Infinity Ward says the community won't be ignored as a petition against the decision to remove dedicated servers from the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 tops 100,000 signatures

The PC gaming community has been up in arms since IW's Robert Bowling confirmed that dedicated servers, a traditional option for PC games, would be ditched for Modern Warfare 2, in favour of console-style matchmaking and hosting instead. The revelation also renders modifications (such as the recent Star Wars mod) incompatible with the upcoming game.

The resulting online petition has reached 100,000 signatures in just a couple of days, but for a title so popular with console gamers - especially on the Xbox - the numbers may represent a drop in the ocean for potential sales. Earlier this year, Activision reported multi-format sales of CoD4 had topped 13 million, and  despite rising anticipation for the sequel, the game has remained a constant in the charts since.

None of this has deterred Bowling from assuring disgruntled PC gamers that they will be listened to however. Asked about the backlash by IW forum member TriggerPappy, the Infinity Ward man reportedly replied via private message: "Definitely made a big wave, and the response will not be ignored. I'll ensure everyone at IW sees the petition and [responds] to it."

Although Infinity Ward hasn't detailed it's reasons for dropping dedicated servers, piracy could be a contributing factor - "We pulled some disturbing numbers this past week about the amount of PC players currently playing Multiplayer," Bowling wrote on the CoD4 blog last year. "What wasn't fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game. The amount of people who pirate PC games is astounding." Whether it's easier to determine pirated copies of the game without dedicated servers however is unclear.

Follow the link to sign the online petition yourself, or add to the general mood over on the IW forums.