Recently a leak to Kotaku suggested that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 would ship without dedicated server support. Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling has told Gamefront that this might not be the case. He says Infinity Ward are "having conversations about dedicated servers, mod tools and post launch support" now, and want to make an effort to reach out to the PC gamers that have left the series since Call of Duty 4.
Bowling told Gamefront that Infinity Ward "had some of the [PC] guys come out to the studio a few weeks ago... We brought them here so they can see the stuff we're showing off. We're putting a lot of focus there, to make sure that our PC community has all the bells and whistles. So, the guys that have the powerhouse machines, that they can crank it up and enjoy the game."
"I can't confirm anything yet, but right now we're having conversations about dedicated servers, mod tools and post launch support... In Modern Warfare 3 we added IWnet, which was all about matchmaking - with the plan to eventually add in dedicated servers.
"My ideal philosophy on the PC is to have matchmaking for the mass," he added. "Have matchmaking for the guys who just want to jump in, hit play game and start playing. But let's not lose that dedicated core audience that wants the dedicated server experience.
"We're looking at ways to incorporate that into Modern Warfare 3. We've been listening a lot to our PC guys who have been very vocal since Modern Warfare 2 about what they want to see come back to our versions of the franchise."
Call of Duty: Black Ops is moving in a similar direction. Mod tools are set to hit that game soon . Did you used to play Call of Duty? Would mod tools and dedicated servers bring you back to the series?
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Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.
