It has happened. The thing that people have wanted since Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was released last year on November 4, 2016 has arrived. Activision has sat down, accepted that people didn’t want to have to buy one game to get another that they really wanted, and separated Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered from Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare . And frankly, it’s something that should have happened much sooner.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered was Infinite Warfare’ s life vest. Activision took something people weren’t sure they really wanted and made it more palatable by attaching something they would want. Modern Warfare is one of the best Call of Duty games ever made. The story and multiplayer were both amazing. Of course connecting it to something more questionable was a smart plan at the time.
Keeping it connected for so long was a stupid idea. After all, everyone quickly saw that Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was not meeting expectations. Yet, the way that the games were distributed, the one was irrevocably tied to the other. It was unfair to demand people have one to get the other. After the initial launch period, say the first two months at most, Activision should have cut the cord and begun offering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered on its own. That would have been a great way to begin our January.
But no, that’s not what Activision did. Instead, it waited over seven months before severing the connection between Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Modern Warfare Remastered . And when it did, it wasn’t with some huge fanfare. The dissolution of this partnership happened with no real notice. One second, they are together, the next it is being sold alone on the PlayStation 4 for $39.99 as part of the Days of Summer campaign.
Yet, even this thing we should be celebrating isn’t without its dark clouds. Only the PlayStation 4 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered is its own entity now. The Xbox One and PC versions? Well, people who want those just have to wait. Whoops, what a shame? But hey, another one or two months doesn’t matter when you already waited over half a year for a thing on its own, right? Wrong. It does matter and makes the situation even more wrong.
And even the PlayStation 4 and eventual Xbox One and PC stand-alones are marred. You know the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered Variety Map Pack? The $14.99 bundle that includes the Broadcast, Chinatown, Creek, and Killhouse maps isn’t part of this $39.99 release. So think about this. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was $59.99 at launch. Modern Warfare Remastered is $39.99 on its own. The thing that was basically a bonus for a new game is essentially being assigned a higher value than the entirely new game and doesn’t even include the DLC in what should be its Best of the Best release.
It’s just disappointing. Call of Duty fans deserved more from Activision. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare should have been sold on its own between three and six months after Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare’ s release. Once it was released, it should have been on every platform at once. Most importantly, it should have been a director’s cut that included everything instead of charging people $39.99 for the game alone and an additional $14.99 for four maps. Activision really messed up this release.