Modern Warfare 2 an Offline Experience
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is going to be known as the most memorable videogame release this decade, not because its expensive Prestige Edition, which came equipped with night vision goggles, or the fact that seven million copies were sold on day one. It’s the fact that the online portion of the game is completely crippled.
Massive numbers of PS3 and Xbox 360 owners are reporting issues with online multiplayer, with almost every PS3 owner unable to play an online match. And on top of that, there are issues with trophies and achievements not unlocking properly. This was made evident when not one, but two PS3 patches were released within a 24 hour period. And according to Robert Bowling, yet another patch is coming out on Friday to address the server issues.
Robert Bowling stated that “The amount of players on MW2 PSN overwhelmed the PSN presence server which updates “what you’re doing” and is essential to parties,”, and that Infinity Ward is “adding more bandwidth servers to meet MP demand.” What’s surprising about this situation is that the high demand was not a big surprise. In fact, Infinity Ward and Activision have been touting just how popular Modern Warfare 2 would be since E3.
Infinity Ward’s suggestion to angry MW2 owners is to simply finish the single player campaign while they get their act together. But what they really need to do is figure out how to stop millions of MW2 owners from storming retailers with returned copies. The release of MW2 is the most memorable in recent memory, and particularly because it should have been successful. Seven million owners could have been enjoying the fantastically designed game on this Veterans Day holiday, but instead are being greeted with glitchy trophies/achievements, constant patching, and the inability to play online.
Their reputation as reliable game developers has taken a steep nosedive, and it will take many years for the public to trust the quality of IW’s products. Our only hope is that they work as fast as possible to remedy the current situation and allow us to finally enjoy what the Call of Duty series is famous for. Fast paced, addictive online action.
36 Responses to “Modern Warfare 2 an Offline Experience”
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November 11th, 2009 at 9:14 PM
I’ve been forced to play single-player only all day.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:27 PM
you can always play spec ops. play by yourself or find a friend who wants to play. Pretty entertaining if you ask me
November 11th, 2009 at 9:38 PM
I’m glad I decided to wait to purchase this game. I’ve been playing Demon’s Souls and UC2 a lot, and with the GOW collection and AC2 coming out next week I don’t see where I would have found the time to play it anyways…I’ll put it on my Christmas list probably.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:58 PM
I feel totally vindicated in my decision not to purchase this game. I hope that everyone who spoke of a boycott followed suit. These issues are exactly what I spoke about in an earlier post, and I’m glad to see the pompous Kotick stumble a bit. But, I guess with 7 million units sold on the first day, the piece of humble pie will go down pretty easily. Nice job to everyone who just HAD to have this game.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:13 PM
I’m not too sure it cripples their reliability to release a polished product, rather just raises questions as to why a beta wasn’t released to test the servers if they were overwhelmed that much. As this article was published, the servers actually went back up with no issues. I have had a flawless experience thus far. And when it comes down to it, every hugely anticipated game will have its issues.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:31 PM
@TheMadGreek – I followed up. Still don’t have it. Glad I don’t.
@John Draisey – Nicely written. I can almost feel how ticked off you were at the time of writing this editorial. It’s nice to read emotion from the written word. Well done.
November 11th, 2009 at 10:36 PM
@TheMadGreek
did u seriously think the boycotters such as yourself weren’t going to buy this game, modern warfare 2 is awesome. It’s like the new years eve resolution where everyone promises to lose weight or give up something only to fall back on it and give in. Don’t worry they’ll join your cause again because they have the game now, MW2 was the only activision game l only wanted anyways…..unless they make another cod game
November 11th, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Whats this bulls***? They got the servers back up within the day, and not everyone needed the patches. (me being one of them) I guess if a game doesn’t work HALF OF ONE DAY ever, it’s crippled and activision f***ed us all over..
@FiftyQuid
I’m glad you don’t too. Why avoid a great game completely by choice?
