The Last of Usinspired no shortage of takes when it first released back in 2013. The HBO TV adaptation has been no different. Like a massive EpiPen of stimulus for the take economy in middle of winter, it has elicited both over-the-top praise, scornful dismissals, and everything in-between. But what is potentially the worst take of all wasn’t born until today.
“Hi FTC — did you catch last night’s episode of The Last of Us?” tweeted Activision Blizzard’s Executive Vice President of Corporates Affairs and Chief Communications Officer, Lulu Cheng Meservey. “It was incredible.” What followed from the Call of Duty publisher’s recently hired serial poster was a cringey thread about how The Last of Us TV show proves Microsoft should be allowed to acquire the company for $69 billion.
For those who might be living under a rock and don’t know: The Last of Us is a harrowing tale about love, loss, and redemption in a world brought to its knees by pandemic. This week’s especially intimate and emotional episode moved many to tears. It moved Meservey to post about how the largest acquisition in the history of tech raises no red flags.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have been on the offensive ever since the Federal Trade Commission launched an anti-trust lawsuit against them, seemingly with the intent to wriggle loose a few more concessions before eventually letting the deal go through. It is a multi-faceted, omni-directional campaign that has Microsoft repeatedly talking about how much it sucks compared to Sony, both in terms of making games and now in terms of making TV shows. That was certainly the sentiment Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer conveyed last week when asked to compareThe Last of Us TV show to the Halo TV show.
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“Sony’s talent and IP across gaming, TV, movies, and music are formidable and truly impressive,” Meservey tweeted today. “It’s no wonder they also continue to dominate as the market leader for consoles. In gaming, Sony is ‘the first of us’ – and they will be just fine without the FTC’s protection.”
Developers at the Boston-based gaming studio Proletariat announced plans to unionize on Tuesday. If successful, roughly 60 employees there who worked on World of Warcraft’s new Dragonflight expansion would join the growing ranks of organized labor across parent company Activision Blizzard and beyond.
The group, called the Proletariat Workers Alliance, is unionizing with the Communications Workers of America and says it has a supermajority of support among qualifying staff at the studio. While it has filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, it’s also calling on Activision Blizzard to voluntarily recognize the union in a break with the Call of Duty publishers’ attempts to stall and sabotage similar efforts at its other studios.
“Everyone in the video game industry knows Activision Blizzard’s reputation for creating a hostile work environment, so earlier this year, when we heard that Blizzard was planning to acquire Proletariat, we started to discuss how we could protect the great culture we have created here,” Dustin Yost, a software engineer at the studio, said in a press release. “By forming a union and negotiating a contract, we can make sure that we are able to continue doing our best work and create innovative experiences at the frontier of game development.”
The Proletariat Workers Alliance would be unique among gaming unions for representing all non-management staff at the studio, rather than just quality assurance staff as is the case at Raven Software, Blizzard Albany, and unionization efforts currently underway at Microsoft’s Bethesda studios. The Proletariat developers list flexible PTO, optional remote work, no mandatory overtime, and policies fostering diversity, equality and inclusion among the demands they plan to negotiate at the bargaining table if the union drive is successful.
Activision Blizzard didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about whether it would voluntarily recognize the union or try to fight it as it has previous efforts within the company. The publisher recently tried to block Blizzard Albany’s union on the grounds that allowing only QA to unionize would hurt the development of games like Diablo IV. Ultimately, the NLRB didn’t buy it, but in Proletariat’s case those concerns would be moot anyway since a studio-wide vote is exactly what the workers are asking for.
Proletariat was founded in 2012 by former Zynga, Insomniac Games, and Harmonix developers, funded by venture capital and investments from companies like Take-Two. It’s best-known release prior to joining Blizzard was Spellbreak, a free-to-play magic shooter that came out in 2020. The game was eventually shut down this past June, however, and Proletariat was acquired to work on World of Warcraft the following month.
“At Proletariat, we have always emphasized looking out for each other as people, and we’re committed to preserving what is best about our studio,” James Van Nuland, an associate game producer at Proletariat, said today. “We are in this together.”
The Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914 gives Americans the right to sue companies over anticompetitive behavior, a fact which 10 self-described gamers are using to take Microsoft to court, aiming to halt the company’s acquisition of Activision.
