Infinity Ward have confirmed that on PC the player cap for multiplayer is no down to 18 players rather then the 32 of the original game. 
 
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'PC gamers may find one more reason to grumble about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, asInfinity Ward has confirmed that the maximum number of players in the game's multiplayer mode has taken a hit from 32 to 18.

A max of 18 players has been the norm for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of previous entries Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World At War, but it's considerably less than previous iterations for the PC. Infinity Ward's Mackey McCandlish and Vince Zampella confirmed that 9 versus 9 multiplayer battles would be the max going forward to the chagrin of a few PC gamers already feeling burned by the switch from dedicated servers to the IW.net service.

McCandlish explained that an 18-player cap was related to "the number of players we focused on when we were balancing map size, perks, classes, challenges, etc."

That lead to one fan venting in the Infinity Ward developer Q&A session hosted by Best Buy's Geek Squad. "Please explain how a 9v9 match is a multiplayer experience? I'd have more fun serving lunch at a local nursing home," complained a user named "Axen." 

What is the cap for consoles?

" What is the cap for consoles? "

This thread is bound for terrible things.

omg what the fuck is going on are they just trying to piss over every pc user just add fucking mouse and keyborad support to xbox and ps3 my god

I was always getting this game on the 360 but this is such a dick move, I guess it's not so surprising when you consider there are no dedicated servers, but it's an aspect of that that I never thought about.

" This thread is bound for terrible things. "

Wow this is gonna piss even more people off.

I have to say when I heard they were putting match making on the PC version my first thought was how many players would be the default max per match. This now confirms what I thought they would do.
 
Well played to Infinity Ward for systematically killing off this games chances on the PC. Good game guys! :D
 
If I do buy this frat-boy orientated game it'll now be on the PS3. No real reason to buy a PC version to be honest.

To be honest I don't want to start a moaning git thread about how bad Infinity Ward are. Been a huge fan since the original game, but I'm left confused by their choice decisions for the PC version. Wonder how much of this is Activisions doing rather then IW, after all the console version costs more then the PC version and with PC you get piracy. (though the PC version is still a damn ripoff at £34.99). 
 
But I don't want no moaning gits on here, more interesting debate on why this as been done. 

I assumed this when I heard the original matchmaking news. The game is going to be one of the finest examples of a complete shit game on the PC, and one of the worst made games for the platform that has ever existed.

in b4 pissed of people 
This sucks

i hope it fails hard on PC.  

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

IW needs to lay off whatever they are smoking...
 
this is crazy...

Im not even sure if Infinity Ward (or maybe Activision) want this to suceed. They seem to be doing everything in their power to piss of PC gamers perhaps so they dont have to make a PC version, I belive im right in saying Infinity Ward originally wanted to be a console developer anyway. While I have to admit that most match's ive ever played of a CoD game are usually around 9 v 9 I do play a lot of matchs with a lot more players, one of my favourite CoD 4 servers is a 50 man server which means 25 players a side and it such hectic fun.

I'll be also honest for a second, the multiplayer is secondary to me. But I have always enjoyed it, especially the insane 32 player free-for-all matches so not having them anymore will be rather poor.  
 
Let's hope some dedicated fans will find some way of working the 32 player system into MW2, that or I'll stick to COD4's mutlplayer. . 

Infinity Ward seemingly wants to piss off PC users to no end; not that it matters to me, I'll be picking it up for Playstation anyway.

What's the point of trying to make a new form of online community, when you've clearly pissed off anyone remotely interested.
 
I've lost count on how many awkward headaches Infinity Ward has been able to produce in the last few weeks. Are they going for some type of Guinness World record? Because at this point, everything would make sense if this was the case. It's gotten pretty silly now.

Honestly, is there anyone who didn't assume they would scale back the player limits after hearing about the lack of dedicated servers? How many times do they have to say that it's gonna be exactly the same as the console? At this point it's almost like they're riling up the PC fans on purpose just to get press.

The PC sales for this game are gonna suck. Doesn't really matter cause its gonna sell like crazy on the 360 and PS3.

This is hilarious. Can't wait to see how BFBC2 fairs on the PC in terms of multiplayer. If it's anywhere near as fun as BF2, I'll almost be glad no ones playing MW2 so that BF will be more populated!

Thats it where is COD 4 just for that im gonna go mod like crazy so FUCK YOU INFINITY WARD

How come the cap has to be lower?  You guys told me matchmaking and P2P hosting would offer a superior experience! :(
 
In all honesty, I just see MW2 as a single player game now, nothing about the multiplayer seems appealing to me at all.  I'll still buy it though, because the single player alone is bound to be better than most other games.  I really wouldn't care if they just scrapped competitive multiplayer entirely.
 
Has there been any word on LAN support yet?

"If I do buy this frat-boy orientated game it'll now be on the PS3."

What's the point of getting the PC version then?

While I know that 9 v 9 games are can be perfectly fun, this really does suck for PC gamers. Even if the maps are "balanced" (probably just a BS excuse for the limitations of matchmaking) for 18 players, it's always nice to have the option to play with higher caps.
 
Regardless of whether it sounds like entitlement of not (Ryan), they are taking things away that PC players have become accustomed to and that they value, so it does suck. Yes, PC players are not owed anything, but it is clear to everyone that IW/Activision are doing this to better line their pockets at the expense of users' fun, which is why people are legitimately upset. Yes, it's a business, but that doesn't mean their dick moves hurt any less. I mean it's not like they're bleeding money over there.

