By Kieron Gillen on November 16th, 2009 at 3:23 pm.
This is cute. News from Destructoid via Seniath… well, that No Dedicated Server thing? Well, those ever determined fans have worked out a way to get dedicated servers working on their lonesome. Amazingly, they’re currently still ranked by IWNet. And the following video shows some of the stuff they’ve made the game be able to do.
Hmm. Maybe this isn’t such a good thing.
Meanwhile, in other news, PC Modern Warfare 2 sales apparently were a mere 3% of the UK total.
16/11/2009 at 15:26 mrmud says:
Wow, the UK sure hates their PCs.
Checking the charts of one of the larger games and computer retailers in Stockholm (Webhallen) the PC skew is at the top of the board with 360 taking number 2.
16/11/2009 at 15:47 SheffieldSteel says:
Actually “skew” = SKU = Sales Kept Unit
16/11/2009 at 15:56 jsutcliffe says:
I thought it was Stock Keeping Unit, but I also think I’ve seen a few different interpretations.
16/11/2009 at 16:57 Richeh says:
I thought it was Soundly Kicked Ungulant. It always seemed like a bit of an inhumane way of keeping count, but this makes much more sense.
16/11/2009 at 17:50 armlesscorps says:
mrmud get your facts right. the uk loves its pc’s hence the sales figures were low, we wont buy games that try to turn them into consoles.
16/11/2009 at 19:18 Wisq says:
Apparently the UK is more sensible than my Steam friends, then. Half of them seem to be playing it these days.
So of course, I’m playing Dragon Age as a non-Steam game, with the game title set to express my opinion about exactly where IW can stick their evil PC-hating ways.
Ahh, social gaming …
16/11/2009 at 15:27 Alexander Norris says:
That actually looks like a marked improvement on the default gameplay.
16/11/2009 at 15:27 TCM says:
This whole mess could have been solved by IW offering dedicated servers, but turning off rankings for anything but vanilla…
But that would have been the intelligent thing to do, and Activision would never allow that.
16/11/2009 at 15:27 gulag says:
Machine gun that fires rockets? Welcome to Borderlands.
16/11/2009 at 18:02 Dave says:
Holy crap! It shoots rockets!
16/11/2009 at 15:30 AndrewC says:
At last: control of the game is finally in the hands of the sensible, mature gamers who really care about the optimum play experience.
16/11/2009 at 16:35 Arnulf says:
Well said.
16/11/2009 at 17:01 PHeMoX says:
Just wait till they add to / unlock the multiplayer cheating in the game…
oh wait they already did. So much for the fun and mature gamers part.
16/11/2009 at 17:15 Mulayim says:
Sensible, mature gamers avoided this game. That’s why you are watching this video now.
16/11/2009 at 15:31 aldo says:
No bloody wonder, given that every major supermarket seems to have either dropped or be in the process of dropping Pc games. That’s a pretty big section right there, never mind the ever-decreasing space in the more dedicated games (etc) shops.
16/11/2009 at 15:55 po says:
My local Tescos was on the Blizzard homepage as one that was doing the midnight WotLK release thing. Went in the next day to get a copy, and spent half an hour trying to find anything but console games. Finally found they had a small display of the game, behind the tobacco kiosk.
To be honest though, if it’s not available through Steam or from Amazon, I’m not likely to go to a brick and mortar store and pay more, so I don’t blame the supermarkets for dropping PC games when they can’t sell any, due to the PC users knowing better places to get them (only went to Tescos because I got a lift to the out of town store. I had my pre-ordered copy from Amazon on the doormat when I got home.
I think the UK does have major problems with the level of PC literacy amongst it’s population (which gives rise to people favoring consoles), largely down to the p*** poor level of I.T. education you get here. I dropped out of 2 degrees (Computer Science and Computer Media), because the level being taught in the first year was so low, it was recovering stuff I’d learned in Computer Studies G.C.S.E. (a subject no longer taught, probably because the only people who took it were hardcore nerds, and the course material was more computer history than modern computing), in one case, even having exactly the same spreadsheet project about a company making window frames.
Meanwhile my younger sister, who was in high-school from 1998-2003, and took I.T., didn’t learn a thing about the web or email, as I.T. taught here seems to consist of word processing, spreadsheets, and data entry for databases.
16/11/2009 at 16:18 Bhazor says:
Well I got Empire:Total War and Dawn of War 2 for about £15 a couple of months ago from ASDA. http://www.asda-entertainment.co.uk/games/platforms/pc/latest-releases.list . What I’m saying is there are still bargains if you look for them
. Also I ‘m not sure about PC losing floorspace in game shops. From my time in Brighton, Sheffield and Grantham PC games actually have more shelf space than PS3 games in Game stores.
16/11/2009 at 17:03 PHeMoX says:
Screw the physical shops. Super markets only carry titles like Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3 or SPORE which are either hyped beyond reality or are sure-fire-guaranteed to score-games.
Retail should complain more about those supermarkets, instead of claiming some kind of compensation for digital distribution that they have literally no part in and no right to.
16/11/2009 at 17:04 Plinglebob says:
After a recent reshuffle of both my local Tesco and local Game, Tesco is better for buying PC games. Game have shrunk what was a moderately sized shelf of recent games and a large rack of “3 for £10″/”3 for £20″ to a tiny display with 5 of the top 10 slots going to the Sims and WoW. Tesco on the other hand has a decent selection of recent titles plus they’re cheaper (MW2 on release day for £27).
Even the Game and Gamestation in the next biggest town have pathetically small PC sections. My guess is because PC gamers are more likely to use online retailers.
On topic: Took them less then a week. Surprised it wasn’t quicker.
16/11/2009 at 17:10 Some Guy says:
Computer literacy in the UK is very much a learn it yourselfe. a GCSE in ICT is a wast of time, all it needs you to know is word, excel and spreadsheat. mayby a littlt of the GUI of a webpage software.
no actual skill or working knoledge. all that i picked up from getting PC games to work.
16/11/2009 at 17:19 Optimaximal says:
Unlikely. It’s a purely profit-motivated decision, since the falling value of a PC game gives the retailer a smaller share of that pie. More of a console game sale at retail is pure margin, therefore more money in their pockets.