As reported by Bloomberg Law, the complaint, filed today and obtained by Kotaku, states that the plaintiffs, or “video gamers” as they’re described, are concerned that “the [Microsoft and Activision] merger may substantially lessen competition or tend to create a monopoly;” this merger, the complaint states, would specifically be in violation of Section 7 of the Clayton Act, which states that acquisitions that diminish competition are prohibited under U.S. antitrust law. The complaint not only cites the scale and scope of the Activision and Microsoft merger as problematic, but also that this latest proposed union follows numerous other Microsoft acquisitions ranging from its 2014 purchase of Mojang all the way up to its acquisition of Rare in 2022.
Thoroughly laying out console, PC, and AAA gaming, as well as subscription services as “Relevant Product Markets,” the suit calls attention to just how many large franchises will fall under Microsoft’s corporate umbrella should the merger go through. Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Minecraft, Doom, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Halo, and The Elder Scrolls are just some of the cited examples. It maintains that currently Microsoft and Activision compete directly through these titles and services like Battle.net, the Microsoft Store, and Game Pass. The merger would shatter that competitive dynamic.
Should the merger go through, the suit claims, Microsoft would hold “outsized market power and the ability to foreclose key inputs to rivals and further harm competition.” The suit mentions competition both whereas it concerns sales to consumers, as well as the competition in the industry to “hire and retain talent within specialized video game labor,” which would be “lessened” under the merger.
Kotaku has reached out to Microsoft for comment.
The proposed MIcrosoft / Activision merger has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since its initial announcement. Perhaps most worrying for Microsoft is the recently filed lawsuit from the FTC. The feds allege that, should this merger go through, it would pose serious harm to competition in the video game industry, citing past behavior of Microsoft to prioritize Xbox and Windows PCs as platforms for its games. Microsoft has disagreed, stating that the Activision acquisition would “bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before.”
Speaking of Call of Duty, in response to criticisms of its intended merger with Activision, Microsoft has pledged to continue to deliver Call of Duty to other platformsfor at least 10 years. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has categorized Sony’s criticisms of the acquisition as an attempt to “protect its dominant position on console” and that it seeks to grow by “making Xbox smaller.”
If you like soccer and PvE shooter experiences, the latest Call of Duty Season 01 Reloaded has a double whammy for you. Modern Warfare II gets the first-ever CoD raid, while Warzone has a limited-time event for all of you foosball fans. My personal favorite mode, DMZ, got some love too!
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II and its free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone 2.0 just received a substantial content update. Serving up traditional team-based multiplayer game types, battle royales, and PvE modes like DMZ, CoD has a ton of different modes these days. As such, updates like today’s Season 01 Reloaded are jam-packed with a ton of new stuff for the game’s many modes. The usual tweaks, both subtle and obvious—shotgun damage sure feels weaker—are here as well. Let’s get into it.
Call of Duty’s First Raid
Yep, today CoD got its first raid. CoD is noDestiny or World of Warcraft, so it’s easy to imagine dozens of jokers running around in League skins hop-skipping around corners. But fear not: The all-new Raid mode is a three-person mission (no matchmaking) available within Modern Warfare II.
This means you’ll need to buy the full 70-dollar version of the game to play it. But that’s not all. CoD also requires you do one of the following to unlock the raid:
Complete a specific Daily Challenge in either Multiplayer or Special Ops
Place within the top 20 in any Warzone 2.0 Battle Royale Playlist
Exfiltrate DMZ with $30,000 in cash
Doing either of these will give you a Raid Assignment, which lasts for a week. You need a Raid Assignment to play the raid.
These tasks aren’t too onerous, so most folks should be able to get into the raid quickly. But what do you do then? Well, the Season 01 Reloaded update describes the raid as an “exciting mix of combat and puzzles for three-person teams to explore.” But it’s also tied into MWII’s campaign narrative. As this is the first raid, billed as “Episode 1,” we likely have some more to look forward to.
The story picks up from the end of Modern Warfare II’s campaign. And if you ask me, that’s not a bad thing. The first half of Modern Warfare II had me so bored I wanted to play Haze as a palate cleanser, but honestly, the latter half got really fun. Maybe we’ll even be treated to more sexy whispers from our boy Ghost.
