MW2: No Dedicated Servers, No Mods


Recommended Posts

If true, woah :|

Hard to ever verify claims like that though.

Indeed. I'm having a hard enough time believing it myself.

Still though, if true, it's good to see people are speaking with their dollar. Last thing we should be doing is reaching for the astroglide...

It's never too late for IW to go back on this "change" either, so if sales really do suck, they always have the option of fixing it. Though, I'm more willing to believe they'll just claim piracy did it, and stop releasing for PC.

Indeed. I'm having a hard enough time believing it myself.

Still though, if true, it's good to see people are speaking with their dollar. Last thing we should be doing is reaching for the astroglide...

It's never too late for IW to go back on this "change" either, so if sales really do suck, they always have the option of fixing it. Though, I'm more willing to believe they'll just claim piracy did it, and stop releasing for PC.

If anyone deserves their game pirated, its Infinity Ward with MW2 now after this news came out to the light.

They'll end up blaming piracy anyways.

Netcode hasn't changed that much. And why would physics be calculated on the server anyway?

You just need to make sure every client is in sync, everything else is done on the client. All clients do the same processing in the same way. I'm not gonna jump any higher on my machine than in yours. All that is transfered is a status snapshot, everyone syncs, game moves on. Not exactly a bandwidth hog. Like has been said before, what matters is having a low rtt.

It makes more sense. One problem with older games is that because they don't calculate it on the server, some player movements can actually be pretty erratic which can seriously spoil the general gaming experience

but isnt that Activision's decision about the servers and mods, not IW's ?

There seems to be conflicting views on that online. In any case, fourzerotwo was the one who was given the task of breaking the news, so he's become the conduit between management and the angry CoD fanbase. But it'll come down to IW to put it back in (at a push I guess they could issue a Day 1 patch restoring at least the dedicated server).

If those figures are true and cancellations are that high then it's a significant event in the general decline of PC gaming as a whole. Poor quality ports have been angering PC gamers for long enough and this looks like it may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. A week ago, MW2 on PC was a juggernaut that couldn't be stopped. I'm sure it played some part in other titles deciding to push release dates back into Q1 2010. In the space of just a few days it's now looking like it could be dead on arrival. That's a hell of a swing. Maybe now developers and publishers will stand up and take notice and start treating PC gamers as customers again and not assuming they'll take any old crap that's dished out to them.

So for us pc'ers though, our top FPS this year is cod4 and l4d right? lol. I'm not purchasing l4d2 at 50 bucks again, since l4d was supposed to be a game that would keep on giving.... and cod42 was supposed to be awesomeness in a box, instead of the total opposite we have been told.

PCers need to stick up for their $. We put a lot of effort to be able to play their games into our rigs, and for them to constantly deliver crap and think we should pay up for it is just insane. There is a reason people pirate, and they have given it to us countless times.

We put a lot of effort to be able to play their games into our rigs, and for them to constantly deliver crap and think we should pay up for it is just insane. There is a reason people pirate, and they have given it to us countless times.

Please... if games are crap don't play them. It's not a reason to pirate.

There is a reason people pirate, and they have given it to us countless times.

Right, You can't justify piracy like this. If you can't afford a game you save up and buy it. If you think it's not worth the money, you don't buy it or you wait for the price to drop. You either want the product or you don't want it.

Right, You can't justify piracy like this. If you can't afford a game you save up and buy it. If you think it's not worth the money, you don't buy it or you wait for the price to drop. You either want the product or you don't want it.

It's not about affording a game, its about the principle behind what they implement in the game. The game most likely wont be crap either, but what they have put into it, or left out, will make it less than what it should be. They know the playing field they are going into. PC'ers, just like consolers, can pirate any game really. What sales games is replay, how the company treats their customer, and what is offered. When a company does not offer what they should, people can turn somewhere else. When you know what your getting into, you can't cry fowl when you do something wrong and it doesn't go your way. There is no other way to show them what we want or mean besides pirating it. If no one buys it, they think no one wanted it. If we pirate it, they will see we wanted it, but hopefully as well see where they went wrong with the customers. Don't like it dont play it works, but I also like my rule, "I like it, but it's not worth what you want, and this guy has it for a better offer."

Infinity War Has Made An Official Response

Predictably, nerds across world took to the Internet with a wailing and a gnashing of teeth that would make the Left 4 Dead community proud. An online petition to bring back dedicated servers at the time of this writing stands at 100,000+ signatures. However -- and this may shock some gamers with advanced persecution complexes -- this move was not made to tweak the noses of the PC community. Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella explain the decision as a conscious effort to improve their game for the vast majority of their players.

"We're just prioritizing the player experience above the modders and the tuners," says West. He points toward the mounting feedback IW has received from PC fans of Modern Warfare who couldn't find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters, the insular communities, and huge skill level disparities that the original game's community fractured into. "We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game," he laughs.

