Call of Duty: WWII is not technically out until 3rd November, but as is the case with practically every major release, some fans have already got their hands on the game. However, according to Charlie Intel, Activision has rendered the release unplayable until launch – you can’t even access the single player campaign.
While the publisher’s been swiftly removing video proof of this, it seems like you’ll need to download a patch in order to “unlock” the Blu-ray. This is unprecedented as far as we’re aware, because usually you’re able to at least access the single player portion of a game if you stumble upon a copy prior to release.
We’re sure that people will have their pitchforks out here, but we can kinda see things from Activision’s point of view: the game’s not out for almost a week and that’s plenty of time for spoilers to filter out. Still, does this mean that you’ll be required to connect to the Internet in order to play the title after launch, too?
[source charlieintel.com]
Comments 48
Never been lucky enough to get a game before launch, i guess I figured most companies would lock a majority of the game behind a patch, kind of like a pre-load, and that the internet was required to "unlock" the game.
I thought for games like CoD and BF they offered a few days early play if you paid extra? Is that not available in WWII?
What if somebody didn't have internet for whatever reason would then make the game completely unplayable ? I don't think that's rite for any reason.. so what would happen on launch day and no internet ?
That's obviouy just plain lies because you can't lock the disc. There will be plenty of people buying the game have no internet and just want to play the campaign. The only reason for this nonsense is to drive digital sales, nothing wrong with that probably.
Dodgy. Activision Blizzard with their record profits now filtering in DRM measures to part sp games.
If this is true then good. Every game should have both SP and MP locked and require a patch at launch so both will then be unlocked. It’s the only way to stop those with early copies of gaining an advantage. I know some people don't have internet but they are in a really small minority and need to keep up with the times in this day and age.
@MaccaMUFC you clearly dont live in the real world with ignorant comments such as that
I hope that is not true, they have no need to lock off the SP content nor the offline multiplayer if it has it, spoilers always come out on games but most people will take an active role in avoiding them.
After the microtransactions BS and Activision's marketing strategy to sell you more DLC it makes them look even worse with locking content behind a patch
It's not a rumor, Sledgehammer Games has said that it will require it.
@themcnoisy: It wasn't Activision it was Sledgehammer themselves. They are cracking down on people who got early copies a few people have even been arrested for selling copies on Ebay. Sledgehammer wasn't too happy about people selling early copies.
Well preorder canceled for me. Everyone else knock yourself out. I consider myself a collecter and i hold onto games for the nostalgia factor. So in 8 to 10 yrs assuming when that server is shut down i wont even be able to fire the single player up for a go? Lol no thanks....
Its fine I do not have issue with it. Quite often you are getting streamers who get a comptetive advantage over others by getting copies of the game early therefore gaining viewers. This creates a more level playing field for all streamers.
The same as The Division when I got it a few days early. I just shrugged and played something else.
As @RoyalGuard says, the bigger issue here is that if someone wants to play the game in ten years time for the first time to track the history of the series or gaming. What happens if the servers have been switched off and there is no way to dl the patch. There would be no way of accessing the Sp content. I cant really blame companies for locking content until release day though. There is a release date for a reason.
@MaccaMUFC and what if you live or work in areas that don't have internet like say a soldier in the middle east, that would mean no game would work, just look at how much crap MS got over the XB1 requiring a constant internet connection from soldiers who play consoles while deployed
saying get with the times is just plain ignorant
Printed on the front of the box in big red letters GAME ISNT PLAYABLE WITHOUT INTERNET CONNECTION. This information wasn't in the pre order information was it???? Absolute scum.
Cool....fifty quid saved for me then if it is indeed always online for single player! Gran Tourismo saved me another 50 quid with that practice.
@RoyalGuard @Rob_230 whats worse although not related to activision / sledgehammer whoever;
EA want its old online games pulled from fan supported servers.
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2017/10/27/ea-asks-fans-to-stop-keeping-old-battlefield-games-alive
So you both are right.
@KingdomHeartsFan The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Soon our single player games will self destroy once finished.
@andreoni79 nah they will just charge you £60 every time you want to play it
I'm glad I gave up on CoD years ago. Feel sorry for everyone that wants to play the single-player portion that don't have internet.
@get2sammyb do you have your review copy ? If so when your review goes up can you confirm if you need a constant internet connection for the single player even after the day one patch ? That will decide if I'm buying it or not this Friday .
Something i hope all game devs start doing. Keep the spoilers off the net for a bit
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi @Fullbringlchigo A soldier in the Middle East can have internet access via satellite broadband or access in their own quarters, yeah it would be costly and probably have poor connection speed but what can you expect from an undeveloped country? Anyhow do you really think Activison/Sledgehammer will care about the very small minority without internet access? Probably 99% of players who play CoD buy it for multiplayer anyway.
Whether you think I’m being ignorant with my comment, the fact remains that it’s happening and that you’ve either got to suck it up, take it up with Activison/Sledgehammer or don’t buy/play the game at all. Simple.
@General_Spiller I was so hyped for GT Sport a shame really . I don't buy online only games so it's whatever .