While the raid homework and matchmaking requirements are a drag, I think the general concept of raiding concept has potential, and it’s certainly fun in games like Destiny. CoD sure as hell has the crunchy mechanics to make it satisfying, so let’s see how it goes.
Warzone 2.0 World Cup
While I certainly have never thought “I wish there were more sports in my video games,” I know some people are into that big soccer thing that’s going on right now. CoD is here to satisfy your sportsball love with a limited-time mode that features a big-ass soccer ball, a regular-sized field, ATVs, and shock sticks. First team to five goals wins.
If I’m being honest, you might be better off spending your time with Rocket League or some kinda weird Halo custom game. The sentiment is appreciated, but this mode feels a little too wonky in my initial playtesting.
The Warzone World Cup goes from December 14 to the 23.
DMZ Changes and Updates
If you’re into DMZ, Santa came early. There’s a new area, “Building 21” and brand-new keys scattered throughout Al Mazrah. They grant access to a mysterious new location “outside of Al Mazrah and into a hyper-dangerous new area of DMZ.” While I’m more than used to hyper-dangerous BS in DMZ, other additions should hopefully help make the game’s most awesome mode a little more survivable.
While there’s zero mention of fixing the telepathic AI’s ability to shoot you through fucking walls, DMZ will now see increased self revives, gas masks, field upgrades, plat carriers, backpacks, and far less of the things you don’t need, namely electronic components and toothpaste. RIP your dental hygiene.
One new option allows eliminated players to join an enemy squad by pleading for help. I haven’t yet tried this out, but to me it sounds more like offering to help. Regardless, sometimes it’s really frustrating when another operator team takes you out when you weren’t even interested in screwing them over. Now at least you’ll have a chance to hop back in more quickly.
Screenshot: Activision / Kotaku
Successfully exfiltrating will also reward a random perk now as well; perks like Scavenger, for example. You’ll get more for each subsequent successful exfil, making a successful exit even more valuable.
Read More:Call of Duty: Warzone 2: What’s Worth Knowing About Loadouts And Perks
Kotaku has reached out to Activision to ask for clarity about the changes to backpacks, which apparently grant a third weapon slot if you have a medium or large pack equipped. This seems to be how backpacks operated already, but maybe there’s a fine detail I’m missing.
Season 01 New Map and Weapon Balance Changes
Sit down, because you’re either about to feel real happy or real angry: Shotguns no longer one-shot a fully armored opponent. That means chuckleheads like me who run around with silenced shotguns to deliver quiet one-hit blasts as if we’re Anton Chigurh or something are out of luck. But that’s okay, because goofs who strap a riot shield to their backs will now suffer nerfed movement speed and melee damage. Serves them right.
You’ll want to check the patch notes for specifics if you use the MX9, M13B, Kastov-74u, VEL 47, Basilisk, .50 GS, Expedite 12, or JOKR.
Read More:Warzone 2.0: The Most Efficient Ways To complete M4 Camo Challenges
Modern Warfare II’s core multiplayer modes are also getting a familiar location. Shipment, a classic CoD map, will include a few changes as per a tweet from the official CoD account a few days ago:
And while I’m sure many may have fond memories of Shipment, I am here to warn you about this thing. Folks, I played two rounds on this map and it was my most nonsensical, frustrating shooter experience in recent memory. MWII already has a quick-as-hell TTK, so a map of narrow corridors set at night, clouded with tons of smoke from explosions and smoke grenades, means that this is nothing but a pre-fire fest of literally three-seconds-till-your-dead bullshit. But your mileage may vary.
Season 01 Reloaded Quality of Life Changes
Don’t you hate it when you activate an XP bonus token and have no way of seeing how much time is left? That changes today. Time left on a bonus token will now show in the lobby, and you can even activate them mid-game in the pause menu. I know I forget to activate those all the time, so that’s a huge plus.
But perhaps one of my personal favorite changes here is that joining a game already in progress won’t count as a loss if you lose. I get mid-game joining. Ya gotta keep the servers running I suppose. But nothing’s worse than getting into a match that’s clearly destined for failure and is too far gone to save. If win/loss stats are important to you, worry no more.
