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Posted on June 8, 2011, Ron Whitaker Modern Warfare 3 “Looking to Support Dedicated Servers” says Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling

Out at E3, our away team just walked out of a very interesting interview with Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling. In the course of the 12 minute chat (which we’ll be posting video of as soon as possible, so check back for it), the talk inevitably turned to the topic of support for Modern Warfare 3 players on the PC. Here’s how that went. Check out the video below. (Editor: Emphasis is ours)

GameFront: We have a big PC gaming community. Lots of modders, that kind of thing. Are you guys talking at all yet about what sorts of features the PC version of the game will have?

Robert Bowling: In Modern Warfare 3, I’ve been trying to reach out ot our PC guys. We had some of the [PC] guys come out to the studio a few weeks ago. We have them here. We brought them here so they can see the stuff we’re showing off. We’re putting a lot of focus there, to make sure that our PC community has all the bells and whistles. So, the guys that have the powerhouse machines, that they can crank it up and enjoy the game. It’s very important for us on the PC to make sure we have a solid min-spec base–so that the majority of our PC users can enjoy the game out-of-box, run it smooth, exactly how they expect. That’s very key for us. You’d be surprised how that can easily be overlooked. We’re making sure the PC is up and running from day one, and it’s running smooth on min-spec and beyond throughout the entire development process. As you get later on in the development cycle, you get to the point where you start focusing on PC-specific features. It’s the one platform out of Xbox 360, PS3 and PC that has specific things that go only into that version.

That stuff comes a little later. I can’t confirm anything yet, but right now we’re having conversations about dedicated servers, mod tools and post launch support. I can’t give you an answer yet on what will be included. In Modern Warfare 3 we added IWnet, which was all about matchmaking–with the plan to eventually add in dedicated servers. My ideal philosophy on the PC is to have matchmaking for the “mass.” Have matchmaking for the guys who just want to jump in, hit “play game” and start playing. But let’s not lose that dedicated core audience that wants the dedicated server experience. We’re looking at ways to incorporate that into Modern Warfare 3. We’ve been listening a lot to our PC guys who have been very vocal since Modern Warfare 2 about what they want to see come back to our versions of the franchise.

GF: So if you had your way, Modern Warfare 3 would have dedicated servers?

Robert Bowling: We’re having those discussions now. I don’t want to confirm, but we’re looking to support that as much as possible.

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So, while we can’t 100% confirm that dedicated servers are headed to Modern Warfare 3, it sure looks likely. As you can guess, that makes us pretty happy, especially in light of the extra value that dedicated servers bring to a game.

Check out the rest of our Call of Duty coverage from E3 — including a new campaign level, our hands-on time with the cooperative Survival Mode in Modern Warfare 3′s Spec Ops, and new details from a demo on Call of Duty: Elite.