16/11/2009 at 18:23 weegosan says:
Also don’t forget that most PC games activate so can’t be traded in. They love their trade-ins. I went out looking for Super Mario Galaxy at the weekend and my local had it second hand for £32.99. Insanity.
16/11/2009 at 15:31 Primar says:
And we wonder why Infinity Ward are totally unfussed about the PC version.
16/11/2009 at 15:34 Seniath says:
Self-perpetuating cycle though innit? We don’t buy the game because they don’t put much effort into the PC version because we don’t buy it…
16/11/2009 at 15:35 abhishek says:
Exactly. The ‘boycotters’ see this as vindication of their position that people will not buy a gimped version of the game. Activision and Infinity Ward see the sales numbers and decide that they don’t give a fuck about the PC version with it’s miniscules percentages.
16/11/2009 at 16:05 Alexander Norris says:
Yes, well; I don’t want to sound like a conspiracy nut, but I’m not entirely convinced that Activision and IW didn’t know exactly what they were doing and where they were headed with what they did. If it’s a self-perpetuating cycle, it’s one that was most likely instigated in part by the developers/publishers.
It certainly makes for a convenient justification for stripping the PC gaming platform of its freedoms and delivering a much more restrictive experience, in any case.
16/11/2009 at 16:06 Seniath says:
Oh yeah, totally. I’ve no doubt that at the root this is Actard’s doing, but the lay-person wont see it that way.
16/11/2009 at 16:37 Pantsman says:
But that doesn’t make any sense because IW/Activision don’t need an excuse to drop PC support. If they wanted to do that, they could just do it. Who do they need to justify themselves to? Not the PC gamers, since they’re the ones whose money they don’t care about anyway. Not the console gamers, since they won’t care one way or another.
16/11/2009 at 16:54 invisiblejesus says:
What Pantsman said. This idea that a company somehow needs to manufacture a justification to drop the PC platform is silly. That said, it may be less horrifying than the likely reality, which is that Infinity Ward and Activision actually sincerely believe that they’ve made the right moves with this game.
16/11/2009 at 17:07 nakke says:
But hey, at least the PC game has custom features like mouse control, text chat and graphics options.
16/11/2009 at 17:26 Pantsman says:
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” Or if you prefer, “Cock-up before conspiracy”.
16/11/2009 at 19:23 Wisq says:
It is a bit tricky to come up with a reasonable conspiracy theory, yes.
The best I can think of is that they know they can make more if they go console-only, but their investors (or shareholders or stakeholders or whatever) refuse to let them drop the PC side of things because it does actually make some money. But that makes little sense, because if they know there’s a monetary argument for going console-only, why can’t they just convince the investors of that?
Perhaps it’s even the other way around. The publisher and/or investors want to go console-only. The devs want to continue supporting the PC. So the publisher/investors come up with an ingenious plan to bring console concepts to the PC in order to alienate … no, wait, did I just say “publisher” and “ingenious plan” in the same sentence? Scratch that.
Nope, can’t think of a good scenario.
16/11/2009 at 15:33 jsutcliffe says:
I much preferred this dtoid story, linked within the one linked above: http://www.destructoid.com/this-is-what-the-modern-warfare-2-boycotters-are-playing-154944.phtml
People are flakes and idiots.
16/11/2009 at 15:39 Bhazor says:
Erm, read that article there buddy.
16/11/2009 at 15:54 jsutcliffe says:
Ah.
16/11/2009 at 15:33 James G says:
The last sentence appears to be missing out the word PC, and implies that the sales of MW2 were 3% of the gaming market across the board, rather than PC sales were 3% of the MW2 sales.
And MrMud, yeah, console sales have dominated the sales charts here for ages, outside a few rare PC exceptions. Still, I’d like to see what percentage of UK Dragon Age sales were on the PC, I’d expect it to be higher.
16/11/2009 at 16:04 qrter says:
Jeff Green, former GFW Magazine/1Up journo, who now works at EA, said on a 1Up podcast (couple of weeks ago) that EA is really pleased with Dragon Age, the PC version especially is selling incredibly well.
16/11/2009 at 16:35 skizelo says:
I hope that’s true. It’d be lovely to have a counter-example of how many PC gamers show up when you don’t cite “mouse control and scalable graphics” as their version’s special features.
Seriously, what happened to EA. They keep on making good decisions and getting rewarded for it, and frankly it’s making me uneasy.
16/11/2009 at 17:11 PHeMoX says:
I think many publishers aren’t very honest about PC sales to begin with, as I also saw numbers that really showed how Modern Warfare 2 sales on PC were also very high as well (obviously much more than 3% of all MW2 sales, as that’s just plain nuts).
In fact, the PC, Xbox and PS3 sales are about equal, with the Xbox MW2 sales being only slightly higher. Perhaps this will still change, but there are some crazy statements being made about the PC platform for sure.
16/11/2009 at 15:38 lePooch says:
The youtube comments are full of people complaining that this will cause the leader boards to (and I quote)”become lies”. I think everything that people can do to turn this game into a borked, unbalanced joke should be done. All the more power to them if they can have this much fun doing it.
Where is the response from Activision? No response for the earlier complaints and hacks, and none now. I guess they’re really ignoring the PC crowd. Wonder what would happen if this was doable on XBOX?
16/11/2009 at 20:41 Gutter says:
If it was doable on the XBox, IW wouldn’t have abandoned the idea of a dedicated server.
Simple as that.
17/11/2009 at 02:23 OctaneHugo says:
I know! I mean, I thought IWNet was supposed to provide comprehensive ways of banning hackers and cheaters the likes we’ve never seen!
16/11/2009 at 15:41 Jockie says:
I guess Im the only one who has this on PC and is enjoying the multiplayer immensely then?
The matchmaking is crap mind, but overall it’s still the best mp game I’ve played this year (until tomorrow anyway).
16/11/2009 at 16:11 1stGear says:
LIES! YOU AREN’T ALLOWED TO LIKE MW2 ON PC! A LYNCH MOB WILL BE COMING TO YOUR HOUSE TO TAR AND FEATHER YOU! GOOD DAY SIR!
