Rumor: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer disables Xbox Live party chat

by Xav de Matos on Nov 2nd 2009 8:00PM

If rumors circulating around NeoGAF prove true, Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward won't be allowing the use of the Xbox 360's party chat feature during ranked multiplayer playlists in its upcoming title. Since a distinction in the post is made between different styles of online matches (ranked and social), we presume the function will not be utilized throughout all of Modern Warfare 2's online playlists.

Speaking with Joystiq, Infinity Ward community manager Robert Bowling said the company "can't comment on leaks," and was unable to confirm if the feature will, in fact, be disabled. "Players should reserve judgment until they get a chance to experience it for themselves on November 10 instead of viewing it out of context," Bowling added. Have an opinion on the matter? Sound off in the comments.

[Image Source: BL4CK HAWK 8]

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, infinity-ward, Microsoft, modern-warfare-2, nxe, party-chat, voice-chat, Xbox-360, xbox-live

Reader Comments (200)

This is ONLY in Search and Destroy, in which you cannot hear dead teammates by default. Going into party chat disabled that.

I've watched plenty of streams over the weekend, and most if not all of them were in parties. However, when someone tried to play Hardcore Search and Destroy, they were given this screen.

thanks for clearing that up. I dont recall if i ever played search and destroy, is that the one where you gotta set up a bomb? I can't see why that would necessitate silence from dead team mates more than other modes

I hope you're right. If it was for regular team deathmatch I likely would have cancelled my preorder and used the $63 on something else and gameflyed MW2. Forcing me to communicate with the....lovely people on xbox live is BS.

Actually, that screenshot looks to be from Domination, which I wouldn't understand at all. Domination is my favorite gametype. There's no reason to force me into game chat in that. It's instant spawns and everything.

Search and Destroy, which is what you described TDW, is the only gametype where this matters. Sabotage has a respawn timer, but you're able to talk to your teammates while you're dead.

I can't see why they would force you into game chat in anything other than search, and MAYBE the hardcore gametypes.

@ The Dark Wayne

In search and destroy you are trying to plant a bomb. However you do not respawn when you die, instead you spectate until the next round.
This way you cannot be cheap and tell your teammate where all the remaining players on the other team are

And Tmac, there's always the Mute All option on the dashboard. You can choose to hear only your friends on XBL.

...I take that back. That might be only Halo.

I know, but 1) I'm not paying $50 a year to have the features I'm paying for get taken away from me in certain scenarios and 2) no party chat is supposed to be a ps3 exclusive feature :P

Besides, pretty sure doing that doesn't stop the other person from hearing you, and I'd rather me and my group of friends not get a bunch of complaints because of how we talk to each other.

Alright guys, I just asked some people on UStream. According to the guy with the game, the ONLY GAMETYPES that DO NOT REQUIRE GAMECHAT are TDM, FFA, and 3rd Person TDM.

Basically, I'm really fucking pissed off at Infinity Ward right now. They're making terrible decision after terrible decision.

jesus, what the fuck are they thinking?

They're thinking "We could probably stick a 'Causes Cancer!' label on this and it would still sell 4 million copies in the first week!".

Are you serious? I can't play Headquarters and be in a XBLParty?

Well, I guess I know which fracking platform I'm buying this damn game on.

Hint: None.

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

fyi: ps3 friend me psn id: redsoxpwn22

Jumped the gun a little there Look.
Yeah I've seen the streams too and it's insanely stupid it's removed from gametypes with respawns.
I noticed Private Chat is still a feature on XBL (thought it was removed when Party arrived). Hopefully that still works but I wouldn't hold my breath.

While I am not incensed by this as much as some others are, I do think it is a bit lame that they cripple everyone on XBL by enforcing this, yet they don't have a "kick" function in the game if someone is really being a tool.

Hmmm.

@tmac

I'm sure it took a lot of effort to click the read link and steal that joke.

Huh? What joke did I steal, I don't even remember saying one. I don't ever click the source link, hell I don't even read the whole article sometimes.

"tmac:
no party chat is supposed to be a ps3 exclusive feature"

"beast786:
wait. I thought no party chat while playing was a ps3 system exclusive hardware feature?"

I dunno, I think it makes a lot of sense. Sure, you could just hop on your cellphone or lan to be a douche, but I'm willing to bet that simply disabling chat during this game mode will cut down on a good portion of the ghosting.

I can't say I know how much ghosting went on in CoD4, but me and a buddy ghosted whenever we LANed CS way back before 1.6 ^_^

What are they thinking?
No dedicated server for PC, then no party chat for console? These guys totally have a deathwish.
Well, I guess the game is mainstream enough that it will always be supported by a lot of people. But this could be a start to a painful death of a great franchise.

FYI guys I'm pretty sure you can still use private chat.

WTF MAN!

-throws is 360 console on the floor-

I don't understand why it couldn't have checked if you were in a party and disabled spectator views accordingly.