IW says that gameplay concerns for the majority of MW2 players are the overriding reasons for the decision. Zampella downplays the obvious piracy prevention angle (IW has cited numbers of people online playing illegal copies of Modern Warfare up to 60 percent). "The Steam stuff helps with the piracy. I don't know that the matchmaking stuff does," he notes. West takes a shot at the motives behind some of the outrage, noting that there's money to made by selling dedicates servers and adspace on them: "It's a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook."

Again and again during our conversation, West and Zampella hammer the point that hardcore PC players lose very little to this change relative to the returns that casual to moderate fans will see. Clans can set up private matches to do their training or what have you; all they lose is the ability to customize the game on a deeper level with mods and such. Infinity Ward sees the addition of solid matchmaking and community support like IW-run tournaments to the PC as a huge win, and not something that could be done under the old system.

Why not have both? West does not want to include dedicated servers alongside the custom-built backend, stating that it would just "bifurcate the community."

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/200...r-response.aspx

I bolded out the parts I thought were most interesting.

Infinity Ward Responds To PC Fanboys' Dedicated Server Woes

Modern Warfare fansite bashandslash.com recently reported that Infinity Ward is removing dedicated server functionality from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. With dedicated servers and the server browser that comes with them replaced with custom-built matchmaking, PC gamers will have an online experience functionally identical to console players. Among other things, this means that clans can't run their own servers with their own mods and rulesets for their own private (or public, if they feel like crushing some scrubs for giggles) use.

Predictably, nerds across world took to the Internet with a wailing and a gnashing of teeth that would make the Left 4 Dead community proud. An online petition to bring back dedicated servers at the time of this writing stands at 100,000+ signatures. However -- and this may shock some gamers with advanced persecution complexes -- this move was not made to tweak the noses of the PC community. Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella explain the decision as a conscious effort to improve their game for the vast majority of their players.

"We're just prioritizing the player experience above the modders and the tuners," says West. He points toward the mounting feedback IW has received from PC fans of Modern Warfare who couldn't find a decent server to play on between all of the cheaters, the insular communities, and huge skill level disparities that the original game's community fractured into. "We thought maybe it would be cool if the fans could play the game," he laughs.

IW says that gameplay concerns for the majority of MW2 players are the overriding reasons for the decision. Zampella downplays the obvious piracy prevention angle (IW has cited numbers of people online playing illegal copies of Modern Warfare up to 60 percent). "The Steam stuff helps with the piracy. I don't know that the matchmaking stuff does," he notes. West takes a shot at the motives behind some of the outrage, noting that there's money to made by selling dedicates servers and adspace on them: "It's a little dubious. Some of the people complaining are complaining with their pocketbook."

Again and again during our conversation, West and Zampella hammer the point that hardcore PC players lose very little to this change relative to the returns that casual to moderate fans will see. Clans can set up private matches to do their training or what have you; all they lose is the ability to customize the game on a deeper level with mods and such. Infinity Ward sees the addition of solid matchmaking and community support like IW-run tournaments to the PC as a huge win, and not something that could be done under the old system.

Why not have both? West does not want to include dedicated servers alongside the custom-built backend, stating that it would just "bifurcate the community."

"PC Fanboys"?

"Predictably, nerds across world took to the Internet with a wailing and a gnashing of teeth that would make the Left 4 Dead community proud. An online petition to bring back dedicated servers at the time of this writing stands at 100,000+ signatures. However -- and this may shock some gamers with advanced persecution complexes -- this move was not made to tweak the noses of the PC community."

What a ****ing tosser. Adam, I hope you never get a job else where.