16/11/2009 at 16:23 Alexander Norris says:
Shouldn’t that be “Good day, sirrah!” I mean, you’re being (hypothetically) insulting towards him, so a respectful form of address would be incorrect.
16/11/2009 at 18:18 cjlr says:
See, it’s the fact that people will bother to point out the things like the difference between ‘sir’ and ‘sirrah’ that makes me love these comment sections so much.
Stay classy, RPS.
16/11/2009 at 15:43 Skinlo says:
Its going to be interesting to see whether Infinity Ward will produce the next COD at all for the PC, I guess England isn’t the only market for the game though, so it may have done better elsewhere.
The UK does have quite an obsession with consoles it seems, and always get caught along with the hype. However, I feel the boycott will have played a reasonable impact in the success of the game. The type of people who would buy it for the PC over a console might have heard of it, and may have then held off buying it.
Although I am sad to see such low PC sales, it doesn’t really surprise me, and I’m predicting them to go the way of Epic games and turn completely console next time round.
16/11/2009 at 15:44 Gabanski83 says:
That looks like huge amounts of fun, what with the awesomely high jumping and stuff. I wouldn’t mind giving that a go if it actually played like that.
16/11/2009 at 15:48 XM says:
Something is wrong chart track has the PC version number 1 in the UK http://www.chart-track.co.uk/index.jsp?c=p/software/uk/latest/index_test.jsp&ct=110022
16/11/2009 at 16:35 Baboonanza says:
That chart is for only PC, thats why!
This chart is more enlightening
5th on the all-format still suggests more than 3% to me though.
16/11/2009 at 17:27 XM says:
Ah yes I see. There is still the digital downloads to add so for a PC game it has sold well I would say.
16/11/2009 at 15:57 LeJerk says:
This makes me think of a certain book/movie about a certain extinct animals which find a way to do things they were not supposed to be able to do… ;)
“Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.”
16/11/2009 at 15:58 Cooper says:
Are these dedicated servers available to those who pirated the game?
If so. Lol.
16/11/2009 at 16:01 Xercies says:
A lot of those games in the sale chart have been advertised on TV for the 360 so I’m guessing advertising does work and people are buying games they are seeing on TV.
16/11/2009 at 16:01 qrter says:
Do those sales figures take digital sales into account, though.
I mean, how many people still go to a retail store to buy a PC version?
16/11/2009 at 18:18 user@example.com says:
I tried. Game (which last time tried to sell me Trine for £30) wanted more than Steam, and didn’t have any copies in stock anyway. They also didn’t have Dragon Age in stock, or even an empty box indicating its existence, so I went to a supermarket and bought Dragon Age for Steam’s price.
And no, they didn’t have the PC version of CoD:MW2 at all.
No bloody wonder PC gamers don’t buy games from bricks & mortar stores – they can’t find any willing to sell them, and if they do they’re stupidly priced. Seriously, £30 for Trine?
16/11/2009 at 16:03 Steve the Imperial Guardsmen says:
When pirates are able to have access to features denied to customers who actually bought it, you know you’ve made yourself a terrible game.
16/11/2009 at 16:07 nayon says:
The PC version’s multiplayer sucks. I shoot a guy in the face multiple times, and oh, turns out he was not there. Epic lag ftw.
17/11/2009 at 00:32 Howl says:
Right, because that happens.. 1 game in every 50?
17/11/2009 at 02:26 OctaneHugo says:
@Howl: More than that. That’s one of the downsides to a non-dedicated based system. Lots of lag, because not everyone’s built to host a multiplayer game.
17/11/2009 at 06:50 coupsan says:
@Howl: You know what’s even better? Zero of every fifty games having lag extreme enough to screw you out of a kill.
16/11/2009 at 16:11 VHATI says:
I see the pc sales #s as a good thing. It will cause IW to stop pc development, and other devs will pick up the vacant spot and actually give the pc guy something they want.
16/11/2009 at 16:13 Adam says:
That looks so, so, so, SO much more fun than the original.
It’s like Tribes: MW2 ;)
16/11/2009 at 17:18 ascagnel says:
http://www.tribesnext.com/
I’ll just leave that there…
17/11/2009 at 00:34 Howl says:
It looks like garbage to me. Shattered Horizon is good though if you want some jetpack action.
16/11/2009 at 16:18 Major Disaster says:
Was wondering the very same thing myself, be interested to know how many copies were sold via steam especially as the “silly” prices were only on the 360/PS3 in the supermarkets
16/11/2009 at 17:14 nakke says:
And it was a totally reasonable 60 euros on steam here (Finland). :P (At the same time Steam even advertised CoD4 for a mere 50 euros — I instantly bought 5 copies for my friends, what a bargain!)
16/11/2009 at 16:21 Hmm says:
What’s this? People trying to have fun with their games? This isn’t what Infinity Ward intended!
16/11/2009 at 18:20 user@example.com says:
Buy our games.
advicekotick.jpg
Don’t have fun.
17/11/2009 at 02:43 OctaneHugo says:
Ask, and ye shall receive.
http://www.b3ta.cr3ation.co.uk/data/png/advicejotick.png
16/11/2009 at 16:21 Daniel Klein says:
This is why we can’t have any nice things.
16/11/2009 at 16:24 kalidanthepalidan says:
This is why PC gaming is awesome.
16/11/2009 at 21:28 Günter says:
Hear hear.
16/11/2009 at 21:30 Günter says:
Here here, even. This article brought nothing but joy to me.
17/11/2009 at 06:51 Lars Westergren says:
No, you were right the first time, Gunther. It’s “Hear, hear!”. /grammarnazi.
16/11/2009 at 16:24 MadMatty says:
funky music :0
16/11/2009 at 16:25 Gremmi says:
Will I be flayed alive if I say that I’m quite enjoying mp MW2 on my PC?
Admittedly, it’s the most effort I’ve put into an mp mode for ages – I’m not a competitive gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but what I have played I’ve enjoyed, and haven’t experienced much in the way of lag – it’s upset maybe 3 games out of a couple of dozen.
16/11/2009 at 16:27 JoeDuck says:
PC gaming keeps on being this fascinating weird place for user generated chaos, companies wild rises and falls and absolutely no predictability. I love it…
Now, what I’d love and actually risk a ban for, is someone hacking a fake server to accept console connections. That way you’d be able to have one mouse to rule them all, one mouse to find them and in the darkness bind them.
