Infinity Ward pushed an unplanned update to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta on Tuesday, as the first beta weekend came to a close, to address player feedback on spawns.
The studio described the change as an early piece of a larger set of spawn improvements rather than a finished fix. It went live in every mode except Hardpoint, where the equivalent changes are due during the beta's second weekend.
We were supposed to be done with updates today… Supposed to be. We pushed out an early piece of the larger spawn improvements we're working on. It's live now across all modes except Hardpoint. Hardpoint changes will come in Weekend 2.
Spawns were one of several recurring complaints during the first weekend, alongside a time to kill that players argued is too rapid. IGN reported the update as likely one of several fixes ahead of the second weekend.
A response to Modern Warfare 2's reception
The pace of the studio's responses has been read against its previous Call of Duty, 2022's Modern Warfare 2, which drew criticism for how little it engaged with player complaints about the game's direction, and which remains divisive despite its commercial success.
In an interview with IGN, Infinity Ward's Joe Cecot acknowledged that record directly. "I think in MW2, we definitely didn't communicate as well as we should have," he said. "I think we've remedied that in crazy ways with this project." Cecot pointed to the volume of responses crossing his desk for review and to co-studio head Mark Grigsby, the Infinity Ward account and the Call of Duty account posting in unison, and said the approach would carry into live support.
What comes next
The second beta weekend begins on Friday, August 28 at 10am PT. Modern Warfare 4 releases in full on October 23, with early access to the campaign opening on October 16.