Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 opened big this week, none too surprising considering the series’ role as national video game pastime in the US. Activision’s latest game of shoot-and-run sold 1 million copies at retailer GameStop before its first day on shelves was done. Consider then how many copies it must have sold around the world, through other retailers and digital distribution channels. Also unsurprising then: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s online multiplayer has had a few troubles running under the strain of a massive new audience.
In particular, the PlayStation 3 version of Black Ops 2 has been suffering from connectivity issues. Users on the official PlayStation 3 forums have been reporting problems getting onto multiplayer servers as well as redeeming codes for additional downloadable content like the Nuketown 2025 maps.
Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar, game design director on Black Ops 2, assured fans via Twiter that the studio was working on the problems. “We are indeed up and running, but we are also aware not everyone can connect. We are investigating something with our partners at Sony. We are currently testing backend matchmaking changes that we think can help with this. I don’t have a timetable, or I would tell you. The ‘Waiting to balance teams’ thing is something else entirely. More on that shortly.”