Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 News

For:PS3  Also On: Xbox 360PC Release Date: 10 November 2009

In the future won't rely solely on the platform's hack prevention.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 screenshot

Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling has pinned the blame for the many Modern Warfare 2 hacks and exploits on Sony and its PS3, but has vowed to ensure it is not left in such a powerless position with future titles.

Hacks have left many a Modern Warfare 2 player distraught, with hackers making hundreds of hours game time utterly pointless - statistics are being altered and in some cases profiles are being wiped.

"Sony has recently acknowledged a breach in security on the PS3 which resulted in games to become exposed to exploits and hacks," Bowling said on the IW forums. "Modern Warfare 2 is no exception to this security exploit and we understand that some of you have experienced problems with stats and other issues associated with this."

Bowling added: "Games rely on the security of the encryption on the platforms they're played on, therefore; updates to the game through patches will not resolve this problem, unless the security exploit itself is resolved on the platform. Regretfully, Call of Duty games are receiving the bulk of the hacker's attention, due to its high player counts and popularity. However, the number of legitimate players severely outweighs the bad apples."

Bowling's advice for Modern Warfare 2 players is to stick to games with friends.

"If you are concerned about playing with players who are hacking, I encourage you to play exclusively with friends by utilising the party or private match options in Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty 4 to avoid such players as much as possible until this issue is resolved by Sony."

Moving forward game hacking should be less of an issue, with Bowling pointing to Black Ops as an example.

"Let me assure you, while we are very reliant on Sony updating their firmware and security to address the core problem of this issue. We are looking at every option available to us to help any user affected.

"This only applies to legacy games such as Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2. In the future we plan to adjust our approach to not rely solely on platform security and reduce the ability for this to happen in our games, as has already been displayed by the work Treyarch has done on Call of Duty: Black Ops to prevent similar measures."

VideoGamer.com Analysis

It's good to see Infinity Ward taking the time to address its fanbase, but it's certainly a troubling situation for Sony and something which must be remedied in order to restore player trust in the PSN service.

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slick_101's Avatar

slick_101

lol...... pointing the finger at the people that pay less. typical. how many people hack on the 360 or pc? most probably more than the PS3. its a joke. besides. why would monkeys bother with this game. its a waste of time lol..
Posted 22:00 on 17 January 2011
Bloodstorm's Avatar

Bloodstorm

Oh wow yet J-tags dont exist, it's ALWAYS the PS3s fault.


See if you got better programmers IW, i bet it wouldn't be so hackable.
Posted 20:56 on 17 January 2011
Hellequin_R's Avatar

Hellequin_R

Its a joke... no? Because its very funny
Posted 16:47 on 17 January 2011
Clockpunk's Avatar

Clockpunk@ Mr_Ninjutsu

Not entirely. You have to consider these events on a comparative level. NOW is the time for Sony to show that PSN is a good service by dealing with this threat. They have no-one else to blame. If you read my comment, going from other sources (such as NeoGAF), BECAUSE of Sony's insistence that the PS3 was secure, and all games should depend entirely upon this fact, this same loophole can now by employed for ALL games. Maybe on the PC that is to be expected, but I haven't seen every leaderboards deemed worthless by cheats/hacks on other consoles. Any over Live, as far as I am aware, are swiftly either reset or the offending parties removed/banned from the service.

It could be that our gaming styles/preferences do not overlap in this regard, and my gaming interests are outside the select titles which such individuals seem to doggedly pursue in a show of pure complex-driven desire to be seen as 'dominant'.

But all that aside, lets see how Sony's service responds to this latest crack in its shell. That should be the primary outcome of this discussion.
Posted 16:22 on 17 January 2011
Mr_Ninjutsu's Avatar

Mr_Ninjutsu@ Clockpunk

No it seems like the same problem...people messing around with stats. That's it. Not a major thing as it's a normality on other formats and other online leaderboard games. Is it not?
Posted 15:24 on 17 January 2011
Clockpunk's Avatar

Clockpunk

The question is: to how great an extent has the game been compromised on the PS3 than the 360? From the sounds of things, it's a monumental degree worse - and IW are right to point the blame squarely at Sony in this instance. NOW is the time for the PSN time to show they can be as effective as their Live counterparts in weeding out the abusers, or I guess it is another level of vindication for the ongoing Gold subscription argument.

Arrogance always gets its comeuppance. Such a shame, as it seems likely all current games are just as open to abuse...
Posted 15:19 on 17 January 2011
Neon-Soldier32's Avatar

Neon-Soldier32

Convinent that this should come out the week after the PS3 hack story comes out, when Modern Warfare 2 has been out what? 14 months? I think it's unfair to scapegoat the PS3. I mean, Activision have an exclusivity deal with 360, giving 360 map packs first, so thelikelyhood of Activision blaming the 360 is unlikely.

However, if the PS3 hack is only fixable (if that's a real word) by hardware replacement and the PS3 is responsible for hacks, what does that mean for future of PS3 releases of Call of Duty? Knowing Activision, probably nothing.

Can't be that much of a big deal then really.
Posted 14:59 on 17 January 2011
mikejosh1978's Avatar

mikejosh1978

So it took two and a half yrs for folk to break the ps3 but what 2 days to break pc and xbox CoD games but its all Sony's fault . IW need to look at themselves before pointing fingers me thinks .
Treyarch have used an improved host server settings but in turn seem to have made it easier for hosts and hackers to kill the games online , Ps3 is getting a bit of a kicking but the security took a long time to crack and if Activision used a better server system like BFBC or Halo then maybe these hacks wouldn't be so easy . I admit the others aren't without issues but CoDs devs need to have a look in the mirror .
Posted 14:54 on 17 January 2011
Mr_Ninjutsu's Avatar

Mr_Ninjutsu

Isn't this just the same with the PC and 360 versions?
Posted 14:46 on 17 January 2011