Despite the controversy which surrounded the choice to omit dedicated server support from the PC release of Activision Blizzard’s Modern Warfare 2 (MW2), the game has enjoyed the most successful launch of any Call of Duty title on PC.
Vocal gamers complained that the publisher was losing touch with its audience when it effectively ignored 200,000 gamers who signed a petition demanding the inclusion of dedicated server support. It would seem however that the various complaints and boycotts were not enough to do any real damage to game sales.
Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling told Gamasutra that MW2 for PC has enjoyed more unit sales in its first week than its predecessor did, “making it the most successful PC version” yet.
“PC is the smallest percentage in terms of how much sold on each platform but that hardly means anything other than the PC is just the smallest market” said Bowling in a post on the Infinity Ward forums. He went on to say that “All this percentage proves is that the console versions sold great, not that the PC version sold poorly, because that’s actually not the case.”
Although many would argue that the game would have sold even better had it included dedicated server support, the actual impact that the various boycotts had on unit sales has been called into question numerous times.

This screenshot shows that a high portion of the members of a MW2 boycott group on Steam ended up purchasing the game, leading many to wonder how many of the 200 000+ petition signees actually ended up doing the same.
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