Angrytank Time: COD:MW2 PC Delayed
Come on everybody! Climb aboard! This is the Angrytank Express, headed direct to Stop Screwing Over The PC You Massive Bastards city. Like pretty much every fuggin' thing that has a multi-platform release, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on PC has, it now transpires, been delayed. Only by a fortnight, but still - for God's sakes. Toot toot! The Angrytank Is Go!
The facts - Modern Warfare 2 is released on November 10th for the consoles, but November 24th for PC. LOAD THE RAGE TORPEDO.
On its own, it's not something I'd be firing up the Angrytank for, but the number of other games that have been delayed, most especially their PC versions, means us merry bunch aren't going to have the merry time that those merrier console types will in November. No official reason's been given for this betrayalette of the platform that launched Call of Duty, but it's horribly easy to conjecture wildly and recklessly.
Bitter Theory Number One, Activision-Blizzard doesn't really give a monkey's epiglottis about PC, compared to the mega-sales it'll surely lure on PS3 and 360. That we at RPS have essentially never had any communication with anyone at Actard about any of their games certainly makes me reach for my tinfoil hat in this regard. They don't do much these days to suggest the PC is an important platform to them anymore. Could it be a case of get the console launches as right as possible, and grudgingly finish up the PC version and whatever packing/DRM/whatever is necessary once that's all done?
Bitter Theory Number Two, could it be fears of piracy - making sure leeched launch-week copies of MW2 PC don't disrupt the -ahahahahah - torrent of console sales? It's possible, and a theory that's frequently raised in response to this kind of news. Forever a contentious argument, but not one that looks like it'll go away in a hurry.
Or is it to ensure MW2 PC is absolutely, bang-on perfect right? I'd hope for the latter - and it's certainly fair to say Infinity Ward have never let down this platform in that regard. Even MW1, for all its barnstorming console success, had a robust and beautiful PC version rather than a case of Pull The Magic 'Port' Lever. Hopefully we're on track for a similarly shiny experience, and perhaps that extra fortnight is necessary to ensure it. So if MW2 turns out to be a wobbly port, I'm adding an extra turret to my angrytank.
Or it's just a manufacturing/distribution snafu, in which case I'm being quite the drama queen. Still, this is the biggest games publisher in the world - surely they can work out how to make a bunch of plastic discs on time?
And so the Angrytank pauses for a moment, unsure whether or not to roll furiously onwards. What should it do?