Modern Warfare 2 - No dedicated servers?

[Xelloss]

Acevil said:

Xelloss said:

Correct, I do not expect this title to reach top 10 for the year in the slightest, not on PC. Because this is not a casual vs hardcore thing, having dedicated servers and communities and stable places to play actually enable the casual gamers as much or more than the hardcore FPS gamers.

In my experience, over many years in the community, is multiplayer games sell well when they get word of mouth.. when people you know, either online or off talk about a game and say "come play with me/us". Well, in MW this will not be happening on the PC platform because nearly everyone who plays FPS games at all will be so sorely dissapointed. And you wont be able to have your friends just come play.

People on PC will not typically be able to play a game with decent latency, let alone decent latency with their online friends.. no large servers, just peer to peer listen servers... I really do not think many in the PC crowd will eat this game up, or go on playing it. It certainly will not get the viral effect in clan/guild chats and ventrillos across the world, where a few ppl get a game, say how great it is, and get more and more people to come play. ( like happened with CS, BF2, L4D, etc)

I do think that there is a decent chunk of people who may just get the console version instead, so perhaps it wont be lost sale for IW.... but its actually the casuals who are being most turned-off. No dedicated server = hassle and effort to find a decent , stable game that isnt massively laggy. The frustrated and disillusioned casual fan, who does not play competitively or even play tons of hours but likes playing in a stable community with maps, rules and friends that they are comfortable with is the reason this ploy by IW will backfire.

Xboxes are cheap compared to PCs capable of playing new FPS games... I think it is safe to say that the vast majority of people who like console style online are already playing their FPS on consoles.

Interesting point of view, I still think majority will be suckered in, based on perception of the first modern warfare. I personally do not truly know how Call of Duty 4 or World at War are percieved on the PC front, so one would have to clear that up for me. I am under the perception that it was favorable reaction. 

I am starting to see the big picture, but the fourth paragraph describes something that might happen after the casual audience purchases the game with expectations that will not be matched.What I can see is the next version of Call of Duty doing horribly based on what you described in the fourth paragraph. 

Personally I would want to know real data for PC games. It will be interesting to see how this will do in the first week, month and year. If what you described to be true, it will have horrible month and year. Remember I still believe a certain audience will mistakenly buy the game in the first week. 

I'm just skepitical of certain things, given this is not the market that I know too much about. 

Finally this is your second post? Welcome to vgchartz.

@Salaminizer One can truely hope that sales are significantly lower, but this might result in activision pointing fingures at the PC gaming crowd, like they did with Call of Duty 4 and Piracy.

 CoD 4 was percieved fairly well as a good game to pass time in, and hang out in. It had good GFX and gameplay, but on PC from my experience it was largely a "are you gonna play it? , ya? ok I will go grab it as well". Noone that I personally know, cared about the single player, it was all about large battlefield servers and playing with your friends. There is also a fairly large segment that plays it more competitivly on modded servers that make some balance changes, but thats not really my crowd though I do know a few people who fit in that segment.

 The fourth paragraph indeed covers release more than pre-release, though I do think most PC gamers who get the news prior to launch will understand the ramifications and feel the same way. But yes, mostly it was my roundabout way of saying " I do not think the game will have legs like many other PC FPS titles do, and thus will not make top10 or even 20 for the year on PC". Now, though I think this issue is definately hampering launch sales with rampant anecdotal reports of cancelled preorders, and even whole shops cancelling their incoming shipments excepting pre-orders..... but I do see your point that with all the marketing and hype and CoD name, still may see signifigant launch sales. I just do not think that a somewhat hampered launch week alone will be enough to make the game a signifigant long term player in the PC market.

I think a lot will also depend on what the real ratio is between "connected" and " un-connected" casual FPS gamers. Most of the casual FPS gamers I know, are casual about FPS but more into other game types. The MMO guilds, RTS clans, multi-game ventrillo communities etc. They are "connected" to online communities. I think word is spreading quickly among this "connected" casual crowd, however less connected folk who dont follow forums etc will probably not get the memo, and indeed go ahead with the game purchase. It will be interesting, perhaps MW2 will give us a glimpse as to what the ratio between "connected" casual FPS and hardcore FPS gamers is, compared to "non-connected" people who just occasionally buy a game, play it a while, and never integrate themselves into any lasting online community.

 But I concede that launch sales may still be in the hundreds of thousands... it will be very difficult to tell. I personally think that digital distribution now surpasses retail brick and mortar sales of PC games overall, but again that is just my hunch and educated guess... and I have no real way of proving that one way or another, but in any case it has to be a large enough portion of overall sales by now that not having data for it makes it very difficult to judge real sales. ( Also, I will say that as a general rule - digital distro far far outranks PC game sales among the "connected" crowd but I have no idea what the ratio between connected and non-connected PC gamers is" )

 One interesting marker though, will be how long MW2 stays atop the Steam sales charts. CoD4 actually topped them for quite a while, then rotated between 1~3 for weeks. If MW4 falls from the number1 position within the first few days I think it will be a pretty strong indicator. No hard numbers, but it will still be telling if some " B game" release knocks it from #1 within the first few days.

 Also, thanks for the welcome.