Infinity Ward have released a brief statement thanking fans for participating in the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 beta, and detailing what they have learned.
They noted their changes for footstep audio were better received for weekend two of the beta, and will make further adjustments to balance out the audio to better distinguish from enemies and friendlies.
Infinity Ward also noted improved feedback for enemy visibility in weekend two. In this case, they will make it so that players can better track their opponents as they appear on screen, so that they would not be reliant on nameplates.
The studio is not going to disband lobbies, referring to it as an important feature. They do promise to make changes so that lobbies can more consistently stick together, and to make improvements to the UI.
Moving on to some positives, the studio is happy with the positive feedback given for the weapons and weapon tuning.
The third-person playlist that emerged as such a big deal in previews was well received. They are moving forward with this mode, with a promise of improvements for the camera shoulder-swapping.
They also noted that Ground War and Invasion were particularly popular Battle Map modes. They will be tweaking both maps further, particularly AI navigation for Invasion.
They did not make any mention of any particular actions against cheaters, which had apparently emerged as a major issue during the beta, and is a constant thorn in the side of the developers and their honest players. Infinity Ward did ask fans to follow the hashtag #TeamRICOCHET for a future update on this issue.
The statement ends with an indication that they are still processing the data and feedback they have collected from the beta, so even more dramatic changes could be coming in the future.
In our prior coverage for this beta, we had noted that the studio faced severe backlash for many of the changes they implemented, such as the matter of name tags on enemies that should come up when they appear onscreen. Infinity Ward immediately responded to the community, addressing some changes that they intended to stick with and others that they agreed needed improvement. We also made note of the rampant cheating that had occurred during the beta.
Of course, the point of having a beta is for game developers to identify and address these issues, whether they are bugs, or game design mistakes that were not caught in internal testing. But given that Call of Duty itself innovated on making beta access something of a pre-order bonus, expectations are set higher that the beta already be at an advanced level of production, perhaps unfairly.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will release for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on both Steam and Battle.net on October 28, 2022.
Source: Infinity Ward
