Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is having a tough week

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has had a tough week.

Expectations from those within the Call of Duty community were high for this week's patch, but it disappointed many, and even included a line, seemingly left in by mistake, that preempted the backlash.

But that's not all. A series of leaks from dataminers and other sources have given us a look at potential new maps and even a first glance at the upcoming battle pass - and Activision has issued copyright notices in a thankless bid to have them scrubbed from the internet.

This week's patch included a long list of bug fixes, as well as two new Special Operations, one new Classic Spec Ops mission with star ratings, the realism multiplayer moshpit, and the much-loved Gun Game mode.

Call of Duty's core players had hoped for more from the update, however. Current hot topics include the nature of the game's skill-based matchmaking, spawn location, spawn camping and weapon balance. The patch addresses none of those things.

But one line in the patch notes in particular has become the focus of attention:

• Footsteps: Adjusted volume and sound type played for crouch walk and walking while Aiming Down Sights

As we've reported, the sound of footsteps in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has undergone some change since the shooter came out. Many players feel their audio level is too loud and gives their position away. For this Call of Duty, which is slower-paced than previous entries in the series and heavy on camping, the sound of footsteps is a big issue.

CharlieIntel reports the patch notes uploaded to Battle.net, where the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is sold, included a line seemingly left in by mistake - and this line suggests there was an internal expectation that this week's footsteps change wouldn't go down well.

The patch notes stated:: "This is a hot topic in the community, and this is not the change that they were hoping to see. Our core players want to see footstep volume dramatically reduced."

There was also a line referencing the potential reception of the addition of Gun Game, too:

"Gun Game is a fan favourite mode and we should see positive sentiment around its addition."

Both lines have since been removed, but it's an embarrassing error for Activision and Infinity Ward, and has only exacerbated the negativity around the patch.

Elsewhere, a raft of leaks have revealed potential new additions to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

Notorious Call of Duty dataminer Senescallo once again took to reddit to reveal their findings, this time the Modern Warfare season one battle pass, which includes 100 tiers, and the ability to buy tiers with COD Points.

Senescallo, who last week leaked the Modern Warfare battle royale map alongside a huge number of potential details about how the mode works, also revealed images that show an early version of fan-favourite Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare multiplayer map Crash.

Meanwhile, also leaked is a new version of Wetwork, supposedly called Cargo. Wetwork was a multiplayer map from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare based on Crew Expendable, the brilliant opening level of the campaign. This new version of Wetwork appears to be set inside of the boat, rather than on the docks. The game files list Cargo as a Gunfight map (2v2), but it may extend to 6v6. This would be welcome, as Modern Warfare is crying out for smaller maps right now.

Another Modern Warfare leaker, who goes by the name TheGamingRevolution on Twitter and YouTube, posted images to social media revealing new operators, including Ghost of Verdansk, who are supposedly set to go on sale soon.

There's no guarantee datamined files will translate into in-game features, of course, but Activision is bothered enough by Senescallo's work to have it scrubbed from the Modern Warfare subreddit.

It's a similar situation for TheGamingRevolution's Twitter page, which is full of images removed due to copyright notices.

So, all in all it's been a dramatic and difficult week in the world of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. It should be noted that while all this is going on, millions of people are playing the game and enjoying it. But it's clear all is not well within Modern Warfare's core community, and Infinity Ward is already under pressure to turn sentiment around.