It's no secret nowadays that Activision prefers the Xbox 360 compared to the other platforms. Partly due to the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty games outselling its counterparts but largely due to Activision and Microsoft's timed exclusivity agreement.
In saying this, a few PS3 users on the official Black Ops forum has taken it upon themselves to voice out their concern on what they see as "favoritism" from Treyarch's part.
The thread titled, "BO2 on PS3: Lack of Developer Interaction and Dialogue," managed to catch the eye of Treyarch Game Director David Vonderhaar who had a few choice words to share to the complaining PS3 fanbase.
And you seriously wonder why I don’t enjoy talking to you? You’ve been throwing me under a bus this entire thread.
[Complaining[ that I tweeted about Xbox Live problems to Xbox Live fans is really a new low-point for you. When the PSN melts down, I'll be doing the same thing. Oh right, I did do that when the PSN melted down.
It's fine. I am a big boy and a few of you are not so great at making friends. When you think about changing your ways; I'll think about communicating with you more often.
In the meantime, I'll be doing the same thing I did last game, rolling with my own platform-specfic game crews to check the health of the game in the real world. That crew [still] won’t include anyone from the PS3 forum community whose primary post count deals with taking jabs at me.
Now, before you eviscerate Vonderhaar, keep in mind that he was responding to complaints on the thread. Unfortunately, that said thread has since been deleted by Treyarch.
In addition to this, Vonderhaar, who goes by the forum name "Vahn," responded to forum user thebig59 on the studio's apparent lack of communication when it comes to Black Ops 2's PS3 forums.
Here's Vonderhaar's response via a screengrab by MP1st (image republished with permission).
If you can't read it, we've posted it below, too.
Very few people are spokespeople and permitted to talk to the community. We have 3 community people who manage the forums on a day to day basis.
Many developers, PS3 [specific] and otherwise, are on the forums. I know because they link me threads all the time. They lurk because they are not really supposed to post in the first place; and they lurk because of the negativity that can surround them when they make themselves known.
If the PS3 lead(s) wanted to post on the forums because he found it useful or enjoyable, we would probably let him after some media training. He doesn’t.
My PS3 crew on Black Ops 1 contained a Canadian, an Englishman, a Scottsman, and 2 Americans. I found them via Twitter. They were people who were having problems with the PS3 that I was trying to work out. One of them also happened to be a forum guy.
I burned through a couple of people to find these 5. I ditched anyone who fanboyed or trolled. I liked working with the guys so much that I invited them to my house. I’ll probably be doing the same thing this year.
I don’t surround myself with people who blow smoke up my ass; and I don’t surround myself with people who hate on me, Treyarch, Treyarch developers, or the game.
If you want developers on the forums and better communication, then clean up and self-police your community better.
However, this doesn't end there. If you want to read the whole thing, click here.
Obviously, there are always two sides to every story. But was it a good idea by Vonderhaar to snap back at paying customers? And more importantly, at such a public venue?
If you're a PS3 fan, are you happy with how Treyarch has handled Call of Duty on your console? Let us know what you think of Vonderhaar's comments and where you stand regarding this "favoritism."
