Earlier this month, we brought you word that Infinity Ward were actively working on new multiplayer maps for Call of Duty 4. At the time, Infinity Ward’s community manager, Robert Bowling was guarded about details, only teasing fans with the idea.
Today, I had a chance to sit down and talk with Robert about the upcoming maps, hoping to get some more detailed information. The bad news — Infinity Ward still aren’t talking specifics. I was, however, able to get a few hints and some new details on the new maps, which should be available this spring.
Hit the jump for the first morsels of details on the upcoming Call of Duty 4 map packs for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
While Bowling was hesitant to talk specifics, he was able to confirm that the first maps will be available in a pack of three. In terms of what gamers can expect from the maps, he insists that the theme here is variety, taking cues from what their community has asked for.
“We’re fortunate to have a very big community,” says Bowling, “so they’re the ones who know what’s getting old, or what they want to see.”
Overwhelming, the community was interested in three key elements — more open, larger scale maps; open maps with close quarters; more buildings with no closed doors; and completely new locales. When pushed for specifics, Bowling only relies on this criteria to drop hints.
“People who want open maps are going to be happy with this map pack,” he says. “People who want more indoor locales are going to be happy with this map pack. People who want something completely different from what they’re currently playing are going to be happy with this map pack.”
He also notes that the team are working on a number of different concepts, and is clear that even more content can be expecting in the future.
“We plan on supporting our game for a very long time,” he tells me. “As I said, we have a large community. We’re currently number one on Xbox LIVE, so we have a lot of people playing. So we’re going to continue to support the community that keeps supporting us. We have a lot of cool ideas that we’re working on, and we’re going to keep making maps until we’re done.”
When asked about the possibilities of future perks or weapons via downloadable content, Bowling tells me that the idea had been “thrown around,” but that there are currently no plans.
I also asked him if the inevitable release Call of Duty 5 would be a roadblock to future content, and he was clear that wouldn’t be the case.
“We don’t dictate how much we update our game based on what other studios do,” he says, almost certainly confirming Infinity Ward’s lack of participation in the upcoming sequel. “So if another game comes out, that doesn’t mean we stop supporting ours.”
