Assuming the price is right, Activision couldn’t care less about parity between ports. The publisher has managed to piss off plenty of Call of Duty fans by making the game’s Spec Ops Survival mode a year-long exclusive for the PlayStation 4, which is bad news for PC and Xbox One owners who want the full multiplayer experience.
Breaking: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Special Ops Survival Mode announced. It's available only on PS4 and won't be on other platforms till October 2020 https://t.co/clO48HeK7m pic.twitter.com/pGjHCq4hcn
— Call of Duty News (@charlieINTEL) September 24, 2019
After some lengthy outrage on reddit and social media, Infinity Ward’s narrative director Taylor Kurosaki pointed out that PS4’s Survival mode was just one part of the Spec Ops experience. He also suggested that the choice was wholly Activision’s: “These are complicated decisions above our pay grade.”
It’s all good. We have tried our best to have an open dialogue with our players from day one. We understand letting that trust down. These are complicated decisions that are above our pay grade. Please know we want what’s best for all our players.
— Taylor Kurosaki (@taylorkurosaki) September 24, 2019
Since 2015, Sony has enjoyed a timed-exclusive, first crack at Call of Duty post-launch downloadable content, picking up that deal after Microsoft offered similar exclusivity for the five years prior. Last week’s announcement made it sound like that arrangement was changing, but the open beta’s two day preview on PlayStation 4, plus an exclusive 2v2 Alpha test on that console, is a reminder that it’s still very much in effect.