" Honestly, is there anyone who didn't assume they would scale back the player limits after hearing about the lack of dedicated servers? How many times do they have to say that it's gonna be exactly the same as the console? At this point it's almost like they're riling up the PC fans on purpose just to get press. "

" The PC sales for this game are gonna suck. Doesn't really matter cause its gonna sell like crazy on the 360 and PS3. "

" What's the point of getting the PC version then? "

" @Hamz said:

"If I do buy this frat-boy orientated game it'll now be on the PS3."

Out of morbid curiosity, what do you mean by "frat-boy oriented"? "

Going to stop reading up on this, seeing this makes me even more depressed. 
 
http://undead.mygameclan.com/user/244066/gallery/432282/features.jpg

" @Br3adfan said:

" This thread is bound for terrible things. "

this. i am outta here  "

" What's the point of getting the PC version then? "

games with more people are overrated too many people ruins a game.  And if the maps are small enough, whats the problem?
@Hamz:
And what would you consider a non frat boy shooter?  I also don't like the geeky loser type shooters where all you do is sit your moms basement playing stuff like counter-strike.  From your definition though, it would seem like every shooter is made for that kind of person.

" @Famov said:

" @Hamz said:

"If I do buy this frat-boy orientated game it'll now be on the PS3."

Out of morbid curiosity, what do you mean by "frat-boy oriented"? "

I'm going to open a can of negative worms here that will likely get me some backlash. But the multiplayer for this game just seems way too orientated toward the casual-Soulja'Boy-listening-frat-boy-esque demographic. The sort of people who use terms like 'pwned!', 'fag!' and continually make mum jokes. Essentially those loud, obnoxious types you love to hate yet hate to love.  Everything about this game's multiplayer so far seems ridiculous and in my humble and personal opinion, not fun at all. If I buy this it will be for the single player, most definitely not the multiplayer. "

IW sucks. Bad Company 2 ftw.

I'm a console player..always have been. But I dont understand why they're shitting on PC users so badly. I understand that PC gaming isn't as strong as consoles, but it's still a big user base. And then with taking away private chat on consoles..I am having a hard time getting what IW is trying to accomplish by taking away more features that getting new ones.

" omg what the fuck is going on are they just trying to piss over every pc user"

IW is setting a terrible precedent for all game developers. Removing features and fencing up players and then labelling them as value adding. I've been reading this article on other sites and I see alot of console only people laughing and mocking so called PC elitist at this but its become kind of sad when your having fun at a fellow gamer being shafted. Hopefully this trend of bsing gamers on all platforms will not spread from this one game but I wont keep my hopes up.

18 still sounds like too many players. Whenever I play CoD4 (PC), I try to avoid games with more than 8 people, particularly on smaller maps where grenade spamming and noob tubes become an issue. Teams of 3-4 are ideal, allowing 1v1 scenarios without completely eliminating the squad dynamic.

" @Hamz said:

" @Famov said:

" @Hamz said:

"If I do buy this frat-boy orientated game it'll now be on the PS3."

Out of morbid curiosity, what do you mean by "frat-boy oriented"? "

I'm going to open a can of negative worms here that will likely get me some backlash. But the multiplayer for this game just seems way too orientated toward the casual-Soulja'Boy-listening-frat-boy-esque demographic. The sort of people who use terms like 'pwned!', 'fag!' and continually make mum jokes. Essentially those loud, obnoxious types you love to hate yet hate to love.  Everything about this game's multiplayer so far seems ridiculous and in my humble and personal opinion, not fun at all. If I buy this it will be for the single player, most definitely not the multiplayer. "

Have to say your right, as much as I love COD4 multiplayer when I play it. Some of the players are worse then in Halo. The attitudes and language of some are simply pathetic and your not far wrong in your assumption of the 'majority' of online users. Fun is had though and there are some very great people who play (especially some folks on PC).  Remember hearing a group of clan members being racially abusive to a Russian player a few months back, depressed me hearing that. :( "

"18 still sounds like too many players. Whenever I play CoD4 (PC), I try to avoid games with more than 8 people, particularly on smaller maps where grenade spamming and noob tubes become an issue. Teams of 3-4 are ideal, allowing 1v1 scenarios without completely eliminating the squad dynamic. "

" @DeadMonkeys said:

"18 still sounds like too many players. Whenever I play CoD4 (PC), I try to avoid games with more than 8 people, particularly on smaller maps where grenade spamming and noob tubes become an issue. Teams of 3-4 are ideal, allowing 1v1 scenarios without completely eliminating the squad dynamic. "

Well it's a good thing that there are dedicated servers in mw2 so you can go on a 4v4 server. oh wait... "

I have no problem with eighteen player max. I do, however, take issue with everything else they've done with the multiplayer.
 
I rarely play on servers that have more than sixteen players; any more just feels unnecessarily chaotic, and I find no enjoyment in it. That may come from years of playing in clans, something I haven't done for a couple of years. It's as they say, though: "Old habits die hard."

They don't need an excuse to stop making a PC version.  If that's what they wanted to do, they'd just say "Yo, we aren't making a PC version, deal with it."

As if IW couldn't make things worse. I expect to find out that to activate the game you have to give Activision a sample of your blood and it has to be Type O, and you only get three activations otherwise you might pass out.

This sucks for PC gamers and I understand their anger, but that doesn't give everyone the justification to say the game sucks.

I can't see how 32 players would not be ridiculous in this game. The maps are always close combat oriented.

Can't wait till they link the playlist for mw2 on pc where u cant play hardcore on headqaurters or somit