A number of other small changes include tweaks to UI, the addition of a toggle option for the ping wheel, and UI elements that clarify weapon-tuning capabilities and stat indicators. Call of Duty’s weapon loadout and upgrade system can be a little bewildering, so it’s nice to see some attention there.
All told, there’s a lot of cool stuff to check out. The DMZ features are by far the most interesting to me, but I’d be lying if I said that raid wasn’t a tempting siren song, especially if there’s more of it on the way. Once I manage to wrangle together two other players, I’ll be sure to report back on how this odd new addition is shaping up.
Call of Duty might be one of the most popular series on the planet, but it’s not exactly the kind of game you think of when you picture the Nintendo Switch. So in one way it’s very strange to see Microsoft come out tonight and announce a “10-year commitment” to release CoD games on Nintendo platforms, starting with the Switch.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer made the announcement on Twitter, along with an identical pledge to continue bringing CoD games to Steam as well:
Microsoft has entered into a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard King. Microsoft is committed to helping bring more games to more people – however they choose to play.
I‘m also pleased to confirm that Microsoft has committed to continue to offer Call of Duty on Steam simultaneously to Xbox after we have closed the merger with Activision Blizzard King.
He’s making these pledges, of course, not because there’s much of a market for CoD on the Switch, but because his company (Microsoft) is in the process of trying to close a deal to purchase the company that owns Call of Duty (Activision), a deal that is coming under increasing scrutiny from governments not just in the US, but abroad as well.
The Call of Duty series is a key stumbling block in that deal, with various governments indicating that locking the popular series away behind one platform will create an unfair monopoloy in the video game business.
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That’s why reports surfaced last week suggesting that Microsoft would be looking at doing a 10-year deal with Sony, their primary competitors in the console space, in an attempt to allay those fears. Those reports, however, didn’t mention Nintendo or Valve’s Steam platform, so tonight’s announcement is clearly aimed across Sony’s bow in an attempt to isolate them and force their hand (even if it was also slightly telegraphed last month).
It’s important to note that these are just pledges aimed at greasing some wheels and looking better in the eyes of those sceptical governments; Spencer won’t be in a position to actually do this unless the Activision purchase goes through. And even if it does, there will be questions; as Spencer says in this interview with the Washington Post, promising to bring Call of Duty to the Switch is one thing, getting it running on Nintendo’s hardware is a whole other matter.
Interestingly, while the Nintendo side of the pledge stands out for its odd fit and potential technical woes, the Valve commitment seems far more casual, with Gabe Newell telling Kotaku in a statement:
We’re happy that Microsoft wants to continue using Steam to reach customers with Call of Duty when their Activision acquisition closes. Microsoft has been on Steam for a long time and we take it as a signal that they are happy with gamers reception to that and the work we are doing. Our job is to keep building valuable features for not only Microsoft but all Steam customers and partners.
Microsoft offered and even sent us a draft agreement for a long-term Call of Duty commitment but it wasn’t necessary for us because a) we’re not believers in requiring any partner to have an agreement that locks them to shipping games on Steam into the distant future b) Phil and the games team at Microsoft have always followed through on what they told us they would do so we trust their intentions and c) we think Microsoft has all the motivation they need to be on the platforms and devices where Call of Duty customers want to be.
(Call of Duty has been on Steam for a long time in total, but the series has only just returned after a five-year hiatus locked away behind Activision’s own launcher, exactly the kind of restriction the various governmental objections to the proposed merger are worried about!)
Microsoft is making big moves and Game Pass is just one piece of the puzzle. The subscription service has kept Xbox Series X/S relevant despite the lack of recent conversation-stealing first-party exclusives, but the company seems to be setting its sights on the mobile space for its next big gaming push. While PS5 console warriors argue over Call of Duty exclusivity, Microsoft is positioning Apple and Google as its real rivals.
That may just be a convenient pivot amid unprecedented antitrust scrutiny as it attempts to get its $69 billion takeover of Activision Blizzard through regulators in the U.S. and abroad. But it’s a convincing one when you consider that Apple’s total revenue from gaming surpassed both Microsoft and Nintendo last year despite the fact that the iPhone manufacturer doesn’t actually make games. Here are nine interesting takeaways from recent earnings calls, regulatory filings, and interviews that begin to fill in a picture of Xbox’s present and future.
