Robert Bowling - Infinity Ward

Interview from Cav - Saturday, 27 March 2010 @ 10:30am

Cav: Thanks for taking the time to speak to Australian Gamer, Robert. Firstly, who got to choose the two Call of Duty 4 maps that were included in the new Modern Warfare 2 Downloadable Content?

RB: Well we took a look at all the maps and factored in how popular those maps were in Call of Duty 4.

Cav: I’ll be looking forward to someone pulling off a throwing knife kill from the third floor of the tower in the middle of Crash. That’s going to make a good YouTube video

RB:[laughs]

CRASH

Cav: I’ve had a lot of friends talking about the price difference between the COD4 DLC and the MW2 DLC. IS there any reason for that?

RB: As far as price is concerned, here at Infinity Ward we don’t set that. What we do here is we focus on the created content: What the maps are, how they’re designed, how they look and how they flow. Then we hand it off for Activision to package it up and handle all that business aspect.

Cav: Do you have any good tip sfor the new maps for me that I can share with the thousands? Any tips on good Sniper spots?

RB: On Bailout there are a bunch of really good ones, that map is really cool. It has some wide open outdoor areas and if you can get up to one of the second stories in the blown out apartment buildings and overlook the courtyard or the pool area and get some really good long site lines there. On Overgrown, the best thing I can say is that you think you may know this map because you played it so much in Call of Duty 4, but you really gotta be aware of all the new stuff that is in Modern Warfare 2. So Snipers think they can go in a post up in the Overgrown brush, they should probably go in packing some Cold-Blooded so they don’t show up on the new Thermal Scope.

Cav: Yeah the new Thermal Scope is great. Not a big fan of the Heartbeat Sensor though: Leave that stuff for LV-421 that’s what I say.

RB:[laughs]

OVERGROWN

Cav: So we have a double XP weekend coming up. That’s international right?

RB: Yeah that’s International. So the weekend following the Map Pack release we are going to add two playlists. One’s called the Stimulus Playlist and that’s gonna allow you to play all the new maps on all the modes and that will be double XP. We also have Hardcore Stimulus, which will allow you to play all the new maps on Hardcore Team Deathmatch, Hardcore Search & Destroy and Hardcore HQ Ricochet Pro and that will be double XP as well

Cav: Excellent! So, in the future, are we looking at more DLC or are we looking at the next Modern Warfare game?

RB: Well are definitely planning on doing at least one more DLC pack, but what that includes and the direction we’ll go with we don’t know yet.

Cav: Will there be new trophies in the future, or maybe with the new DLC?

RB: No, we are not adding any trophies or achievements for the new DLC

Cav: And not for the future?

RB: No, no plans at this time

SALVAGE

Cav: Will there be a chance to play online against the Infinity Ward guys with the DLC release?

RB: We will be doing the double XP weekend and we also have some ‘Play with Death’ time planned for the weekend after the launch of the map pack.

Cav: Eventually will we see a Game of the Year edition like we did with Call of Duty 4?

RB: Not sure. Activision typically decides that kind of stuff. I mean there’s no actual plans on it now, but that depends on what they decide to do with it.

Cav:...and the numbers that sell.

RB: Yeah.

Cav: Were you impressed with the last Call of Duty 4 DLC buy-rate?

RB: Definitely. Our Call of Duty 4 map packs did really well. I mean we had a large portion of our audience who really took advantage of getting new maps. We still would expect, especially with the growth of the Modern Warfare 2 community, that with this game a lot of people will be jumping online and taking advantage of the maps.

Cav: I do wanna say to you that I was playing Call of Duty 4 online right up until the moment people were dropping off to go to midnight launches to go and pick up Modern Warfare 2. Do you think that your DLC will enhance the game and keep people playing until the next Modern Warfare game?

RB: Well I definitely wanna keep people playing as long as possible and our community is pretty hardcore dedicated, as I’m sure you know. I fully expect them to keep Modern Warfare at the top of the online games for a while.

Cav: And it’s rating well at the moment is it?

RB: Oh yeah, yeah. It been virtually the number one game online since launch and that doesn’t look at changing any time soon.

Cav: So you have five new maps for us. Which one is the apartment block one?

RB: Bailout

Cav: Bailout – does it sort of resemble Bloc from COD4?

RB: No, no this is a much different kind of apartment complex. It’s more of an American suburban apartment complex that the Russian Bloc. It’s a lot more colourful, a lot more intricate and the outdoor areas are not arranged the same way as Bloc. There are much longer hallways, you’ll be fighting through gyms, lobbies and mailbox areas as well as the individual apartment units.

Cav: So it’s just the one apartment building not parallel like Bloc was?

RB: No, you’ll have multiple apartment buildings and in between those will be, parking lots, courtyards and pool areas.

BAILOUT

Cav: Any other maps you wanna tell me about?

RB: Well you’ve got Salvage and Strom. Storm is really cool as it’s got a great atmosphere. It’s raining and there’s a thunder storm with lightning. There’s a huge interior warehouse which is great for objective team games. Now Salvage is all about, well boiling it down to the simple roots that is, you know, whoever is the fastest aim as there are not a lot of places to hide in that map.

Cav: Will we see something like Killhouse in the next round of Map Packs?

RB: I don’t know

Cav: I didn’t mind the odd game of knives only on Killhouse...or knives and rockets

RB: Yeah, I’ve done quite a few of those.

STORM

Cav: You know I’d like to see a good Aussie versus US game, but you know with the servers it’s a bit difficult. Would that be something that Infinity Ward could look at promoting in the future?

RB: I don’t know, possibly. I mean after this DLC would be a really good time to do it because just before the DLC hits we’re gonna release a patch and there’s a number of things in that patch, but the most important things to Australian gamers is the fact that we are adding matchmaking fixes for the 360 version to allow you to find more games and host them locally.

Cav: I think you’ve just made a million Australians jump up and down for joy. That is awesome news.

Cav: Was there any reason for the large amount of weapons available in Modern Warfare 2? I mean the list is crazy.

RB: This game was all about depth and this would give it a very, very long lifespan online. We know how dedicated our multiplayer people are, so that’s why we wanted to give them a lot of content to consume. You know, we upped it to 70 ranks, we had the prestiges, there’s more weapons, more equipment and more ways to customise your character.

Cav: Yeah, I love the launchers, that was a great idea. But Throwing Knives? Who’s idea was that?

RB: [laughs] I don’t know who’s idea it was specifically, but they were a great addition. I love just how good people are getting with them. I don’t know if you ever jump on YouTube and watch some of the Throwing Knives videos? Some of them are insane. Sometimes I’ll jump online in just community games and it always ends up in a just Throwing Knives match.

Cav: Is there any chance of seeing Aussie Soldiers in future games?

RB: Well, I don’t know – anything’s possible

Cav: Well if you need a voice actor, just call me.

RB: [Laughs]All right!

Cav: I think it would be a bonus for our boys to see our cams and our weapons in the game. The Aussie soldiers would love it. Well thank you very much for your time, take good care and we look forward to the download content.

RB: Yeah, thank you man.

FourZeroTwo - Mr Robert Bowling