Modern Warfare 3 Will Have Full Steam Support

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Unlike EA's Battlefield 3, Activision's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 will come packed with Steamworks. The game is also ready for pre-purchase reservations (aka pre-order) on Valve's steamy network.

Monday evening Valve Software said that Activision's upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for the PC – both digital and disc-based versions – will be fully outfitted with Steamworks. As with all Steam-powered games, offline play will be supported along with Auto-Updating, Achievements, and more.

In addition to Steamworks integration, Valve announced that pre-purchase reservations (aka pre-orders for those who hate the term) are now available via Steam. Customers who pre-purchase the game will be able to start playing immediately upon its release thanks to Steam's instant content delivery platform. The game retails for $59.99, and so far the system requirements are still listed as "to be announced."

Published by Activision Publishing, Inc., Modern Warfare 3 is being developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games. The game is slated for worldwide release on November 8 at retailers across the globe and via online digital distribution platforms like Steam. Modern Warfare 3 will even support dedicated servers on day 1, Valve said.

November should prove to be an interesting month for PC gaming. In addition to the release of Modern Warfare 3, EA will be releasing the long-awaited Battlefield 3 just weeks prior. But unlike Activision's military helping, the latter EA title won't include support for Valve's Steamworks suite – it supposedly won't even be available on Steam at all, but rather on EA's own digital distribution platform, Origin, Direct2Drive, GamersGate and others.

Recently it was discovered that Origin's EULA allows Electronic Arts to snoop through the end-user's system -- including installed and uninstalled software -- and send that information to third-party service providers.

"You agree that EA may collect, use, store and transmit technical and related information that identifies your computer (including the Internet Protocol Address), operating system, Application usage (including but not limited to successful installation and/or removal), software, software usage and peripheral hardware, that may be gathered periodically to facilitate the provision of software updates, dynamically served content, product support and other services to you, including online services," the agreement reads. "EA may also use this information combined with personal information for marketing purposes and to improve our products and services. We may also share that data with our third party service providers in a form that does not personally identify you. IF YOU DO NOT WANT EA TO COLLECT, USE, STORE, TRANSMIT OR DISPLAY THE DATA DESCRIBED IN THIS SECTION, PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE APPLICATION."

So far Battlefield 3 is on schedule to land on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC on October 25 here in the States. But if EA doesn't change its policy in regards to Origin's invasive nature, Modern Warfare 3 could lead in overall sales this holiday season.

Kevin Parrish
50 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bustapr
    i remember when activision gave pc gamers the middle finger with its server issue for mw2 and EA played the good guys. Now it appears to be the other way around, except activision is still evil...
    Reply
  • MW3 comes out on my birthday :0
    Reply
  • lespy
    bustapri remember when activision gave pc gamers the middle finger with its server issue for mw2 and EA played the good guys. Now it appears to be the other way around, except activision is still evil...

    they may be evil, but they know what gamers want unlike EA and origin.
    Reply
  • speedemon
    Like we need the system requirements... Please Activison you act as though you have changed the engine since COD4.
    Nothing but new textures, Check COD4 for system requirements.

    COD has been one BIG expansion pack
    Reply
  • austinwillis81
    comes out on my b-day :0
    Reply
  • holey
    Why the hell does this keep making headlines?

    The last 2 call of duty games were steamworks, i thought everybody knew that it was a given?

    Just because he 'confirmed' it via twitter, doesn't mean it needs to be plastered across every tech news site..
    Reply
  • speedemon
    lespythey may be evil, but they know what gamers want unlike EA and origin.
    They know what noobs want.. to run and gun with their other 12yo friends while yelling into their mics(XBOX). All the kids want are new maps/guns/upgrades/character clothing... well why not just make a "new" game and charge $59 bucks for it. You get the hype of a "new" COD game (all xbox kids must have) and potential for "map packs" FU Bobby
    Dont Compare EA's Origin with anything Activision. Steam just happens to be there and Activision has NO real interest in PC gaming, so they take that route. Trust me on this is, if hacktivision had any interest in the PC gaming market they would have something much worse that EA's crappy origin.
    Reply
  • bustapr
    lespythey may be evil, but they know what gamers want unlike EA and origin.they dont care about gamers and much less about pc gamers. They just happen to be on steam, and are trying to win over BF3s lost pc gamers with the return of dedicated servers.
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    bustaprthey dont care about gamers and much less about pc gamers. They just happen to be on steam, and are trying to win over BF3s lost pc gamers with the return of dedicated servers.
    Still EA could learn from a lot of the other big companies. Most are doing Steamworks or at least also using Steam. EA says it was because of Steams policies that they removed Crysis 2 and wont have BF3 on Steam but I think its BS when there are plenty of big companies using Steamworks and tons of indie companies using Steam exclusivley.

    I am suprised that EA doesn't take advantage of Steam to its fullest. Not having to pay for full blown servers and content servers is a big savings that VALVe and Steam handle when you use Steamworks.
    Reply
  • bustapr
    soldier37Naturally MW3 will do better because more 12-16 year olds have crapboxes and PS3s that mommy and daddy bought them. Us adult PC gamers that spend thousands on our hardware to get the best visuals and sound you can get. Im still up in the air over the Origin malware install and BF3 not being on steam which is a huge mistake!those comments are really immature and makes real pc gamers look like whiny babies.
    Reply