Game Pass is growing a ton on PC
While Game Pass’ best library of games is on console, it’s actually the PC side of the service that’s building up steam. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella confirmed on the company’s most recent earnings call that PC Game Pass subscribers grew 159 percent from a year ago. The PC version’s game library has certainly improved in recent months, but the larger install base is likely an even bigger factor. “We’re seeing incredible growth on PC which is really where we’re focused,” Spencer said at WSJ Tech Live.
Game Pass is reaching its limit on console
Despite reaching 25 million subscribers overall, Game Pass’ overall growth is still far below Microsoft’s initial expectations. As Axios reports, the company was targeting 73 percent growth for the year ending June 2022, and instead only reached 28 percent.
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On Xbox Series X/S, meanwhile, Spencer seems fairly confident that Game Pass will never be more than 15 percent of Microsoft’s total content and services revenue. “I don’t think it gets bigger than that,” Spencer said at WSJ Tech Live. “At some point you’ve just reached everyone on console who wants to subscribe.”
Microsoft knows it’s overdue for a big first-party exclusive
Part of the reason behind Game Pass stalling on console could be the lack of major exclusives. Spencer recently admitted that they’ve been missing overall from the company’s lineup recently. “One thing we’ve heard loud and clear is that it’s been too long since we’ve shipped kind of what people would say is a big first-party game,” he said on the Same Brain podcast. “We can have our excuses on covid and other things but in the end I know people invest in our platform and they want to have great games.”
At the same time, he suggested the era of covid-related game delays was over, at least for Microsoft first-party studios. Don’t expect the great holiday drought of 2022 to persist into next year, in other words. While Starfield and Redfall are both due out in the first half of next year, major releases like Fable, Forza Motorsport 8, Avowed, and others are still waiting in the wings.
The rumored streaming device for TVs was shelved (literally)
Project Keystone was supposed to be a dongle for TVs that would let you stream Game Pass in the living room without needing an Xbox. It was rumored to be coming right around the corner, but Spencer confirmed it was actually canceled in favor of more limited solutions through Smart TV makers like Samsung. That Keystone prototype he keeps on his shelf? Not going into production. “Will we do a streaming device at some point?” he said at WSJ Tech Live. “I suspect we will, but I think it’s years away.”
The company’s serious about an Xbox store on mobile
Microsoft hinted at its ambitions to begin competing in the smartphone space earlier this year, but a recent regulatory filing in the UK lays out the plans more clearly. “[Buying Activision Blizzard] will improve Microsoft’s ability to create a next generation game store which operates across a range of devices, including mobile as a result of the addition of Activision Blizzard’s content,” the company wrote in October.
Spencer doubled down on that vision at WSJ Tech Live, criticizing the 30 percent cut Apple and Google take of in-app purchases on their platforms, and arguing that the $69 billion acquisition is a play for making mobile more competitive rather than getting a stranglehold on the console market. “We have to break that duopoly of only two storefronts available on the major [mobile] platforms,” he said. It’s not clear how the company plans to do that, but more acquisitions, potentially in the mobile space, aren’t off the table.
Xbox Series X and S consoles are sold at a huge loss
While it’s been well understood that console makers often sell the devices at a loss, especially early in a new release cycle, we’ve never known exactly how big those losses were. In no uncertain terms, Spencer recently copped to the Xbox Series X and S losing Microsoft between $100 and $200 on average.
That’s the company’s defense for charging the same 30 percent fees on Xbox that it complains about Apple and Google charging on mobile, where smartphones are sold at a profit. At the same time, it’s also made the Xbox Series S a huge success. The company announced during its most recent earnings call that half of all the $300 Xbox’s users are completely new to the ecosystem.
Prices will go up in the future
Don’t expect that level of discount forever though. While Spencer didn’t get specific, he hinted during WSJ Tech Live that price hikes are coming. “We’ve held price on console, we’ve held price on games for us, and our subscription,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be able to do that forever, I think at some point we’ll have to raise prices on some things.”
