That Call of Duty games are routinely exploited by cheaters and hackers, regardless of platform, is nothing new. But players of the PS3 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 say the situation is worse than it's ever been.
"This issue is really out of hand," writes one member of the Infinity Ward forums, complaining to the developer of Modern Warfare 2 that hacks on the PlayStation 3 are more prevalent than ever, leading to players losing rank and being subjected to vulgar messages from others. Others say that its harder than ever to find a game that's not being subjected to hacking.
Infinity Ward's creative strategist Robert Bowling took to the game's official forums to address user concerns, saying that the issue is partially due to a recent compromise of the PlayStation 3's security.
"Sony has recently acknowledged a breach in security on the PS3 which resulted in games to become exposed to exploits and hacks," Bowling writes. "Modern Warfare 2 is no exception to this security exploit and we understand that some of you have experienced problems with stats and other issues associated with this."
Infinity Ward says that due to the security measures taken in Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2, or lack thereof, "updates to the game through patches will not resolve this problem, unless the security exploit itself is resolved on the platform."
Bowling says that due to Call of Duty's popularity, hackers and cheaters are targeting it more heavily than its peers and that Infinity Ward has its hands tied in trying to deal with exploits.
"Let me assure you, while we are very reliant on Sony updating their firmware and security to address the core problem of this issue," Bowling writes. "We are looking at EVERY option available to us to help any user affected." Sony believes it can address exploits on the PS3 through network updates.
"In the future we plan to adjust our approach to not rely solely on platform security and reduce the ability for this to happen in our games," Bowling says, "as has already been displayed by the work Treyarch has done on Call of Duty: Black Ops to prevent similar measures."