If I see hacking & Cheating in this game its over I will also sue SCEA and Activison! Because we shouldn't have to put up with these assholes in COD Period Robert Bowling! I still think that you guys could've and should'v'e fixed MW!..THIS GAME IS A JOKE NOW CHEATING GLITCHING EVERY NIGHT ON THE PISS-STATION NETWORK! ERIC LEMPEL YOUR A LIMP DICK!..But What I would like to know is who made him The Director for the PSN..That's Ridiculous!!..Seriously this guy can't do shit for us PS3 Users anymore..Find A New Job!

I guess the PC version is the superior version after all. Ventrilo ftw :D

I don't have a problem with this. The game is (partly/mostly) designed for realism, and if you were really in the field talking over a radio other people (enemies) would be able to hear you. Party chat cancels that out (and makes the 'Eavesdrop' perk useless). What they're doing is adding realism, which is the reason I play CoD. I have Halo for when I want something more arcade-like.
I would have a problem if I felt they weren't justified, or if every game started doing this is modes where it didn't make any sense. But that isn't the case. I'll still buy the game, I'll still play the game, and so will 98% of the people who are saying things like "I'm canceling my preorder" and/or "Do they want us to not buy this game?"

That makes sense. I was actually hoping they'd somehow disable party chat for S&D since it kinda ruins the gametype.

@Prox

You may not realize it, but you DO NOT play COD4/MW2 for the "realism." Is Modern Warfare more real than, say, Doom III? Yes. Is it "real?" Hell no.

You want to play a game that's even more "real" than COD4/MW2? Go play the original "Operation Flashpoint" or the old "Firearms" mod or even "Red Orchestra 1/2." Those gamers were "real," and suffered for it, because playing a "real" game is no fucking fun.

It's like they don't want us to buy the game.

Or you just are trying to find a reason not to buy your game. This will only be on certain playlists such as those that are round based, and no respawns. Wouldn't you hate dying because someone who was dead, told their teammate who was alive, your location? I'm sure this will start to get implemented in more titles in the future.

There is a 0% chance I won't buy the game, and I wasn't aware of that when I wrote my comment.

I was merely commenting on this and the recent dedicated server debacle..

god forbid, IW prevents people from cheating and having an unfair advantage.... Seriously just stfu maroon, seems like you're the type that will bitch about every little thing.

Dedicated servers is a good enough reason for not wanting to buy the game if you are a PC player. This is such a small minuscule thing. Most people play Team deathmatch anyways and it will not affect that playlist. I don't think people who comment actually read the article and just base their opinion on the title.

If I can't keep cross game chat going when playing the game it's quite a big annoyance; I like to keep chatting to friends no matter what I'm playing!

And, as I mentioned before, I now know it's only for certain playlists, which somewhat negates my argument dontcha think?!

If it's going to help counter cheating it's a positive addition, end of.

And now it's not only S&D.

P-i-s-s-e-d.

Damn. I'm going to have to get all of my friends to start using Skype.

its to stop the chatting when you can give up the enemy location. No big deal.

More games should do this, chat with parties should be unavailable in team-MP games.. MS need to make it a dynamic 'feature'

If this is really a problem, here's a better idea: MS should put hooks into the party chat code to disable communication between players in a party on the same team in such a match. What if you're in a party with people in other games, friends that you just want to talk to while you each do your own thing? This is one of the big social features of XBL (it's how I keep in touch with my long distance friends for the most part), and removing in the name of cheating is ridiculous.

Even dumber is that this doesn't make things more realistic, which is the justification for this move. If this is truly modern warfare, you don't think we have satellites that can give pretty good approximations of enemy positions (also known as red-force blue-force tracking)?

as long as its only in ranked, if its in social - that would be totaly anitsocial

So, why don't they just make it so it detects what game your in, if your in the same game as each other, the private chat won't work.

It is bugging when your in a team game, you see something that the rest of the team could benefit in knowing, but then you can't even tell them because they're in a party..

This only affects certain playlists, for example Search and Destroy. It was annoying those who were dead told their teammates where everyone was located. Especially since it was round based.

Even with that considered the reason I am always on party chat is so that I do not have to listen to the assholes on XBL. I could not care less what they have to say since it is most likely some bs rather than actual teamwork. This is definitly something I do not like, and hopefully there will be enough people who are against the idea that IW would have to reconsider.

This must also be the reason they don't want to add splitscreen multiplayer as well, because "OMGz, peeple might ch33t!". I'm glad IW is saving me from having fun with my friends with their unending list of good ideas.

But not all of my friends play call of duty, and I like to talk to them regardless what playlist I am in.

This is a bad idea.

your birth was a bad idea

Seems like a great idea to me. Party chat ruins tons of games where you're not supposed to be able to communicate with some people at certain times. All MP games should do this.

"Players should reserve judgment until they get a chance to experience it for themselves on November 10 instead of viewing it out of context,"

Pfft. That's like saying, "Don't bother with reviews or know anything about the game, just buy it and hope you like it".

Really IW...? Excuse us for wanting to be better informed before making the final purchase.

Yes, that is why you wait for reviews for a proper pre-purchase opinion, and not internet leaks. Which is what he meant.

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Rumor: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer disables Xbox Live party chat

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