feels that the developer shouldn't be held to those demands completely, saying, "We know our game very well. Some of the stuff you have to put in there and have faith in your design. Some things don't sound good out of context. You don't see the beauty of them until you experience them for yourselves." When asked if the next Modern Warfare game would even be made for the PC, Bowing dodged the question saying that they don't know what their next game will be.

Looks like the so-called "protest" by a group of gamers against the release of Left 4 Dead 2 had just about zero effect on pre-orders for Valve's zombie shooter sequel. According to Computer and Video Games' Valve's Chet Faliszek stated that pre-orders have come in at "four times" the amount of the original game released just a year ago.

And what about those protesters who feel that releasing Left 4 Dead 2 just over a year after the original would split the community and is simply a way for Valve to get more money? Faliszek states that there will always be someone complaining about something and adds, "Honestly I made the joke and it's true: If you put $20 in a box and charge $10 for it someone would complain you didn't put $50 in a box."

Gallery: Left 4 Dead 2

It looks like other download sites have decided to drawn a line in the sand over the decision by Infinity Ward and Activision to incorporate Steamworks into the PC port of Modern Warfare 2. Direct2Drive has already stated it won't sell the upcoming shooter because it intergrates the Steam features into the game. Now Voodoo Extreme reports that Stardock's Impulse won't sell the game either for the same reasons. Furthermore Kotaku reports that GamersGate has confirmed they won't make Modern Warfare 2 available for sale on their stores for the same reasons.

While we again point out that Steam-supported games have been sold by IGN's Direct2Drive in the past (Empire: Total War and Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II) it looks like they and the other two sites have all put their finger down in this case to protest having Steam be a requirement for purchasing Modern Warfare 2. We have emaield Valve, Infinity Ward and Activision for comment.

During the Q&A session of Activision Blizzard's financial conference call, an investor asked company execs if they have seen any impact on the sales of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 due to the game's lack of dedicated server support. Company execs stated they were watching developments on that front closely but that overall they were not that concerned about the impact of those decisions.

The execs reiterated the arguments that Infinity Ward gave when they first announced their move to create a internally run matchmaking system to handle multiplayer matches in the game. This will result in an upper player match limit of 18 compared to the 32 player (or more) that had previously been the case with Call of Duty games in the past.

Activision Blizzard execs also feel that the PC version could be more accessible to an audience that is not used to the dedicated server system. Ultimately they feel the changes will far out way any negatives that will be made with such a move.

Modern Warfare 2 must feel like everyone is piling on it. From the reveal of some controversial scenes to the lack of dedicated servers for the PC version to a unfortunate release of a PSA, the upcoming shooter from Infinity Ward has not had the best publicity. Now yet another issue has popped up as IGN's Direct2Drive site has openly stated they won't provide the downloadable PC version of the game to download.

In a listing for the game on their site, they state:

At Direct2Drive, we believe strongly that when you buy a game from us, you shouldn't be forced to install and run a 3rd party software client to be able to play the game you purchased. Because COD MW 2 requires you, the consumer, to do that, we aren't able to offer the game via Direct2Drive at this time.

They are clearly calling out the game's use of Valve's Steam service to offer automatic updates, among other things, for Modern Warfare 2 as their reason for their refusal to run the game. Direct2Drive is offering a $5 online coupon code on their site to purchase any other game from Activision until Nov. 30. We do find the arguments suspect since other games on Direct2Drive have installs for Steam (like Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II) and Games For Windows Live.

Publisher Activision Blizzard has released its latest financial results for the quarter that ended on September 30 and as it turns out their revenues came in better than they had previously predicted. For the quarter the company brought in $703 million compared to their predictions of $680 million. However the revenues were still slightly lower than the $711 million that the company recorded for the same time period a year ago. Activision Blizzard recorded a profit of $15 million for the quarter compared to a loss of $105 million for the same period a year ago.

Activision's only new PC game product for their current quarter is, of course, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which the publisher has high hopes that it will be one of the biggest game launches of all time. Their overall game line-up for 2010 includes the release of StarCraft II, World of Warcraft Cataclysm and a new Call of Duty game, among others. We are currently listening in on Activision's conference call to see if they will reveal any more info on their future game launches.

Modern Warfare 2, one of the most anticipated games of the year, will release for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 next week on November 10th. This fast paced trailer give players a glimpse of the many places players will get to visit... and blow up. Locations include a Washington D.C. that comes under attack, an undersea dive mission, what could probably pass for Castle Wolfenstein and the International Space Station, which as you can guess... blows up with you nearby. So, when does this officially become Future Warfare?

Download HD Modern Warfare 2 Launch Trailer (109 MB)
Check out all Modern Warfare 2 downloads

While Infinity Ward continues its cone of silence on the PC dedicated server issue for Modern Warfare 2, its rival developer Digital Illusions continues to (indirectly) hammer on the fact that their upcoming shooter Battlefield Bad Company 2 will support such servers in their March 2010 game. The latest shot across the bow comes on the game's official blog site where they reproduce a fan letter from a gamer who sent in the $60 he would have spent on Modern Warfare 2.

We are not quite sure why DICE continues to not name Infinity Ward or Modern Warfare 2 in these kinds of posts. Indeed they black out any mention of the game or developer in their reproduction of the fan's letter. It's pretty clear they are not talking about the lack of dedicated servers for Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy.