Probably impossible, but what the heck, dreaming is free…
16/11/2009 at 16:39 Larington says:
Not surprisingly, Russia doesn’t appear to have taken kindly to this game either: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/11/16/russia-gives-mw2-cold-shoulder
16/11/2009 at 16:41 Heliocentric says:
Play station 3 is possible, 360 is a walled garden. That said, i know nothing about anything.
So action games fail here compared to the 360 and ps3? My heart bleeds, i don’t get why we get modern warfare and not the quick time event rts brutal legend.
16/11/2009 at 16:49 Starky says:
The thing which people tend to forget is that PC games are very much long haul sellers, much more so than console games (which after the first month is nothing but pre-owned).
Good games on the PC get expansions and DLC, good games on the PC get Mods and free new features that keep people buying.
So good PC eyed games made for reasonable budgets can see very well and be very successful.
The PC may not have the huge numbers for the AAA titles, but that is okay, the AAA titles are basically the equivalent of Jerry bruckheimer movies – Make loads of money, loads of people see them, and they can be pretty good for what they are.
So the PC platform loses some AAA titles, I can live with that given the hundreds of amazing indie games, mods, and even browser games that we get.
Who needs Transformers 6 and 7 when we can have smaller, but arguably better independent productions.
Let consoles be the multiplex cinema’s for the masses, let PC’s be the home of true film lovers.
Hell to swing it back to the Sunday papers…
Console games are celebrity biographies. PC games are low volume but quality novels.
16/11/2009 at 16:49 JonFitt says:
Gosh I don’t know why they bother with the PC. A mere 53,400 units sold at £30-£40, netting somewhere between £1.6m – £2.1m in the first week in the UK alone.
That’s barely worth getting out of bed for.
16/11/2009 at 17:57 Lilliput King says:
This isn’t what net means.
16/11/2009 at 16:53 Evo says:
The gamesindustry.biz article did not account for digital distribution which is possibly where the majority of PC gamers bought MW2. Labeling a PC release a failure based on retail sales alone is pure fallacy in this day and age. Next week I’m sure the retail charts will indicate that Left 4 Dead 2 sold more on Xbox 360 than PC but I’ll be shocked if that is actually the case when digital distribution is added.
16/11/2009 at 16:56 Gremmi says:
Yeah, purchases directly through Steam are never counted at all, mostly because Valve don’t release sales figures.
16/11/2009 at 17:13 Paco says:
you got a point there.
BTW only few hours to L4D2, yayyy!
16/11/2009 at 17:15 PHeMoX says:
Of course Valve doesn’t release sales figures. There’s obviously no way their Left 4 Dead still sells better than Modern Warfare 2.
Valve isn’t interested in sales figures except for boosting them, as they clearly use their ‘best sellers’ top 10 for propaganda purposes only….
I think it’s safe to say Modern Warfare 2 wouldn’t be at number 6 if the list would be representative.
16/11/2009 at 18:09 Lagmint says:
I’m not sure what propaganda Valve gets out of having MW2 being their best-seller on the list…
16/11/2009 at 18:11 TeeJay says:
I couldn’t care less what music is at number one in the charts – why does it matter when it comes to games? Being a ‘best-seller’ doesn’t make any music/movie/book/game any better. Sometimes it merely reflects mass-marketed branding and pandering to the lowest common denominator.
Total units sold and/or total revenues don’t even correspond to the profits developers end up with either, which is maybe the only important factor in that it provides motivation and funding for future games, although in fact the history of games development suggests that the best games have been created out of love for gaming, and as soon as people merely start chasing money/sales they end up changing good games into shittier ones.
I like to listen to music made for love not money-obsession. Why should games be different? Why are we so obsessed about sales figures and charts?
16/11/2009 at 20:58 Optimaximal says:
It matters too the people who finance the games – being the top of the chart means that your game sold better than everyone elses, ergo that means more money in the bank.
Personally, I wish Valve would actually release sales figures for (at least) the top 10. It would finally allow chart agregators to count digital downloads properly and prove that the PC isn’t the bottomless waste of money pit that all the bean counters think it is because they’re only calculating their figures on half (if that) the data.
16/11/2009 at 17:02 Mike_in_Ohio says:
We knew it would be a matter of time (or days for that matter) that some young individual could crack that code. I also believe that IW purposely left the back door open for hacks of this sort. Actually it is
quite fun to play on PC… only thing I didnt care for was the price, but what the hell – it’s just money
16/11/2009 at 17:36 Steelfists says:
GOD FORBID PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE “FUN” !!!!!
16/11/2009 at 17:38 Al3xand3r says:
Misinformation. This still runs off of a standard gaming machine as the host. Don’t listen to mainstream websites like Destructoid for serious news please. This is mostly the enabled console commands and nothing more. There are some additional work arounds out there to let you connect to a game via IP also, but again to a standard p2p listen server machine.
Until you can install a server application on a linux machine as a dedicated server and clients can have a server browser (whether in-game or with a third party application All Seeing Eye style) with which to see and choose between games filtered according to their preferences, then the issue remains unchanged for the bulk of the serious PC gamers I’m afraid. For Christ’s sake, you can’t even play with custom rules like “no respawns” outside Private matches with the current official system, and people don’t see why it’s gimped? Meh.
16/11/2009 at 17:55 T-B0N3 says:
Thats actually an important note, lol. So its just a modified client hosting this, to bad.
I think they should change the topic name to something like “modifications online go” or something. Cause this title gives fake hope :/
16/11/2009 at 20:53 Flimgoblin says:
A dedicated server doesn’t need to be a Linux one. Just not playing so they don’t get the ping advantage. That said it presumably still takes up a player slot.
17/11/2009 at 16:42 yns88 says:
It’s true that it does not need to run on Linux, but it’s not just for ping. The reason for having a dedicated server is so that you can run the server without having to waste system resources on loading the client. As it is, it’s still utterly impractical to try running these servers 24/7, and the person hosting the dedicated server will always be taking up a slot in-game.
