Call of Duty community threatens global Modern Warfare 3 blackout

The Call of Duty community is threatening to black out Modern Warfare 3 on April 20, 2012 to stand up against Activision and Infinity Ward for their "lack of support towards the community's needs and concerns."

The movement's organizers have uploaded a video detailing issues that a number of Call of Duty community members are concerned with.  In addition, they ask the fans to not play Modern Warfare 3 for a full 24 hours until their demands are met. 

"We were sold a game based on broken promises," the video states. "It's not time to make good on their mistakes."

Their demands are the following:

  • Lag Compensation
  • Matchmaking options which include the ability to enable disable local search and base search off the party leader when playing with friends
  • The broken Spawn System
  • Full featured Theater mode
  • Individual volume controls in the options menu
  • Tac insert removed from Kill confirmed
  • More Hardcore game modes
  • Better Elite playlist options
  • Objective stats on in-game scoreboard
  • Akimbo machine pistol nerf
  • Removal of any assault kill streaks from the support package
  • Removal of death streaks and Fix Local Area Network settings for Competitive events

The video currently sits at around 14,000 views, but I imagine that number will increase quite dramatically as the movement gains steam.  The majority of responses seem to agree with the changes required, though many are doubting this will make a bleep on Activision or Infinity Ward's radar.  They believe the best way to show displeasure is to simply not buy the game.

This movement is similar to the one displayed last month by Battlefield 3 fans who began to speak up in an effort to gain the attention of DICE and EA and demand freer communication between the developers and the community.  Like this, the Battlefield 3 fans also threatened a global BF3 blackout, which ended with DICE releasing some information about the game within the week.

Regardless of how you choose to protest, it seems that fans are beginning to get fed up with the yearly installments of Call of Duty.  Given the harsh response to this year's title, I imagine it'll be hard for next year's edition to set the records Modern Warfare 3 did this year – that is unless major changes and improvements are made.