November 11th, 2009 at 11:00 PM
I new this would happen, therefore I told myself i wouldnt go online until i finished campaign anyway- I’m loving it, so I don’t mind too much
Still a big negative though
November 11th, 2009 at 11:08 PM
Everything is a-ok now except for the friend invite system, which is a must-have really.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:17 PM
you guys think u had it bad but i had it the worst. today i went home as fast as possible to play mw2 before my brother got to the ps3. I start playing and i realize the online isnt work, obviously that was an fml moment. After playing for 4 straight hours of campaign i stop playing and my brother plays. 5 min after he starts playing the servers go back online and i didnt get to play s***.
November 11th, 2009 at 11:38 PM
I’m glad I haven’t bought this yet. Uncharted 2 and Demon Souls is really eating my playing time and that’s not to count that I’m also playing NBA 2k10. If I we’re to buy a new game, It would be Borderlands. I’m still convinced that the best FPS is CounterStrike (even though I’m hating valve now for their laziness and being stubborn). Sorry Killzone 2.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:06 AM
@Johnathon lea
took you 2 hours to realise everythings a-okay? for someone who checks Kotaku and Gizmodo alot you missed theres a fix for friday for the invite system.
John Draise
happy belated birthday dude. i drop it in myspace but you werent on.
11/12/2009 at 1:22 AM
Oh man, i don’t even check that anymore. Thanks a bunch!
November 12th, 2009 at 12:23 AM
@ TheMadGreek
yeah, i know what you mean.. i laughed more at the ones that talked s*** and ran out and bought it the fist day.. hypocrites.
People should enjoy a good game but dont act like your part of a boycott and hate activision and COD be the the first playing it on release date. What happend to your beloved MAG? lmao
November 12th, 2009 at 2:08 AM
honestly, no matter how long the servers were down this is a massive failure by Infinity Ward…they had the numbers for pre-orders far in advance, and they had to be able to predict pretty accurately from those numbers how many more would pick it up in stores upon release…they should have been adding servers like crazy before the actual release. I saw a couple guys on this site earlier today blaming this all on Sony, which is completely ridiculous, and hopefully with this article it will help them understand that Infinity Ward and the other developers are at fault when games fail, not Sony. Infinity Ward obviously did not do enough testing of their product before they released to make sure all of the bugs were gone…pretty sad, no matter how fast they fix them.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:12 AM
@giese I agree! They should have done this instead of being c***y. Even without the pre-orders, they we’re boasting that it’ll sell millions on the 1st day.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:23 AM
HAHAHAHAHAHA! that’s awesome! didn’t think i could feel any better about boycotting Activision and not purchasing this or any other game with their name on the case. hell, i won’t even be buying this used or renting it. it’s nice not feeling like a sheep. Activision doesn’t deserve my money. i hope they stop producing games for the PS3, PS2 and PSP. they don’t deserve Sonys support either, those smug bastards. i do feel really bad for Infinity Ward though. but c’mon… they should have been prepared for this. very sloppy imo. this article is wonderful. thanks PSLS!
November 12th, 2009 at 2:27 AM
Not buying this or any Acty product. As for sales numbers they really don’t equal quality.
Beverly Hills Chihuahua’s ticket sales proved that. Just convince the mass sheep they want it and they will come.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:43 AM
@shadowjin
I know, I posted about it, and the reason I posted 2 hours after the servers came up was because I was playing.
November 12th, 2009 at 4:43 AM
Online will get sorted FACT! Game seems awesome FACT! Only whine i’ll have is getting raspberry jam/jello over my screen everytime i get shot!!!! Dam condiments!
November 12th, 2009 at 6:01 AM
well as they say.
you get what you pay for.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:22 AM
@Lemmy78 – yes! exactly! WTF is that?! it doesn’t even look like blood! I can’t tell what the hell is going on! its sooooooooooooo ugly!
ahem…. regardless…. the thing that really hurts is that the campaign is only about 4-5 hours long, yet again. upon beating that, and being unable to go online, I am pretty tempted to return this. Especially when it really feels like a rehash of the same old thing. I mean sure, new story new levels “new weapons”… but really, can you tell theres new weapons? oh they modded the graphics and sped the bullets up a bit, woopty doo. It’s all very well done, but it just doesn’t hit me as “epic”, or “amazing”. It hits me as yea… been there… done that… can I get my money back?
