Survival is "a sliver of Spec Ops", says Call of Duty: Modern Warfare dev, "there are decisions above all of our pay grades"
Everyone involved in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare PS4 exclusivity deal knew it wouldn't go over well, and people have predictably reacted negatively.
In case you missed it, Sony announced on last night's State of Play that PS4 has a one-year exclusivity on Survival mode, part of Spec Ops in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.
Survival is a horde-style, wave defence mode that was fairly popular in Modern Warfare 3, so confirming its return in the new game was a big moment, unless you're on non-Sony platforms.
Locking part of a mode for what's essentially the game's entire lifespan is brazen, not to mention rare in this day and age. As you can imagine, many in the game's community have been sharing their disappointment, just days after a fairly successful beta.
For its part, developer Infinity Ward tried to assuage some fan concerns and sort of explain its side of the story. Studio narrative director Taylor Kurosaki has been active on Twitter over the last few hours, answering fan questions, hoping to set the record straight.
"We do our best every day to give our players the best experience possible," Kurosaki wrote. "There are decisions that are above all of our pay grades that have to be considered. I understand your feelings, but this is much better than others I have seen."
Kurosaki added that Survival is "1% of the game", telling one fan that locking the mode to a single system won't ruin the experience as they suggested. "I’d rather have everyone playing 99% of the content at the same time than 100% of the content some time later," he said in a follow-up tweet.
Reading through his feed, it sounds like Survival was the price that had to be paid in order for the rest of the content to be available for all platforms simultaneously.
"There is no other content that’s exclusive for any duration. Full stop," confirmed Kurosaki.
"You can play Spec Ops and every new bit of content we drop, day one. The only timed exclusivity is Survival, which is a sliver of Spec Ops," he added.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out October 25 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.