PS3 Modern Warfare 2 experiencing multiplayer issues; patch expected Friday [final update]

by Andrew Yoon on Nov 11th 2009 12:57PM

It seems like only yesterday when players were complaining about Trophy-related issues in the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 2. Wait a sec -- it was yesterday. According to a tweet by Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling, a "trophy update" has been released. However, while said update fixes one problem, it apparently creates another. "It killed all multiplayer activity on MW2," tipster True_Darknight tells Joystiq. Today, launching the multiplayer mode from our own PS3 copy of Modern Warfare 2 did indeed prove futile, as we stared at the matchmaking screen for about five minutes before finally giving up.

According to Bowling, PS3 owners can expect a "party invite update by Friday," which should hopefully resolve this issue. Until then, players will have to make due with the single-player campaign. It's not like this "multiplayer" thing is important, right?

Update: Tipster Kenneth B. pointed us to a tweet from Activision support that says the MW2 outage is "totally unrelated to the patch." While this means a fix can be done before Friday, he admits "we don't have a hard ETA on the servers coming back up." We'll be keeping track of this problem, but don't forget to send us your tips.

Update 2: Tipster Brent point us to yet another tweet, this time from Robert Bowling who confirms the multiplayer downtime is caused by server overload. According to Bowling, "Xbox Live servers are maintained and ran by Microsoft. PSN servers are ran and maintained by 3rd party companies hired to do so." Seems this mysterious "3rd party" infrastructure simply cannot match the Microsoft-funded backbone of Xbox Live.

Update 3: It appears everything is finally fully operational. For more details, check out this updated story.

Source

Tags: call-of-duty, infinity-ward, modern-warfare, modern-warfare-2, multiplayer, patch

Reader Comments (294)

Somehow, "Oops." just doesn't quite say it.

Since this is an MW2 post...what were some reactions to "No Russian"?

No Russian felt unnecessary. Kinda like these multiplayer problems. Pathetic.

It seemed pointless and just put to there to generate media interest.

I played it...but I didn't feel great about it afterwards. Took a lot to join in the shooting.

***

Warning: Vague, but still kinda spoilery territory ahead:

***

I dunno, after seeing how that chapter alone leads to a major event that takes up a good portion of the rest of the game, I'd say it makes sense, at least.

In other words: America fucks up. Russia is pissed.

***

End of spoilers

***

*SPOILERS*

it and cliffhanger were very necessary scenes. they set up the entire russian invasion of america.

but different question with ENDGAME SPOILERS:

am i the only one who was pissed off about roach, ghost, and most of the members of TF141 dying? and makarov living? and then the part were you kill shepherd wasn't nearly satisfying enough, cause i wanted to beat the living shit out of him for killing ghost and roach, who i had grown attached to. but instead, all i got to give him was a simple knife to the eye.

Well...

*SPOILERS*

The was that the knife was obtained and thrown, and the way that ....Prisoner 627 beat the shit out of him, that was cool.

*SPOILERS*

but the thing is, 627 didn't beat the shit out of shepherd. didn't you see shepherd sitting on top of 627 and beating the shit out of him when you killed him?

"Feels bad man."

It's a video game. I assure you that no actual civilians were hurt while you played that mission.

Well, but I was cheering for 627 every time he landed a hit.

It's a good thing we use 627 instead of the real name. A lot of people would be pissed to find out who they really are.

*spoilers*

i'll admit, the thing 627 did with his grenade launcher was awesome. and since that's incredibly vague, there was no need for spoiler warnings. but i knew someone would bitch or moan, so i still included them.

I was shocked until I realized I've killed far more innocent people in GTA and Saints Row.

***** SPOILERS *****

I wasn't even the slightest pissed off when Ghost and all the others died. I didn't give a shit about them because there was absolutely no character development to them. The only thing shocking was Shepherd and his betrayal.

***** END SPOILERS *****

*Spoilers*

I was pissed that ghost died, since he's obviously Gaz, same voice actor and he has his own comic series which will probably reveal just what I thought. The mask could cover the brutal headwound that he would have to have to be alive.

*END SPOILERS*

Not to start a huge flame war here, but this is pretty much par for the course with a major release on PSN. Orange Box, R6V, R6V2, Socom, LBP, etc etc.

As usual, they'll have it sorted out in a few days. Not a big deal.

It's one of the things that go along with an open, less controlled infrastructure. There are good and bad that come with that, this is one of the bad. That is, it's harder to do shit correctly on.

It's on the things you put up with on PSN, having to incorporate Xboxes crappy P2P networking, rather than the dedicated server norm of PS3 and PC land..

The sooner the crapbox360 dies it's horrible overdue death, the sooner we can all move on this generation.

@ Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Crapbox360? THATS THE BEST YOU CAN COME UP WITH? In my day, trolls didn't fail so hard...

Are you kidding eeeeeeeeeeee?

Crapbox? I can watch Netflix on it which took the "it does everything" machine months to catch up on. Trophies? Sound a lot like achievements, don't they?

I've been playing this "crapbox" since 2006 and loving every minute of it. I have no problem saying that playing Gears of War for the first time was equally as important in gaming to me as was firing up Ocarina of Time for the first time.

I agree that dedicated servers would be a huge improvement but you have a lot of nerve sitting there and typing that the Xbox 360 is crap. A LOT of nerve.

Gears of War for the first time was equally as important in gaming to me as was firing up Ocarina of Time for the first time.

I've just been trolled.

