Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II publisher Activision have removed Steam’s family sharing feature from MW2 only days after the game’s official release.
Introduced in 2014 on the digital distribution platform, Steam’s family sharing function allowed households to purchase one copy of a game to play on their own devices, instead of each individual having to pay full price for a separate copy. Under this feature, different users could have their own saved games, achievements, and progress on a single digital copy of the given title.
While family sharing has become a popular feature among both developers and Steam users, the feature can be opted out of by titles. Steam’s family sharing FAQ states that “due to technical limitations, some Steam games may be unavailable for sharing.”
Released on Steam only four days ago, MW2′s family sharing feature has been silently disabled. Though Activision removed the feature from its FPS title without notice, fans and frequent family sharing users quickly took notice. It is unlikely that MW2‘s family sharing was disabled due to any technical limitations since the title briefly utilized the feature, leaving many fans frustrated.
Upset users vented across several threads on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media sources. Reddit user WolfonRobinhood pointed to the game various bugs and exploits prominent in the game since its release, writing “the one thing they choose to ‘fix’”
Other users lamented the quick loss of family sharing and expressed their hope that Activision may eventually revert the change.
“I really hope YouTubers and people make Activision revert back this stupid change,” one Redditor wrote. “After 4 years of not being on Steam and therefore no family sharing on PC and to just take it away from us since it was already shareable is disgusting.”
Activision has not commented on its sudden removal of family sharing from the Call of Duty title yet, but players and fans have continued to voice their disapproval.