16/11/2009 at 17:42 Seniath says:
Oh and apparently (judging by an update to the Destructoid piece) they’ve modded Lean back in. But… but… it’s not balanced for lean.
16/11/2009 at 18:18 DarkNoghri says:
I keep linking that picture random places. Because it’s funny.
16/11/2009 at 17:42 Frye says:
I bought this against better judgment. And i shouldn’t have.
We have now entered the MTV age of gaming. MW2 being the Boy-Zone of games. Quality? Nahh but shiny though, and the kids will love it. You know, the same ones that do not really care whether Britney actually sings during her concerts. From now on we will only get what marketing people think we love. The age of game-makers creating the games ‘they would like to play themselves’ are over. You can look at this as deterioration or the industry growing up and i am not sure where I stand. The crappy thing is, though, that it takes such a large investment to create something worthwhile. Unlike music, the times of a lone programmer creating a gem in his basement are long gone.
Maybe the big players in the industry should focus on consoles indeed and get it over with. There is no longer a point making a PC version unless they really commit themselves to giving something extra. You know, the bits and bats that you think are too confusing for console people, like settings screens, dedicated servers, enemies that actually make you die. Stuff like that.
Then again, I haven’t run out of games to play yet, and things might turn out fine.
16/11/2009 at 18:12 Lagmint says:
“Unlike music, the times of a lone programmer creating a gem in his basement are long gone.”
While I agree it’s not one guy generally, there’s still tiny teams of people making absolutely fantastic games. Look at Natural Selection 2, isn’t that four people?
16/11/2009 at 19:35 Some Guy says:
clifski and gratuitous space battles. eat your words.
16/11/2009 at 19:42 Vinraith says:
Cliffski and GSB or Democracy 2, Chris Park and AI War: Fleet Command, the fellow who made Armageddon Empires whose name escapes me, and that’s just the recent stuff I can think of off the top of my head. RPS seems to find a new counterexample to your statement roughly every few days.
16/11/2009 at 20:14 Arathain says:
But… that’s been the single most exciting change of the last year or three. The bedroom coder is back, bigger and better than ever. World of Goo, Spelunky, Dwarf Fortress, AI War, Armageddon Empires, Briad… many, many first class titles, tons of freeware, tons of quirky stuff, niche stuff, everything you could want.
That’s why we’re all scoffing at this whole ‘PC gaming is dying’ nonsense. So the blockbusters aren’t as blockbusting as they once were. Look what we get instead!
16/11/2009 at 17:51 T-B0N3 says:
This video actually shows one of the few problems i have with dedicated servers. Especially older games make it hard to see the difference between a vanilla server and something wacky like this, cause this seems fun i really get bored with this in like 5 seconds.
Unfortunatly i like playing in clans, playing lagfree and playing regularly on the same server so that you actuallly get a sense of a micro community on the server.
So im still not gonna buy this game, at least not for full price. Which makes me partially sad cause i played alot of moh:aa and cod2 and was looking forward to this game.
16/11/2009 at 17:54 LMN8R says:
One need only look at Steam stats to make a good prediction of overall sales for the game.
The 360 version was putting up roughly 1 million concurrent players on Modern Warfare 2 at peak
The PC version, with every copy sold tracked using Steamworks, had roughly 140,000 people playing concurrently at peak.
That would put the PC version at about 14% of the 360 version. Comparatively not all that impressive, but still damned significant sales overall.
16/11/2009 at 18:10 Shalrath says:
I’m not sure that counts PC SP players though. Wasn’t the 140,000 concurrent for Modern Warfare 2 – Multiplayer, or was that added with SP?
16/11/2009 at 18:20 Clovis says:
And that’s the important bit. It doesn’t matter if PC sales are only .0001% of overall sales. If IW makes millions by selling MW2 on the PC, then they will release the next one on PC too, and they should have some interest in listening to PC gamers. I don’t understand the logic of, “If PC sales are only 1% of the total sales, IW will stop selling it on PC.” Why? Because they hate money all of a sudden?
Even if they don’t want to bother working for the millions themselves, they can still hire a third party to do the port and still make money.
16/11/2009 at 18:09 Michael Hughes says:
Why do people care about overall leaderboards anyway? The only people who are ever on them are cheaters. It took less than a day for an aimbot to be written for MW2, and without dedicated servers, there’s no effective way to police the game. It’s a joke. The entire affair reeks of Bobby Kotick’s malevolent dictating, and I did what any sensible gamer did: pirated it for the single player campaign (the plot, by the way, is batshit retarded).
16/11/2009 at 18:12 RagingLion says:
I’m surprised at 3%. It’s true that digital sales aren’t counted. 14% sounds a bit better.
16/11/2009 at 18:12 Big Daddy says:
These figures are most obviously wrong because there are currently over 80,000 people playing the PC version. Steam Stats, people! http://store.steampowered.com/stats
16/11/2009 at 18:15 Shalrath says:
I was watching those numbers on saturday – god I love the heated, almost exactly-tied fight for first between 2009′s Modern Warfare 2, and 200_4_’s Counter-Strike: Source.
This makes me proud to be a PC gamer :)
16/11/2009 at 18:33 fulis says:
Try this
http://www.amxmodx.org/newstats.php?mod_id=7&addon_id=0
16/11/2009 at 20:44 Alexander Norris says:
Those numbers are hilariously saddening. 90% of all HL-based servers run the piece of badly-designed shit that is CS.
On the plus side, it warms my heart to see that Desert Crisis and Frontline Force still have one server up and running.
16/11/2009 at 22:13 fulis says:
Why do you say it’s a piece of shit?
Valve’s stats for CS 1.6 haven’t been accurate since spring 2007 btw
Not that they care
16/11/2009 at 18:23 Tei says:
This look retarded fun. I love it.
Hope more videos like this one come.
What real relation have this to dedicated servers? you can have dedicated server with vanilla. Theres not relation modding with dedicated. Hell.. probably this one is not-dedicated and is modded (seems that with console commands?).
16/11/2009 at 18:33 tapanister says:
Yes Tei, this is made with the unofficial console patch that came out yesterday or today (dunno). It might be a step closer to dedi servers but i have no idea how :P
16/11/2009 at 18:51 Tei says:
Console patch? well… If can get the console to work, maybe can “inyect” commands to have some remote control, like kick people, etc… Probably most commands from old versions are still there, and not removed. So maybe this is a step near real dedicated servers, or the next best thing: a server you can remotely control.
