Saturday, October 17, 2009

Modern Warfare 2 On Steam...IWNet For Matchmaking



That's right, thanks to Robert Bowling who joined us on the BASH webcast (www.BASHandSLASH.com) this morning, we have our first bit of news about a groundbreaking and possibly earth-shattering announcement for the PC community.  Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling expects this new way of playing CoD on the PC to streamline the PC community, allowing for easier access for the lower level players to fire up their rig and hop into a game.

Here is the full webcast which includes the exclusive interview with Robert "402" Bowling...

       

                          
  
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    Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer/Spec Ops will be handled by Steam and a new matchmaking infrastructure will be introduced titled IW Net. That means no dedicated servers, which also means no custom mods, maps, PC clans, etc from the diehard PC mod community.

For custom matches, PC players will need to use a Private Match option which will allow you to customize your match, although nowhere near to the extent possible via mod tools. With a lack of dedicated servers, it seems that the max player number allowed in a server will also be lowered. If you're familiar with Xbox Live, you know what we're talking about. 

Here's the list of expected changes per jockyitch....

General
  • IW partnering through Steam is what you will see in the future. Matchmaking is not through Steam, but IW.NET is run in conjunction with Steam.
  • GSP's will no longer be renting out servers.
  • No PunkBuster. VAC will be used as an anti cheat.
  • Retail distribution: Pre-orders will get a disk. Or you could order from Steam.
  • DLC may now need to be paid for - not confirmed.
  • Piracy was only a small reason for going to IW.NET - not the whole reason.
 Clans:
  • No more clan servers. Private matches, replace clan servers.
  • Listen servers will connect to each other.
  • IW.NET/Steam will replace the community server admin 
Competitive Gaming
  • Competitive gaming has changed as we know it.
  • It might be possible in the future for IW engineers to load a "competitive" setting on IW.NET, but it is far from a guarantee. It might also never happen.
Modding
  • Modding the game is now very much in question. Fourzerotwo had no info on modding. However, it appears that there will be no community mods or maps for MW2.
  • Modding in SpecOps? Unknown.

Keep in mind that IW Net was just announced, and details are scarce. With that said, stay tuned for details as they release on the matter. It was also said that Steam will be announcing their partnership with Infinity Ward soon, so keep your eyes peeled for that.

Godspeed PC community.  Stay strong and keep your heads up.  You are the ones who will be providing the feedback, so get in there and don't give up!


Thanks to jockyitch and the guys at BASHandSLASH for having us on again, on what is surely one of the most interesting CoD conversations we've ever participated in.  Also a big thanks to Robert '402' Bowling for having the cajones to treat the PC community with a little respect and filling us all in on IWNet.

For a more detailed breakdown of events and reactions from the community that this will effect, head on over to BASHandSLASH- LINK

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