While he didn’t say which things those would be, Game Pass and individual game prices seem like the obvious bets. Subscription services across the board have been increasing their renewal costs recently, and Spencer pointed out that the $60 price point, which Microsoft held for Halo Infinite, is outdated and doesn’t reflect the growing costs of development or the additional hours many players get out of modern games.
Call of Duty is staying on PlayStation
Microsoft has been clearer than ever in recent weeks that it has no plans to make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. “It’s not a plan of, okay, we’re going to bait and switch somebody where they gotta play on the cloud or in two or three years we’re going to pull [Call of Duty],” Spencer said at WSJ Tech Live. “As long as there’s a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation,” he said on Same Brain. He likened it to Minecraft which continues to be supported on PlayStation, and said he’d even like to see Call of Duty on Switch in some form.
Don’t expect a Microsoft VR metaverse anytime soon
“For me building a metaverse that looks like a meeting room—I just find that’s not where I want to spend most of my time,” Spencer said at WSJ Tech Live, despite his boss announcing Microsoft Meetings integration with Meta’s Horizons VR dystopia just weeks prior. The veteran gaming executive said he thinks companies should work on perfecting 2D gaming metaverses before moving them into virtual reality.
Anyone playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, which got released today,on Xbox or PC is finding themselves in the shallow video game trenches, but not the kind they had hoped for. Infinity Ward’s first-person shooter seems to have a console preference, with Xbox players unable toswitch offcrossplay, a function that allows people on different platforms to play together, through the actual game. Meanwhile, PlayStation users can toggle the function with cheerful abandon thanks to a built-in option.
Disgruntled Xbox players want to avoid PC cheaters and precise mice and keyboards, while PC users would rather avoid consoles’ smooth aim assist. PlayStation users, meanwhile, are dealing with audio dropouts and being required to delete their files if they tried stealthily starting a game in a different region for early access.
But they aren’t, at least, worried about crossplay. And Sony sweetened their deal further—shortly ahead of release, the Call of Duty website listed a few PS4 and PS5-specific benefits, including monthly double XP events, +25% weapon XP when playing with other PS users in a party, and two extra loadout slots after reaching Level 4.
Console wars are an expectation for Call of Duty games at this point. While Microsoft is slowly working on buying billion-dollar-baby Activision, on October 26, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer said he was more interested in mobile and planning on “[treating] CoD like Minecraft,” The Verge editor Tom Warren reported.
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Activision’s current partner Sony is, instead, treating the franchise like a precious child prodigy. And, perhaps to Xbox players dismay, even after Microsoft’s deal goes through, Sony will commandeer Call of Dutyfor “several more years” after its contract with Activision expires.
So Call of Duty’s background console wars aren’t ending soon. In the meantime, Xbox players can go into their settings and block crossplay from within the “Online safety & family” tab. From there, you select Communication & multiplayer, and then you block people from outside Xbox Live. Doing this to play Modern Warfare II, however, will probably increase your queue times, since you’ll only be able to match a more limited group of players with the same safety settings. You just can’t win.
Update 11:33 a.m:We’ve updated the headline to reflect the workaround mentioned in the article.
Players who received early physical copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II have reported that the discs included contain only about 72MB of data, forcing players to connect to the internet and download the other 100+ GB of data to actually play the game.
Officially, Modern Warfare II isn’t out until tomorrow. But as usual, a few copies of the upcoming military first-person shooter slipped out of the warehouses a bit early and ended up in the hands of some lucky players. In theory, this disc should contain the game’s campaign, which was released early digitally, and it should also include its multiplayer, which fully launches for all tomorrow on the official release date. But as reported by Eurogamer, that’s not the case. Instead, players who got early copies of Modern Warfare II discovered that the disc was basically empty and they would have to download and install the entire game via the internet before they could play.
Kotaku has reached out to Activision about these dummy discs and if the company plans on offering actual retail copies of the game in the future.
Modern Warfare II–-after the latest patch—is reportedly over 150+ GB large when you include campaign and multiplayer. (And that doesn’t include the yet-to-be-released Warzone 2.0 that’s out in November.) While some players will be able to download the game easily and quickly, for others the large file size could take hours or days to download and it could push them over their existing internet data cap. Another problem, as pointed out by Eurogamer, is that in some parts of the world, energy costs are rising rapidly, and leaving a large, next-gen console running for hours to download a game could be a costly situation.
