Call of Duty: World at War - Wii version lacks 4-player online co-op, offers 2-player local co-op

An email exchange between an angry Wii owners, and a community manager at Treyarch…

Wii owner email…

Apparently, while other versions of the game are getting 4-player online cooperative, the Wii is getting 2-player local co-op. This is completely unnacceptable. Call of Duty 3 Wii by Treyarch was a piece of garbage, with awful graphics and no online modes on an online capable system. Now, after promises of an even experience across all consoles, you have denied Wii gamers something that they deserve. Here are a few examples of the idiocy that it must have taken to remove online 4-player co-op from the Wii version:

The Wii has proven itself capable of handling 32 players online simultaneously with a fluid framerate in Medal of Honor:Heroes 2 (a GOOD game).

Super SMash Brothers Brawl, by Nintendo, is able to support 4 players online with beautiful graphics and fluid gameplay

Mario Kart Wii, by Nintendo, supports 12 players with far more fast-paced gameplay. It also allows 2 people to go online simultaneously with purposley lowered graphics for fluidity, which is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.

The upcoming game The Conduit will feature 16-player online battles with incredible graphics and superb gameplay.
Star Fox Command, by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS (A handheld system several times smaller and far less powerful than the Wii) can handle 4 players online simultaneously.

Pokemon, Transformers, Mario Kart DS, Diddy Kong Racing DS, and inumerable other handheld games all support 4 or more players online.

So why, people of Tryarch, have you chosen to take away a fundamental experience from a perfectly capable system? If the Wii can handle 32 people in unpredictable online matches, why not have 4 in pre-rendered levels with only Artificially Intelligent enemies? The Wii may not have the same graphical capabilities of other systems, but it has the exact potential for online gaming. The lack of 4-player online co-op as on other systems are a testament to Treyarch’s lazy, underdeveloped, spit-in-the-face attitude forced upon Wii owners. Unfortuantely, I must take an unpleasant (For you) course of action.

I am a part of a very large guild of hardcore gamers, numbering in the thousands, who were similarly dissappointed, just as I am, with Call of Duty: World at War. We have regular contact with several other large or larger guilds who together make up hundreds of thousands of hard-core Wii gamers (No exaggeration!). We also have access to very popular online Wii gaming forums, including the ones at IGN, 1up.com and Eurogamer. If Treyarch does not implement four-player online co-op on the Wii version of Call of Duty: World at War, me, my clan, and a very large portion of the gamers of America will boycott Call of Duty: World at War. We will also boycott other Treyarch games such as Quantom of Solace. This boycott will also be spread to other nations, and will easily encompass millions of Wii owners. There will be online petitions, individual boycotts and severasl online petitions. All we ask is that Treyarch implement what was done on other consoles on the Wii as well. We are tired of your underdeveloped garbage being shoved onto us. It is a simple solution to our anger, and will be a testament to Treyarch’s customer satisfaction. Please do not ignore this e-mail or reply to it with a form letter, as you may be soon seeeing a flood of hate mail. Thank you for complying with your customers wishes in advanced!

Treyarch response…

Hi XXXXXXX-

I’m glad to see you are interested in Call of Duty: World at War.

Unfortunately, you’re trying to compare apples to oranges with the below listed games and Call of Duty: World at War. I don’t believe any of the games you listed utilize any form of DX9 shader technology, or any of the other numerous advancements with the CoD4: Modern Warfare engine which is now running on the Wii with CoD:WW. These ramifications for online play are far-reaching

We are proud to bring what we believe will be the best-looking Wii game this fall to the community, but that comes with technical trade-offs. The difference between competitive MP and co-op is non-trivial. Think of a size of an MP level, then compare that to an SP level. Then consider all the AI code, level scripting, and endless other content in a SP / co-op environment that is just too much for the Wii to sustain with our engine.

That said, we have great plans for competitive MP, with more details to come later this year. I am confident you and the community-at-large are going to be satisfied with the game we’ve got in store for you. We’ve been working for over two years to make this engine compatible with the Wii, and it’s really going to show in the end-product.

Thanks for writing!

Regards,
-JD
Treyarch/Community Manager

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