Treyarch: We Never Wavered on Dedicated Servers for Black Ops

[Logan Westbrook]

Treyarch: We Never Wavered on Dedicated Servers for Black Ops

The studio cooking up the next Call of Duty says that it's happy it can support the PC community.


Treyarch's head of PC development, Cesar Stastny, said that the inclusion of dedicated servers in Call of Duty: Black Ops [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Black-Ops-Xbox-360/dp/B003JVKHEQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1286873459&sr=8-1] wasn't something that the studio spent a lot of time deliberating over. He said that Treyarch was a PC developer making a PC game, so including dedicated servers wasn't a choice, it was just the way things were.

It would be easy to think that Treyarch had included dedicated servers because of the backlash faced by Infinity Ward when it left them out of Modern Warfare 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Xbox-360/dp/B00269QLI8/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1286873485&sr=1-1], but Stastny said that even while Treyarch was making its previous game, Call of Duty: World at War [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-World-War-Xbox-360/dp/B001AWIP68/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1286873532&sr=1-1], it had been decided that dedicated servers would be a feature in any subsequent games as well.

Stastny said that the PC platform was very important to Treyarch, which is why it put together dedicated PC teams for its games. He said that Black Ops was a "true PC title" and that he was "thrilled" to be able to support the PC community with things like dedicated servers and mod tools.



Call of Duty: Black Ops will be released for PS3, Xbox 360 and, of course, PC, on November 9th.

Source: CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=269033]


Permalink

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Hmm. This is actually changing my opinion of the game. I originally wasn't going to buy because I don't need another COD. But we'll see what happens.

 

[Sacman]

Well Treyarch are smarter than Infinity Ward... having a PC game without dedicated servers is like having a Console game without controller support... it just cripples the experience...

 

[Eldarion]

Hey now, looking up for call of duty.

 

[runedeadthA]

*sniff* They really DO care. I Love you Treyarch!

Infinity Ward, I thought It was going to work out, but I guess Cod4 was a one time event. Its not me, it's you I'm sorry, I'm leaving you for Treyarch now. But i guess, We will always have the Cargo Ship.
So long Infinity Ward, you had some good set pieces.

 

[vrbtny]

Well bully for them. I'm glad at least one developer loves the PC gaming community.

 

[VanBasten]

Well bully for them. I'm glad at least one developer loves the PC gaming community.

I don't think that has much to do with love, as it has with money.
PC is the only market they could potentially significantly expand upon.

 

[Delusibeta]

Well bully for them. I'm glad at least one developer loves the PC gaming community.

I don't think that has much to do with love, as it has with money.
PC is the only market they could potentially significantly expand upon.

Probably in relation to Battle.net. Mark my words, I'll be very surprised if no CoD games released on PC by the end of 2011 use Battle.net in some form.

While Treyarch has been making the right noises (i.e. dedicated servers and modding tools), the small fact that that said dedicated servers are only available from one single provider does question their motives. I mean, even EA got three providers involved for some resemblance of competition. Plus, I really can't see multiplayer mods working if there's no dedicated server software.

 

[SuperNova221]

Good to see at least Treyarch haven't gone stark raving mad. I can only hope they truly mean what they say and aren't just saying it to be on the goodside of PC gamers.

 

[Lacsapix]

Now that gives me hope again!

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Oh please. Call of Duty has stopped being relevant to the industry about the time Battlefield 2 was released. Honestly, why do people buy that game? It's a mediocre shooter with absolutely nothing going for it. I will not be getting Black Ops nor will I be getting any future Call of Duty release.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Well Treyarch are smarter than Infinity Ward... having a PC game without dedicated servers is like having a Console game without controller support... it just cripples the experience...

Could you explain what dedicated servers are? I never firgured it out, since 85% of my gaming in on consoles and handhelds.

 

[VanBasten]

Oh please. Call of Duty has stopped being relevant to the industry about the time Battlefield 2 was released.

Since BF2 was released CoD has shoveled out a best selling game every year consistently for five years running, each breaking sales record of the previous games in the series, and looks like it will continue to do so for a sixth year with Black Ops.

How the hell is that not relevant to the industry?

 

[WilliamRLBaker]

In reality they didn't care either way and are trying to make them selves out to be the wonder boys...Still doesn't change the fact all Treyarch has ever really made was Reskinned COD games with vastly more problems when the games they were based upon.
WAW had far more problems then MW1 glitches in maps, hacks, and such...Black ops will be the same way it will have more and be worse then MW2.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Oh please. Call of Duty has stopped being relevant to the industry about the time Battlefield 2 was released.

Since BF2 was released CoD has shoveled out a best selling game every year consistently for five years running, each breaking sales record of the previous games in the series, and looks like it will continue to do so for a sixth year with Black Ops.

How the hell is that not relevant to the industry?

Because it does not innovate, that's why. It's stagnating the industry which in turn is destroying it. We've been playing the same goddamn game each year and each year the developer, or rather the publisher, has taken the liberty of slowly removing content and raising prices. Hell, by the next Call of Duty you're probably going to see subscription modes.

 

[gellert1984]

Well Treyarch are smarter than Infinity Ward... having a PC game without dedicated servers is like having a Console game without controller support... it just cripples the experience...

Could you explain what dedicated servers are? I never firgured it out, since 85% of my gaming in on consoles and handhelds.

Basically when you play a game on a dedicated server the server runs the game, and thats it, no one else is playing through that server or anything, this cuts down on lag and keeps things fairly even.

I can't remember what the other type is that COD4:MW2 uses but that actually selects one of the players to act as the host, the host usually has vastly reduced/no lag creating an unfair advantage, when that person quits the game either kicks you or tries to transfer data over to a new player to act as host, fails and kicks you anyway.

 

[SonicKoala]

Oh please. Call of Duty has stopped being relevant to the industry about the time Battlefield 2 was released.

Since BF2 was released CoD has shoveled out a best selling game every year consistently for five years running, each breaking sales record of the previous games in the series, and looks like it will continue to do so for a sixth year with Black Ops.

How the hell is that not relevant to the industry?

Because it does not innovate, that's why. It's stagnating the industry which in turn is destroying it. We've been playing the same goddamn game each year and each year the developer, or rather the publisher, has taken the liberty of slowly removing content and raising prices. Hell, by the next Call of Duty you're probably going to see subscription modes.

I agree with everything you said, but I think your choice of words in your original post is what caused the problem - "relevance" does not necessarily mean the game in question is beneficial to the industry. As you so eloquently pointed out, Call of Duty is more or less a plague for gaming in a variety of ways.

 

[VanBasten]

Oh please. Call of Duty has stopped being relevant to the industry about the time Battlefield 2 was released.

Since BF2 was released CoD has shoveled out a best selling game every year consistently for five years running, each breaking sales record of the previous games in the series, and looks like it will continue to do so for a sixth year with Black Ops.

How the hell is that not relevant to the industry?

Because it does not innovate, that's why. It's stagnating the industry which in turn is destroying it. We've been playing the same goddamn game each year and each year the developer, or rather the publisher, has taken the liberty of slowly removing content and raising prices. Hell, by the next Call of Duty you're probably going to see subscription modes.

What you're describing is how it may hurt the gaming community, not the industry, the industry is really doing quite well with CoD.