16/11/2009 at 18:35 Calabi says:
This is why I love the PC. Give it five minutes and modders/hackers will fuck it up(in the best possible way).
16/11/2009 at 18:37 the wiseass says:
“Well, those ever determined fans have worked out a way to get dedicated servers working on their lonesome.”
Actually, no. They managed to get the console running but it’s still only working over IWNET. So no dedicated servers yet!
It’s also stated in the video description:
“The best bit is, this is all ranked and on IWNet!”
16/11/2009 at 18:45 Tyshalle says:
lol. So not only do you all love your PC, but you all also love to stand on your principles so fiercely that you’d make the PC sales in your country bomb so hard that they’re likely to make the next COD a console-only game.
With that kind of enormous coordination, maybe you all should try to cure cancer or something.
16/11/2009 at 18:47 Tyshalle says:
And for fucks sake, who do I have to kill to get the reply function on this site to work correctly? Jesus Christ.
16/11/2009 at 18:48 Tyshalle says:
Oh sure, it works now.
16/11/2009 at 21:16 Nick says:
Most shops that sell games in the UK only stock console ones or have a very small amount of PC games, it has been that way for quite a few years now. Generally I find most people I know buy their PC games through steam or via amazon or play uk, where they are cheaper anyway.
16/11/2009 at 23:47 TeeJay says:
All developers who make multi-player shooters for the PC will be watching this and thinking about if they want to follow suit.
PC sales in one single country won’t impact on whether a sequel is made.
16/11/2009 at 18:45 Psychopomp says:
I can’t help but notice there’s not a link to this anywhere
16/11/2009 at 19:00 Al3xand3r says:
Misinformation. This still runs off of a standard gaming machine as the host. Don’t listen to mainstream websites like Destructoid for serious news please. This is mostly the enabled console commands and nothing more. There are some additional work arounds out there to let you connect to a game via IP also, but again to a standard p2p listen server machine.
Until you can install a server application on a linux machine as a dedicated server and clients can have a server browser (whether in-game or with a third party application All Seeing Eye style) with which to see and choose between games filtered according to their preferences, then the issue remains unchanged for the bulk of the serious PC gamers I’m afraid. For Christ’s sake, you can’t even play with custom rules like “no respawns” outside Private matches with the current official system, and people don’t see why it’s gimped? Meh.
Repost of my previous comment so it’s higher up on the page and people don’t get too excited.
16/11/2009 at 19:01 Al3xand3r says:
Well, that didn’t work, I meant it as a response to the first reply. Oh well.
16/11/2009 at 19:01 1stGear says:
@Phemox: As of November 16th, 1:00 US Central Time, Modern Warfare 2 is topping the Steam sales chart, with Left 4 Dead 2 behind it.
16/11/2009 at 19:06 Cedge says:
Oh, well. That, um, definitely looks like a much better game now, I suppose?
16/11/2009 at 19:07 Cedge says:
Glad to see they got the game “balanced” the way they like, though.
16/11/2009 at 19:21 bhlaab says:
Oh how terrible it is now that people are playing this game the way they feel like it on their own servers.
Keep in mind that on IWNet kicks and bans are impossible unless done by the Official Kickers and Banners
16/11/2009 at 19:24 CaseytheBrash says:
It’s like “Starship Troopers.” The book, not the shitty movie.
16/11/2009 at 19:32 Tei says:
We need more bombs that can talk.
17/11/2009 at 05:53 12kill4 says:
the pen is mightier than the sword
for it may scribe the speech
the bomb shall speak
as it sends its foes to their lord
16/11/2009 at 19:25 Adam says:
I’d be really careful with this, it works by hooking a dll into the game, and that could probably set VAC off, on the servers system of course, no one else should be worried. Except that the high XP servers sort of suck since you don’t get told you’re in them, until you rank up 5 times with one kill.
16/11/2009 at 19:51 Snall says:
That movie was great, you’re an idiot if you couldn’t see that. Oh my god they made the book into a joke? Awesome.
16/11/2009 at 20:29 Psychopomp says:
The director couldn’t finish the book because it was “depressing.” He even failed to get power armor in there. The damn movie never should have been made.
16/11/2009 at 20:32 Gorgeras says:
Wait, am I honestly to believe that there is a book for Starship Troopers, that it originally was a book and that this book is many orders of magnitude superior to the absurd hollywood-thon that was the disasterbad film?
16/11/2009 at 20:34 Railick says:
I like Starship Troopers the movie and the book both. I treat them as to seperate sources of entertainment since they are so different. Yes they both have the same basic story but as you may well know they tell it in a totally different way. (for example the bugs in the book are much smarter, have space ships and use guns ect) The book tries to teach you a lesson about the authors political views ect where as the movie is just a gloriously gory adventure movie that includes semi space-nazism. I say Semi because the only thing really nazi about the movie is the uniforms and some of the symbols they use on them not their political ideology.
16/11/2009 at 20:36 teo says:
Yes
It’s a good Sci-fi novel
Shockingly different from the movie
16/11/2009 at 20:40 Funky Badger says:
Starship Troopers was awesomely good. Not sure why it was rated 15 on release, mind. Not quite enough dismemberment and nudity, perhaps?
16/11/2009 at 20:43 Railick says:
I think they finally worked the power suits into Starship Troopers 3 ;P The second one was more (ofmg we’re trapped in here with the bugs outside) sort of movie though.
The book itself is sci-fi but really it is a political message or something wrapped in a sci-fi book. The government is run by the military (and vets) you have to have served a term of services to vote ect and there is more direct punishment of criminals (public lashing ect) Also the military itself is totally volunteer so you have to WANT to serve and you can literally quit at any time you feel like even right before a drop (They drop out of orbit in big metal pills that break up in orbit to provide a radar screen to the battle suits as they drop to the surface ;P) I guess it is the authors ideal utopian system of government or something.
