I really can't believe that people are surprised. I called it in this very thread! It's on the f'n box art!

Nonsense! Haven't you heard?! It's Call of Duty 4.5!

Another preview: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/modern-warfare-2...

Spec Ops sounds awesome. 4.5FTW!

Yeah, heard that earlier today. It is like they are telling PC gamers, "Just get the console version because the best things about PC gaming (ded servers, mods) aren't gonna be allowed."

Wow, that's the most depressing thing I've read in a while. RIP COD.

Yup.. I can't even wrap my head around it. How out of touch is IW with the needs of their PC fanbase? How could they even think that this would register as acceptable? I'm not against integrating features into their game to make it more newbie friendly, but why would you rip the heart and soul out of your game? It's just sad. And the ignorance on the IW forums is astounding. All these people complaining about the people complaining! One dude even said that the worst 360 player would school the best PC player.. because we need mods to perform. I assure this noob, that he is welcome to come try to play on a seasoned promod pub, and he'll see just how good (read: bad) he really is!

I'm not buying it without mods and dedicated servers. It's as simple as that. My GOTY just got gutted.

:(

Well, 4chan pretty much killed any shot this had at becoming a dialog. The official forums are a mess. It's a shame.

IW knows what they're doing, I think that's the worst part. They've been around long enough to know that their PC fans would be crushed by this. This is just another attempt from a big, soulless publisher to establish power and control over what has remained an unregulated domain. By forcing players into match made games, controlling the service, and denying the community mod tools, Activision is in total control. I wouldn't even be surprised if this was all about downloadable content, no matter the cost.

And you know what? Most gamers wouldn't even care about that. Hell, casual gamers aren't even going to care about the restrictions of being tied down to peer-to-peer gaming, if it were to come to that. But the PC is in its very nature an enthusiast's platform. We didn't start gaming yesterday, and it's about time that publishers started treating us as such. If you're looking for ways to broaden your audience, go ahead, but you don't need to sacrifice us in the process. This shits all over a variety of different groups.

There's a huge esports community on the PC, and Call of Duty 4 is immensely popular in those circles. We need dedicated servers for matches and scrims, we need them for the PUGS on IRC, and we need mods so we can make the game work in competition. Many of us have migrated from other franchises. Some of us were Medal of Honor players; some of us came from Battlefield; and others are Counter Strike and TF2 players. Call of Duty 4 drew many new people to the franchise, and it was a shot in the arm for clans all over the world. It's worth noting that we don't actually need Infinity Ward, we just love their game.. but when push comes to shove, we'll move on to something else.

Another thing that people aren't even really discussing right now, is that this will likely prohibit any sort of LAN support. This may be important to an even smaller group than the online clan community, but it's still a bit part of the total picture.

There's also a lot of gaming communities on the PC. This may sound strange to the uninitiated, but there are "clans" that exist simple for the purpose of pubbing. They run their own servers, and it's a more social experience than you're likely to find anywhere else. It's a niche for sure.. but it's still part of what makes PC gaming unique and special.

And then there's the thousands of modders and gamers who don't fall into these specific categories, but are still going to be categorically affected by this. None of these people were born yesterday, dammit, they all have expectations as consumers and well.. Activision is not delivering.

I'm not as mad as I am disappointed. Especially because IW already considered all of this. They had to, because they weren't born yesterday either.

Shame on them.

Control + DLC sales. They want to see if its viable to continue in this to maybe enforce matchmaking on the PC platform. They think if 'you' want it bad enough (which a lot of people do) they'll be able to walk you to a point where you won't even question the idea of coming back.Anyway, I smell a Grift article in the works. At least I'd better. Or shame on you.