Infinity Ward: MW2 multiplayer is major focus - won't ship sub-standard game

Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer has been in development "since day one" and not holding a public beta won't result in quality loss in the final game, Infinity Ward's community manager, Robert Bowling has said.

Bowling addressed the issue of the public beta in his personal blog after it was confirmed at Gamescom the developer wouldn't be opening testing of Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer up to the public prior to its release.

The news triggered concerns from fans pointing out a lack of public beta could impact negatively on the finished game - concerns which Bowling assures are unfounded.

"As I've told you many times in the past, expect no Public Beta unless we announce otherwise." he said. "That is still the case. We would never say something as definitive as 'No Beta Ever!' as that's simply not how we work. We'll do an internal beta, if we feel a public one is needed, we'll explore that route as well."

Instead, Infinity Ward is planning to run an extensive closed beta, he said, among its own team, Activision and possibly first-party partners worldwide.

"The internal beta will allow us all the benefits of a public beta test without the impact it takes on the time required to prep, distribute and manage a public beta during this crucial time in development," he explained.

"Multiplayer has been in development since day one of working on Modern Warfare 2, and this is the essential run up to launch when we’re playing everyday, hammering away on it to make sure it's as polished as can be by launch. As always, our internal QA team has daily multiplayer tests in addition to company-wide nightly MP tests we hold from the moment MP is in a running state throughout development."

Once the internal beta is complete, if the developer hasn't received the appropriate amount of feedback or there are still issues, Infinity Ward would consider pushing forwards with a public beta, confirmed Bowling.

But not implementing it in the first instance won't result in any quality loss in the final multiplayer game, he insisted.

"Multiplayer has always been and will always remain a major focus for the team at Infinity Ward and we would never ship a product we didn’t feel lived up to the high standards we hold ourselves to.

"This decision allows us to deliver a more polished experience, which in the end, is what we all want."