16/11/2009 at 20:47 Alexander Norris says:
The book itself is sci-fi that was written in the 1950s and somehow still manages to read like it was written in the late 90s, with none of the stuffiness usually attributed to pre-80s sci-fi writing.
That in itself should be a pretty compelling reason to pick it up, but it’s also a very good book in addition to being well-written.
16/11/2009 at 20:47 Psychopomp says:
Surprisingly, the Starship Troopers anime mini-series was far better, and was a much more accurate rendition of the book. Main character being blond haired and blue eyes aside.
16/11/2009 at 20:49 Psychopomp says:
Continuing with what Railick said, only people who have served can vote. The underlying theory behind it, is that people who have been in war are much less likely to want to start one.
16/11/2009 at 20:51 jackflash says:
Having read the book and watched the movie, I prefer the movie. Just me, though. I didn’t think it was really one of his best novels.
16/11/2009 at 20:55 Railick says:
What I got from it wasn’t just that people who served wouldn’t want to start a war (because they obviously seem to enjoy that in the book ;P) But that serving proves that you are willing to take on the ultimate responsibility (voting) by giving the ultimate sacrifice (your life). Only people willing to pay that ultimate price where able to obtain the ultimate power, proving that they were willing to protect and serve their nation before they were able to have any say over what actually happened. That way all the politicans and voters were people that were willing to die to serve their country and really cared about it and weren’t just doing it to get power/money (Because in this case there was nothing stopping you from getting power and money in the material word without being a citizen , the main characters father is rich money wise but can’t vote)
Of course there is a bit of a twist at the end of the book regarding that which I won’t spoil for you. There is no reason not to pick it up if you like sci-fi and another bonus is the book itself is VERY short you could read it in a day easily.
My favorite older sci-fi book however has to be Ender’s Game. One of my favorite books.
Shadowcat “It hammers at my retinas like an evil woodpecker of pure energy”
16/11/2009 at 21:09 Spacewalk says:
I don’t see how anyone could not love this film, it’s two hours of antlions getting wasted and dudes getting chopped in half.
16/11/2009 at 22:01 Psychopomp says:
Imagine that they made a Citizen Kane game. Imagine it was a first person shooter, with Rosebud not being a sled, but a codeword to shut off a nuclear silo. The creator goes on to say that he couldn’t finish the movie “Because their wasn’t enough explosions and tits.”
That’s why we I the movie.
16/11/2009 at 22:05 Psychopomp says:
*why I hate
16/11/2009 at 22:52 Funky Badger says:
Rallick: lots of people assume Heinlein was a fascist because the society in Starship Troopers is – on some levels – fascistic (its what attracted Voerheoven to the project, well, that and the nudity). Some of his other stuff espouses very different societies, Stranger in a Strange Land fer instance. (Its not such a new idea, anyway, nothing that the Ancient Greeks weren’t putting into practice thousands of years ago.
17/11/2009 at 00:29 Railick says:
Yah I shouldn’t say that he was showing his own ideals in the book just AN idea that he had, I can’t say how he really felt. Still I agree with him on some points (and others are starting to come true like teenagers running around in packs and killing people, happens a lot in the US and I’m sure other places. We just had a couple of middle school kids break into an apartment and kill a child and his already paralized mother because the child’s brother made them angry. They said the little boy went to his knees and prayed for mercy and they shot him in the face, middle school kids!)
17/11/2009 at 03:26 KP says:
Heinlein explored a lot of different ideas with his writing. He was a genius – and the Heinlein Foundation supports advances in private space activities, which is awesome. http://www.heinleinprize.com/
Voerheoven, on the other hand, is a talentless hack and a toolbox.
17/11/2009 at 22:25 Eplekongen says:
I need to make one thing clear, Starship Troopers is a masterly executed parody. Not some cheap hollywood money-making blockbuster.
16/11/2009 at 20:39 FernandoDANTE says:
Glorious.
16/11/2009 at 20:49 EBass says:
Heinlein was always one of the great sci fi authors. I remember reading “Citizen of the Galaxy”, written back at the time when computers were still mechanical. He talked about needing to fashion a new “cam” to fit into the computer every time the ship entered a different atmostphere to calculate the re-entry tradectory etc.
And Starship troopers is an amazing book.
16/11/2009 at 20:51 Rai says:
Reminds me of Tribes. Jetpack and disc launcher 4 life.
16/11/2009 at 20:57 Railick says:
Tribes take a lot ideas from Starship troopers if you ask me :) They jumping (instead of straight out flying) and the weapons that seem attached to the suit for easy switching and usage. The weapons themselves don’t exactly mesh up but the general idea is similiar. (and the same tactics seem to work spreading out and jumping together to max out fire power and sensor spread while being able to support each other without actually killing each other with the cross fire)
I’ll never forget the first time I realized I was actaully good at tribes :) Skiing and jumping all over the place proving to be the one player on my team that could actually capture the flag without trouble lol.
16/11/2009 at 20:59 Rai says:
Pretty much everything with powered armor or space marines is ripped from starship troopers.
16/11/2009 at 21:08 Psychopomp says:
SPEHSS MAHREENS
16/11/2009 at 20:58 Max says:
I want the song to that video.
16/11/2009 at 21:10 anonymous hero says:
There’s a… modification that lets users of the pirated versions play on steam servers. There’s also a… modification that instantly gives you rank 70.
In the interest of research I sacrificed myself and tried both, and can confirm that they work 100%.
16/11/2009 at 21:37 Adam says:
In the interests of science you’re probably going to have your steam account disabled, at the very least VAC banned.
16/11/2009 at 23:00 Arathain says:
Remember, VAC bans work on a delay of up to a few weeks. Enjoy your gaming while you can.
17/11/2009 at 09:16 anonymous hero says:
Eh. A senior researcher like me knows that steam doesn’t appreciate science, so he creates a new account.
16/11/2009 at 21:11 Ratty says:
The main point about this is that the dedi code is THERE.
Forget the arsehole floating thru the air etc (they just wanted to show off I guess) … It means that the stuff is already there & can be added in at anytime.
Time IW did the ‘it was just an experiment to see how IWNET was received – here ya go’ bit..
The dll / hooks etc can easily (i hope) be banned etc.