@Vcize

Except that the game was running smooth as butter before the newest patch. I think the newest update is 1.02 and prior to that the multiplayer didn't have any issues. I don't this particular issue is fair to blame on the PSN. Besides, if I remember correctly some high profile 360 games (Gears 2 & Halo 3) had issues with their launches and on Wii (Mario Kart Wii & Brawl) also had major issues.

As I said the multiplayer worked fine prior to the patch so I think your being a little unfair here. If anyone deserves the blame in this instance it's IW.

I personally haven't tried the multiplayer since the 1.02 update ... I played before it then logged off for a bit and when I started the game up again 1.02 was live and after that I played single player mercenaries and the campaign. Pretty lame that they've butchered this by release two unnecessary patches on the PS3 that have only broken the game.

Tempers are running high here, but what Vcize is saying is not very controversial.

Sony charged more for the PS3 hardware, and the XBox 360 hardware had many more issues. This is not a coincidence.

Microsoft charges more for their online services, and the PS3 games have more online issues. This, too, is not a coincidence.

Johnny, I understand that the Joystiq summary was misleading, but Activision has clearly stated that these problems are unrelated to the patch. The problem is with the PSN matchmaking servers, which are run by Infinity Ward.

http://twitter.com/ATVI_Randolph/status/5625546480

So, why aren't Infinity Ward having problems with their XBox Live matchmaking server? Well... Infinity Ward doesn't run XBox Live matchmaking servers. Those are run and operated by Microsoft, who has been able to leverage years of experience to minimize (but not eliminate!) problems like this.

So how can Microsoft afford to own and operate all of these matchmaking servers for Infinity Ward, when Sony just leaves it up to the developer to sort out? I guess that's where the $38/year subscription fee comes into play...

@Copa

Yeah I'm not saying I don't believe them but I'm skeptical. It's seems highly coeincidental that the game worked fine and then all of a sudden ... the patch releases and thats when the servers stop working.

http://kotaku.com/5402411/infinity-ward-modern-warfare-ps3-fixes-going-live

In fact the fix has just went live ... LOL ... Yeah it was the server, uh-huh

@Vcize

Gears of War 2 would like to have a word with you. Or how about Xbox Live going down completely for days at a time where NO games can be played. I have yet to experience that on PSN.

So wait, Halo 3 didn't cripple xbox live for nearly a month, making microsoft compensate us with a shitty free game?

Gears of War 2 had a perfect launch? I thought it was a buggy mess with broken matchmaking full of lag, unreliable weapons, and waiting to play more than playing. My bad.

inb4 fanboys raging and celebrating

Oh god. Here come the onslaught of PC fanboys to completely ruin this article.

Compared to the 360 fanboys who will ruin this article saying the 360 is better or the PS3 fanboys who will complain that IW is treating the 360 better? I see your point.

Fanboys in general ruin things.

Close minded people in general ruin things.

In before conspiracy theorists.

IT'S A CONS....

Damn you.

The 360 owner in me wants to make a ps3 multiplayer joke, but I shall hold it back.
Still, Infinity Ward, wtf?

Thanks for having self control.

Meh, it's not just the PS3 that's having problems. I had to turn off all of my privacy settings for my xbox (friends only chat etc) to get coop and multiplayer to work.

Every time someone would invite me, I would just get booted to the menu screen, and if I tried to invite them, they would get an error message.

They really botched some of this stuff for every version of this game.

Here we go SYSTEM WARRRRZ!

I love my ps3. But I'm damned glad I got this on x360 lol

Figures, one of the few times I'm not working and get to play MW2 (on my lunchbreak) the servers are down. They better fix this before friday.

The servers aren't down.

Did you read the article?

They patched the trophy glitch and created the non-working multiplayer. This may take a few days for them to fix the issue without creating ANOTHER problem.

They had 2 freakin years to deliver a working product that is mostly a built up version of it's predecessor, and this happens.
Oh well, I have patients, and the MAG beta.

Don't forget, the reason PS3 fanboys will rage is because they love the multiplayer and want to play it. Put yourself in their shoes.

Me in PS3 gamer's shoes*:
"Well screw this!" *Returns game, sells PS3*

@Dreaded Fear

I don't know why you think "PS3 fanboys" are the only people on PS3 who are gonna be pissed. This game has been hyped beyond belief and it is infuriating to be unable to play it. I am pissed off at the moment, does that make me a fanboy?

Tmac,

You pay for cross game chat and that's been disabled...

YA BURNT

@robert

Without sounding like a jackass, if you bought the PS3 version and expected to play it online problem free the first week you weren't really thinking straight. Almost every major (and even many less than major) PS3 release has had bigtime issues with online play the first week. It's not a big deal, you've waited this long so you can wait a little longer, and you should have expected there'd be a pretty decent chance of this happening.

@Vcize

Well, this is the first game i've ever got on release so I just assumed the guys who quality test at IW should have spotted most major problems.

@Vcize.

uncharted 2 didnt have anything game breaking and worked pretty damn well.

vcize, the multiplayer was working perfectly fine last night. this is an activision-side problem, not PSN-side problem.

@Sly

Yup. It seems the problem was Activision not antisipating the over load on the PS3. Its not IW or PSN. Im surprised that the 360 didnt go down like it did christmas 07 when everyone either got Halo 3 or CoD4 or both

Why you would buy the game to play multiplayer on PS3 is beyond me. The controller is terrible for shooting games and the online community is tiny compared to XBL.

Excuse me, I'm going to play a few matches. On my 360.

Each to their own. You stuck up fanboy.

I own a 360 too, but I dont go around moaning about one console or the other. Get a grip and grow up ffs.

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