November 12th, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Anyone else feel extremely underwhelmed by the graphics?
Sorry ass IW can’t do there freakin jobs “we’ll fix it by Friday ” What the heck is that all about?
Maybe they are too busy counting money to fix the problem. The new weapons are fun , but I feel like they stole the rest of there level design from a Rainbow Six game. IW are no longer a good dev in my book. They brag they were offered an unlimited budget but turned it down, Morons, that could’ve been money well spent on more servers preferably of the dedicated type. But nooooooo push out a mediocre product as fast as you can and rake in the money thanks EA.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:41 AM
Well i won’t say their reputation has nosedived but dropped a bit. They did revolutionize online after all with MW
November 12th, 2009 at 10:20 AM
So the greatest game in the entire history of the universe is just kind of a big meh. Sorry I missed all the excitement LOL.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:57 AM
I passed on this game too
November 12th, 2009 at 11:27 AM
@C3PO
If you actually knew what was going on, you would know IW has absolutely nothing to do with the PS3 servers, Demonware, a company owned by activision is in charge of them, and they got that s*** up and running WITHIN THE DAY, friday was them making sure they don’t promise it back too early since they didn’t know when it would be up(read where they don’t have anything to do with the servers)
And thanks EA? If you’re under the impression EA is the first company to want to make money you’re crazy. Remember, more can be done with the money they get. They aren’t just gonna keep all the money they make one year and not give anything back
November 12th, 2009 at 11:35 AM
PS. If you think this game is mediocre, you’re on the hating activision bandwagon, or you just want it to be mediocre. If you like shooters this is a great game.
November 12th, 2009 at 2:07 PM
Glad I bought this for xbox. I’ve been only playing online since I got it at midnight on Monday and have had no issues. Ps3 fails with 90% of their game launches and this is no exception. Sucks to all you that bought it for ps3 and are forced to play single player!!!!!
November 12th, 2009 at 2:55 PM
@Sneeches
are you illiterate or what?
@theHater
whats your opinion on MW2? All those anti-MW2 remarks and your the first person buying it. What happen to your statement : ‘your all sheep buying it because your friends are’.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:11 PM
No why? The article talks about how the game failed on ps3. I was simply agreeing
November 12th, 2009 at 4:04 PM
It didn’t fail. The servers were down for a bit, some people couldn’t get trophies, and the thing that shows what a friend is doing is a bit messed. I couldn’t play online for no more than 12 hours out of however long they keep the servers up. That really isn’t a failure if you ask me.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Its been working just fine for me. I can’t believe people are so angry about this. Like they would’nt be able to correct the problem. s*** happens with technology it is never perfect. be patient f*** heads.
November 12th, 2009 at 7:15 PM
Sneeches is obviously an illiterateif he didn’t read that the servers are back up just hours later
November 12th, 2009 at 7:41 PM
MW2 is a brilliant game, my only gripe is the blood on the screen needs to be toned down a bit like in Killzone, also graphics are not as good as they could have been. I guess thats what you get with a multiplatform game we have to put up with xbox graphics. I have had no problems with online at all.
November 13th, 2009 at 7:37 PM
…. apparently I’m the only one who doesn’t think this is a big deal. the majority of people playing this are NOT taking it back because the online won’t work for 3 days…. MW is still being played religiously online, what is that, over a thousand days of playing, and millions of collective hours spent online? In a month, no, a week, people will have forgotten and will be absorbed just as they want to be in this game online. Activision is definitely taking some heat now, eating their words, but SEVEN MILLION people trying to access online on day ONE is bound to crash anyone’s server (cough woot). There’s no way in office simulations and preventive measures could have prepped them for that, that’s a huge figure. They definitely look foolish, but their long term results will prove nothing has changed, I guarantee it.
and the few people that are boycotting? 7 million on day one says it all.
in case you were wondering: i do not play FPS’s so i will not be getting the game, this is just an outside perspective