Read More:The Tricky, Essential Art of Preserving Canceled Games Like Starfox 2
But even if everyone in the world had great internet, low energy bills, and tons of free time to wait around for MW2 to download, it wouldn’t change how inconvenient this dummy disc situation is. It ends up making it harder to preserve console versions of the game legally, another blow to game preservation. And sure, this isn’t the first time a publisher has shipped nearly empty discs, but it still sucks that it’s happening again as it makes preserving games much, much harder for what is one of the biggest franchises in the world.
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Plus, what happens when the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 servers die one day? Well, you can probably guess. Unless Activision changes something in the future, the disc and all 72MB of its data will just become a paperweight once the servers die. At least you can play the other 46 Call of Duty games that are also called Modern Warfare instead.
Activision’s latest Call of Duty game arrives this week, and while there’s no Nintendo release, there has been some conversation from the Xbox boss Phil Spencer about bringing the popular first-person shooter series to the Switch.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal recently, Spencer mentioned how Microsoft’s plan for the series when the Activision Blizzard deal goes through could be to treat it like Minecraft and make it available on as “many different screens” as possible – including Switch (via The Verge senior editor, Tom Warren).
“Call of Duty specifically will be available on PlayStation. I’d love to see it on the Switch, I’d love to see the game playable on many different screens. Our intent is to treat CoD like Minecraft”
Phil’s comments follow on from CNBC’s interview with Microsoft president Brad Smith earlier this year, who also mentioned how the American tech giant would like to bring the Call of Duty series to Switch if the acquisition went through.
“One of the things we’re being very clear about as we move forward with the regulatory review of this acquisition is that great titles like Call of Duty from Activision Blizzard today, will continue to be available on the Sony PlayStation.
“We’d like to bring it to Nintendo devices. We’d like to bring the other popular titles that Activision has, and ensure that they continue to be available on PlayStation, [and] that they become available on Nintendo.”
At the time, Smith also used Minecraft as an example of Microsoft’s ongoing commitment to other platforms.
Of course, for Microsoft to follow through with this, it first needs to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. It’s currently in the process of finalising the deal. If Call of Duty does return to Nintendo systems, at this rate it’ll likely be on the next-gen system.
Call of Duty last appearance on a Nintendo platform was during the Wii U generation with the release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II in 2012 and Call of Duty: Ghosts in 2013.
The characters are easily one of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II’s clear strengths. The game features sharp voice acting that brings its cast to life, along with some uncanny-valley-shattering visual fidelity with excellent facial animation. It profoundly elevates the presentation of these characters and the story. But while you might think the skull-adorned Ghost is getting all the attention, one of the game’s new antagonists, Valeria, is being rightly celebrated.
A little over halfway through Modern Warfare II’s campaign, Valeria is introduced as the “personal sicaria” to the then-absent cartel boss “El Sin Nombre.” As the player, you meet her in an interrogation scene where you’re warned not to lie about anything to her (seriously, don’t). And she quickly reveals why before pressing you on questions concerning events from a few missions earlier. With no apprehensions about showing who’s boss, Valeria physically threatens one of her own men before drawing her weapon and turning her attention to you and the other interrogatee with a playful “niños!”
There’s no question about it. Valeria steals every scene she’s part of in Modern Warfare II. Portrayed by Maria Elisa Camargo, Valeria’s presence is a narrative gravity well, and she can bite through you with razor sharp lines of bilingual dialogue. And she’s got a great backstory as well. A former Mexican soldier and once comrade of protagonist Alejandro, the chemistry between these two is on point.
Activision / pgp
As should be no surprise, Valeria is getting love all over social media. Camargo herself tweeted a behind-the-scenes shot from the mo-cap with a thanks to the community for the love.
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And the love is palpable. Folks are declaring themselves official Valeria stans, while others demand developer Infinity Wardmake her a playable operatorin the game’s multiplayer. Videos showing off her best scenes are pouring out on Twitter and TikTokalike.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II may have a painfully slow start, but the game’s second half certainly has its memorable moments. A good portion of that is owed to Valeria who definitely needs to be a bigger part of this series moving forward.