@MaccaMUFC they were just examples the point we are making is there are much better, simpler ways to do it without locking out the entire game
you could make it so the online servers can't be accessed until release day, they could make it so you can't gain XP so you can't unlock anything before release day, they could just lock out the MP and have that need a patch
as for spoilers the story will be the same as every other COD game so no spoilers there but they could block streaming until release day, they could block recording and they could have sites like youtube automatically block any video put up before release
but to render the entire game unplayable just because some retailer broke the release date it unfair to consumers, it's not their fault Amazon or GAME or ASDA etc etc sent it early so why should they be punished
it's just another way for developers to control what gamers can do
if you pay for it you should be able to play it NO MATTER when you get it
A single person was arrested for selling a batch of stolen copies.
@FullbringIchigo While I agree with ya that if you pay for it you should be able to play it, if it's aquired illegally then no. Honestly another alternative would be for the companies to not send the stores the copies so earlier.
When I worked at Kmart during the PS one era and they would get the copies of games anywhere from a month to two weeks before release date, enough time for a dishonest employee to "misplace" some.
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi yep i NEVER saw that or came across any article stating the game would need a connection to function. Smh seeing as i order my games from amazon or bestbuy i rarely see the game cases before launch. Its terrible the games where stolen and sold early, but those guys just saved me 60$.
@themcnoisy wow....... thats terrible. I feel bad for the kids growing up today that remain gamers into their adulthood. They wont have retro with all this online only stuff. Oh maybe they will in some form of a remaster or whatever they do these days to sell more copies. Growin up in the 80's makes this a tough pill to swallow, thank god i have my older consoles still.
@Tasuki oh i 100% agree on that, if you get it illegally then you should be punished but there has to be a better way then punishing everybody else too
Spoiler alert:
USA, UK and USSR win the World War 2!
@PS_Nation well to be fair Russia and Japan never actually signed their peace treaty with each other so TECHNICALLY they are still at war so WWII hasn't technically finished yet
What possible spoilers can they be afraid of? It's not like we don't know the result of the war.
Frankly this is ridiculous requiring an internet connection to access this, if only there was another game that involved shooting Nazi's so we didn't have to buy this one 🤔😉
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi You're wrong. It's very possible to make a disc unplayable before a certain date. It's probably very easy for a developer to do if they wanted to. When you put the disc in, it starts reading files, all they would need to do is put a date restriction on the files in there and have instructions to check if the date on the system match the date in the files. If it's before the required date, the files would simply be impossible to read. You wouldn't even need a patch for that, the files would unlock when date is reached, however they would make you connect to Internet to verify the date because one could simply go offline and change date otherwise.
@FullbringIchigo Wow, I didn't know that.
@PS_Nation
Similar to the Korean War. There was never a true end. Just an armistice.
@GigaGaia so, you just change the system date. Without an internet connection to verify the correct date it has no way of knowing. So as you say, you still need the internet connection one way or the other.
To be honest makes no difference to me. The Witcher is a buggy mess without its patches, Doom has awful screen tearing without its first update. Loads of our games will be poor experiences to come back to in the future if the patches become unavailable. Shame but life eh!?
@kyleforrester87 Except they could easily require an Internet connection to verify though. In this case, all this would be silly, since you need an Internet connection to play the game, so they can easily restrict on their end.
Cannot say i am surprised by this, if true.
The advent of live streaming and "being first" has become the equivalent of me farting in a room full of hipsters and then watching them argue over who smelt it first...
Pretty rubbish for those who don't have a connection and in an ideal world it shouldn't be the case, but the days of me being able to play my old games have been numbered for a console generation or two at least, with this adding another nail in that particular coffin.
Besides, the likes of Acti and EA only put the single-player in as a tradition nowadays, until they can find a way to siphon off the MP into its own IP
That's likely to happen in a few years, once they work out how they can still charge 50 notes for the privilege...
@FullbringIchigo even better if the servers ARE online and your internet is on it rejects the game until patch. That way if servers offline it’ll still work. Still requires internet connection but doesn’t kill the game for years down the road.
I'd like some follow up on this, it's something that would convince me to skip it.
@ApostateMage same here, i bought The Division, played it for a few days then moved onto something else. No, wait, that's not what you said..
@MaccaMUFC What advantage do you get by playing the singleplayer early? I wont buy it the beta was a big dissapointment anyway. But still paying €60 and have the basics locked away is shamefull i hope people can get a refund if its not on the box
@kyleforrester87 MGS 5 complete edition is complete with all patches and extra stuff on the disk though.
hmm.. pretty underhanded if you ask me. they can prevent connection to the multiplayer section at the server level, and could also have disabled video-streaming, or anything other activity that requires a network connection.. but you should be able to play the single player/local zombies portions of the game offline straight out of the box, even if it is buggy without a day 1 patch.
@Flaming_Kaiser You do realize that buy the time you buy it everything will be unlocked.
@Flaming_Kaiser i spent a whole day trying to confirm. I think it is on the box that internet is required. Sadly its a no buy for me.
Lol are they serious!!! I currently live in an area with a maximum internet speed of between. 1-2mbps. A 9gb patch to play an single player. Gaming is becoming ruined by this always online nonsense. £40-£50 for games that’s have a limited life span. I’ve got a master system that’s about 30 years old I can still play, gone are those days. THANKS !!!!
@Tasuki you to realise with my internet speed it won’t be unlocked by the time I buy it!!
Are people really this stupid! They honestly think a 9gb patch downloads in seconds!
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