Plz, juzt let us have our dedi’s back plz :(
/crys
16/11/2009 at 21:15 seras says:
the song is “moar ghosts n whatever” by DeadMau5
16/11/2009 at 22:08 Shadrach says:
Couldn’t care less about MW2 but that vid was awesome. If thats what the kids wanna play I say good on em, at least they have somewhere to let off steam and bother us adults in our serious online games :) And I’m amazed someone figured this out so quick.
16/11/2009 at 22:17 WilPal says:
Owned.
16/11/2009 at 23:35 An Innocuous Coin says:
…you know, I haven’t been keeping terribly close track of MW2 – I think thats the first time I’ve seen it in motion for very long.
Now when I get around to buying it I’ll be expecting constant low-grav and explosions everywhere. :(
16/11/2009 at 23:35 unclelou says:
Starship Troopers is good. It’s extremely satiric (starting with the awesome cast, with the male and female lead looking like Barbie dolls) without ever betraying the genre. A very, very clever film.
16/11/2009 at 23:50 derfalconer says:
Exactly. Never understood why people got mad that it is the way it is, it really wasnt going for the straight transcription out of the book style. It’s just a hillarious romp through space with giant guns, giant bugs, cheesy characters, cheesy one liners, and somewhere there is a political statement about gung ho-ness of going to war and the reality of it.
17/11/2009 at 11:24 Tei says:
On other news…
A faifhfull version of Starship Troppers will play almost exactly like a Irak or Afganistan movie.
16/11/2009 at 23:53 M.P. says:
This reminds me of the Quake 3 “Excessive” mod and looks far more fan than conventional MW2 gameplay! :)
17/11/2009 at 00:17 Pod says:
Is this actually a dedicated server? Or just a normal listen server with rampant consolefoolery?
17/11/2009 at 00:17 wcaypahwat says:
And neil patrick harris.
17/11/2009 at 00:53 Ace says:
Quake players in Call of Duty. Weird.
17/11/2009 at 00:54 Jetsetlemming says:
Shit man, I’m sorry RPS. I completely forgot about you guys and sent the tip to Dtoid instead. :(
17/11/2009 at 01:23 tigg says:
also known as “God”.
17/11/2009 at 01:23 tigg says:
well this was supposed to go somewhere else
17/11/2009 at 06:08 Clippit says:
No, CoD players in CoD. Obviously. Not only would Quake players not buy CoD (too busy playing quake, see), but they wouldn’t just spam grenades either. They would take it very, very seriously and choose the most effective hitscan weapon to reach the score limit as quickly as possible. Then they would type “gg” and leave to find a more hardcore server.
17/11/2009 at 06:11 bildo says:
You shouldn’t have to make a work around for dedicated servers. I’m beginning to lose faith in developers but most of all their producers. I’m willing to bed it was activisions idea to scrap ded. servers not infinity wards – you have to do what the pub. says, right? Does anyone know for sure?
17/11/2009 at 12:55 Strife says:
You do know the 360 version has more than 1,000,000 people simultaneously logged on?
80,000 is truly pitifull.
17/11/2009 at 12:56 Strife says:
You do know the 360 version has more than 1,000,000 people simultaneously logged on?
80,000 is truly pitiful.
17/11/2009 at 15:54 bill says:
People’s ingenuity never ceases to impress me.
But the 3% thing is pretty meaningless if we don’t have Steam sales figures. I doubt anyone even attempts to find the PC games in retail stores anymore… and it seems to have been in the top 10 steam bestsellers charts for a very long time.
17/11/2009 at 17:23 Ashen says:
Nice try. The entire xbox live service passed 2 million simultaneous users just recently. This includes everyone logged in, regardless of whether they’re playing a multi-player game or not.
This is about the as the number of concurrent Steam users logged in.
17/11/2009 at 18:22 Maniac11919 says:
You see what happens, Larry? You see what happens when you fuck a stranger in the ass? This is what happens. You see what happens, Larry?!
17/11/2009 at 22:50 Eplekongen says:
You see what happens, Larry? You see what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps? This is what happens. You see what happens, Larry?!
18/11/2009 at 14:35 Mr Rud says:
I have nothing against pc “elite” players / whiners about dedi server etc. But seeing this vid makes me think: “They want dedicated servers for this crap ?”. I know that in reality Dedicated servers give a lot of ups and options, but i’d prefer a closed, console like system to the lack of original game modes (a friend of mine complaints about shortage of servers runnin the original version of TF2).
vids like this annoy me as much as RPG hardcore team-killers on COD4 …
18/11/2009 at 14:41 TotalBiscuit says:
That’s absurd. The video was made to show what can be done, not what should be done. And besides, who are you to judge how people want to play a game they paid for? With that kind of attitude, niche game types like low-grav instagib would have never existed.
The closed off system is garbage, PC gamers don’t have to stand for that shit.
18/11/2009 at 14:58 Malibu Stacey says:
Lets not get hung up on things like facts though shall we when there’s good hard internet rumour mongering to be done.
They’re not actually using a dedicated server for that. It’s simple console commands in the regular game client. (oops I said it out loud, apolgies. if it makes it any better you can pretend you didn’t read it & carry on the angry internet mob).
Mr Rud I agree with your friend’s complaints about the lack of “vanilla” TF2 servers. Thankfully there are a few UK communities who do run such things (tell him to look up http://www.viaclan.com & http://www.thehh.co.uk for server IP’s). What’s the point in dev’s taking the time to playtest & balance a game if server admins are going to simply go “OMG RESPAWN R 2 LONG MAKE IT INSTANT” etc.
18/11/2009 at 14:56 Mr Rud says:
“And besides, who are you to judge how people want to play a game they paid for?”
if someone plays a game in a different way and it damages me because he gets more attention than me (more and better servers), i DO care.
I wanted to point out the fact that customization is important, but if you neglect the core play and give more importance to mods, than the customer who wants the core game (like me) has every right to complain.
I can give you an example: I used to play COD4 on Pc, than the PROMOD came and all the servers that my clan had turned magicaly to promod. in this way I became a minority and I got neglected over a mod that, in fact, turned the game to a cod2 restyling (with sprint).
i was a bit ironical over the video (i believe mods can be REALLY great), but abusing them for this crap is wrong, thats it.