Meanwhile Infinity Ward is still dodging questions about the issue. An online chat sponsored by Best Buy with members of the development team had tons of PC-related questions from fans. However, Infinity Ward members would not comment if dedicated servers might return in a future patch for the game nor would they comment on if mod tools for the PC version would be released. They did confirm that the upper limit for multiplayer games in the PC version will be 18 players, far less than the 32 player support PC owners of previous Call of Duty games are used to.

So how many copies of Modern Warfare 2 will be sold after the first person shooter ship to stores on November 10. In GameTrailers.com's latest Bonus Round roundtable video chat, well know game financial analyst Michael Patcher believes the Infinity Ward-developed game will sell at least 10 million copies this quarter alone.

And that's on the low side. Patcher believes if Activision really goes nuts and moves on a major TV ad campaign, sales could be as high as 14 million copies. As we reported on Sunday, Amazon.com is showing that sales of the PC version of the game are about 8 percent of the total amount of copies of the standard edition. If those numbers are indicative of sales across the board for the PC port it still means the PC version will sell at least in the high six figures in terms of units sold.

The month of October is over and in terms of news, the PC game industry was fairly quiet for the most part. Part of the reason is that we are right in the middle of the holiday season where new game announcements are few but releases are plenty.

Howevee there were some notable news events in the past month. It included the launch of Microsoft's latest OS, the surprise announcement of some PC game ports for two classic console titles and the purchase of a major developer by a major publisher. But which story was the biggest one in October 2009? That's what we are here to decide.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Top 10 PC Game News Stories For October 2009:

People have wondered how much of a audience the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 will have compared to the console versions. Now Amazon.com gives us a bit of a clue with their percentages of the all-time sales of the Standard Edition of Infinity Ward's upcoming first person shooter.

As you can see the PC version is currently selling only 8 percent of the Standard Edition's total sales. The Xbox 360 version is by far the most popular port with 61 percent followed by the PS3 version with a mere 31 percent (the results don't take into account sales of the Hardened Edition and Prestige Edition of the game which is not available for PC owners).

Even though the percentage is low for the PC version, Modern Warfare 2 is still expected to sell millions of copies among all three versions. That means the PC port could sell hundreds of thousands of copies which is very high for any game, PC or not.

This weekend we reported that Infinity Ward has posted up what was supposed to be a humorous video promoting their upcoming shooter Modern Warfare 2. As we mentioned in our post on Saturday, the video itself wasn't an issue but the "sponsor" of the video, mentioned at the end, has an acronym that some have considered to be homophobic.

As expected a number of people have taken offense to the video including freelance journalist Mitchell Dyer who "tweeted" that "it was so poorly handled/executed that it looks derogatory." Infinity Ward's community manager Robert Bowling then responded on his own Twitter account, stating, "I agree. I think the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns. Pulled."

[Via Destructoid]

Oh boy. Here we go again. First, Infinity Ward manages to make lots of hardcore PC gamers upset by not supporting dedicated servers for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2. Then a pretty brutal scene from the upcoming FPS (that has a plot point that we won't go into here) is leaked into the Internet. Now a new promo video for the game on YouTube has a statement that may (or may not) have some homophobic connotations.

The video itself is just a bit of a goof as it shows a virtual version of Philadelphia Phillis pitcher Cole Hamels (a known fan of Infinity Ward's previous games) getting blown up by a hailstorm of grenades. However the "sponsor" that is written out at the end of the video can be taken to be . . . something else when you use the first letter of each word.

Naturally we have emailed Activision and Infinity Ward to find out if that "hidden" message was intentional.

Update: The video has now been pulled from YouTube

Modern Warfare 2 hasn't had the best publicity in the last couple of weeks. First there was the whole issue with Infinity Ward dumping dedicated servers for the upcoming first person shooter. Then there was the reveal of the highly controversial scene in the game (which we won't reveal in this post; head here to read the specifics).

The game was already rated as MA 15+ in Australia and therefore cleared to be sold in that country. However the early reveal of THAT SCENE has caused a media watchdog group in that country to ask the ratings board to reconsider that decision. According to the Sydney Morning Herald web site, Jane Roberts, the president of the Australian Council on Children and the Media, stated her displeasure at THAT SCENE, saying, "We understand that it's a game but ... we're not far off when you look at the images that you could actually put it on a Channel Nine news report and you'd think maybe that is real."

To: The Modern Warfare 2 Team at Infinity Ward

There's been a massive amount of buzz about the upcoming release of Modern Warfare 2. Unfortunately, as you know, not all of it has been good, especially from the PC community. It started out slow but about 12 days ago it reached its peak when your community manager Robert Bowling dropped a bombshell that the PC version would no longer have a dedicated server system for multiplayer. Instead, you guys are creating your own peer-to-peer matchmaking system called IWNet.

Some folks have read a lot into this decision but believe it or not in some respects we think your decisions are good for the PC community. While some hardcore PC gamers may not wish to admit it there are "average" PC gamers, we understand that some people don't want to deal with the hassle of browsing for a low ping server. They just want to jump in a game for some quick multiplayer matches.