Edit: forgot the link - http://bit.ly/48mD3N

Edited by Spookie

so lets dumb it down for the downs syndrome kids to play.... why do we always have to dumb stuff down to get a larger user base.... why can't we set the bar a little higher, and have people actually show some intelligence in something they do, no matter how mundane or useless it really is.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Samsung is shutting down yet another app used by millions by David Uzondu Samsung has announced that it is shutting down Samsung Max, its VPN service used by more than 50 million people, effective today. Samsung Max VPN, if you don't know, was an Android app born on February 23, 2018, out of the ashes of Opera Max, a very popular data-saving VPN that Opera had discontinued the previous year. Samsung bought the discontinued service, rebranded it, and added a native Samsung UI to fit the Galaxy ecosystem. The app could do things like compress images, help you manage background data on a per-app basis, reduce video data consumption, shrink music files, optimize webpages, block advertisement trackers in incognito mode, and encrypt your internet traffic on public Wi-Fi networks. Image via SammyGuru If you open the app now, you'd be greeted by a shutdown banner warning that all VPN, data saving, and privacy services stopped functioning on June 15, 2026. The creators failed to provide a reason for the shutdown, instead publishing a farewell note that read: "Thank you for being with us over the years. Your support and activity truly meant a lot to us and helped shape this app into what it became." This same message appears on the Google Play Store listing for the app as well. Max VPN is the latest service from Samsung to join the list of discontinued applications from the company. Just two months ago, the Korean tech giant announced that it is completely shutting down Samsung Messages, forcing millions of users to migrate to Google Messages by next month. The only devices that the shutdown won't affect are older smartphones running Android 11 or lower. Some of the features of Google Messages that Samsung hopes will entice users include AI-powered scam detection to block suspicious links, integrated Gemini AI tools to generate quick replies, custom chat bubbles, and universal RCS compatibility for sharing high-quality media with iOS users. The platform also offers seamless syncing across tablets and smartwatches. In addition to that, users gain access to message scheduling, smart classification, and automated category sorting. Via: SammyGuru
    • 1. Define "better". 2. It's still more expensive than equivalent PCs so... And there is not one Windows platform. This is the mistake ALL Apple oriented people make. Apple is one OEM. You could reasonably compare them to one PC OEM, say Dell or HP. But you can't compare them to ALL PC OEMs. Case in point, Apple has NO touch screen MacBooks. No tablet Macs. There are no rugged Macs. The variety of PC OEM design is insane. With Apple, you have... Apple. The problem is that you're starting with Apple as the definition of "good" then filtering out anything that isn't close to an existing Apple product, then trying to homogenise all of those left into a fictional product line and then ignore any innovations to create a minimal feature subset so you can say "See! Apple better!" PS: I was an Apple dev for 17 years and helped develop MacInTalk and disability solutions for Apple, and worked on Microsoft Office for MacOS - and I have several Macs and MacBooks - so tread very carefully.
    • Major Xbox layoffs may claim South of Midnight developer Compulsion entirely by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Microsoft has been making major changes in its gaming wing Xbox for a few months now, including the appointment of a new CEO, a large number of leadership changes, and strategy shifts. However, the company is seemingly also looking at initiating a major layoffs wave at Xbox and perhaps even a studio closure. The new report lands from Kotaku, Xbox first-party developer Compulsion Games is being shuttered soon by Microsoft. For those unfamiliar with the studio, it's the team behind Contrast (2013), We Happy Few (2018), and South of Midnight (2025). Its latest game was quite well received, even winning a Peabody Award for its writing. It even received a 9/10 in Neowin's own review, highlighting its engaging storyline, gorgeous world, and curious characters. The studio joined Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just as Microsoft announced it is acquiring Playground Games, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory. Despite recent listings for new staff roles, according to the new report, Compulsion Games is being closed entirely, with over 90 staff being let go. Kotaku also added that the studio's leadership is in negotiations with Microsoft about this decision, but no official details have been revealed yet. The report lands just as two senior managers of Xbox leave their posts at Microsoft Gaming. Head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O'Connor originally began their journey in Rare and have been a part of Xbox for over two decades. Dunkan has been responsible for games like Kinect Sports and Sea of Thieves, while O'Connor was primarily working on Rare's Everwild project before its cancelation. If this report about the studio shutdown is accurate, this may just be the start of a major new layoffs wave at Xbox Game Studios. There are also rumors of Arkane Studios being heavily affected. As always, take all these reports with a grain of salt until something official materializes from Microsoft or the studios.
    • The flaw with this analysis is that this laptop has a cellphone CPU in it. In the Intel world, that would be an N150 and those are everywhere, even in low end laptops. You can get an N150 based NUC with 16GB RAM and 256GB-512GB SSD... NOT soldered in... for < $500 Canadian (around US$360). The problem is two fold: tech bloggers/writers on most tech site (like this one, ironically) overvalue Apple and apparently aren't in the same earnings class as most regular people. As a result, we get breathless articles about how everyone needs a folding phone when most people just cannot afford one... or really need one. And we get Apple used as the baseline metric regardless of whether that comparison makes any sense. If Dell or HP released a retail laptop with a cellphone motherboard, you'd be all over them for doing that - but Apple does it and it's genius. I see articles suggesting what Samsung - a company that basically started the foldable phone market and has built them for eight years - needs to do to compete with Apple's unreleased, unspecced and unseen folding phone. Sorry, no - if the Neo (really creative name there BTW - still, better than the Go, the other "creative" product name everyone's using) encourages PC makers to make cellphone laptops using lower end ARM processors, we all lose. It's a step backwards and a capitulation to the fact that semiconductor makers and computer OEMs (and tech bloggers) have totally lost the plot.
  • Recent Achievements

    • One Year In
      ThatGuyOnline earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Week One Done
      Jeroen Wilms earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Week One Done
      rolfus earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Month Later
      Leroy Jethro Gibbs earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • Conversation Starter
      flexorcist earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      507
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      197
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      127
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      82
    5. 5
      neufuse
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!