14 DAY TRIAL // When news got out that Modern Warfare 2 for the PC, set to be released on November 10, would not be supporting dedicated servers and would replace them with a fresh IWNet system created by Infinity Ward, fans reacted by being angered, quickly mentioning petitions, protests and boycotts.
Robert Bowling, who is the creative strategist at Infinity Ward and well known to the community as “fourzerotwo,” has stated in a recent blog post that “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is actually the biggest investment Infinity Ward has ever made into the PC version of our games. It’s also the most feature-rich PC version we’ve ever made.”
The message Infinity Ward is trying to transmit can be synthesized as “IWNET takes the benefits of dedicated servers and allows them to be utilized and accessed by every player, out of the box, while removing the barrier to entry for players unaware of how to maintain a server on their own.”
It seems that players are not too satisfied with the promise of more features, better match making and continued support. Most of the fans who commented on the post were concerned about the lag of the proposed IWNet, the lack of support for mods and the fact that matches created by the new system could prove unbalanced. The decision to remove dedicated servers makes sense if Infinity Ward is interested in controlling the whole experience a player has with its upcoming shooter but its net effect at the moment might actually be to lower sales on the PC.
The Call of Duty series has traditionally been a very PC-focused entity, with only the first Modern Warfare and World at War achieving huge success on home gaming consoles. For Modern Warfare 2, the loss of some support from the PC fan community is surely not a sign of disaster but could hurt the franchise on the long term.