Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Right now, much of the entertainment industry is built on taking old IPs and remaking them, fueling audiences' nostalgia, and bringing in heaps of cash for doing so. The video game industry is no different. The top-selling games every year tend to be sequels or subsequent entries in a beloved, pre-established franchise, and Call of Duty is one such beneficiary. The upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is often judged in direct comparison to its 2009 original, showing that fans' nostalgia is a strong determining factor in their enjoyment of new CoD releases. But to get that nostalgic hit, some CoD fans return to old days of the franchise, and revisit games like Call of Duty 3.
Released on the Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Xbox, and Wii back in 2006, Call of Duty 3 isn't the most fondly remembered entry in the franchise. A bold campaign that took players to fronts of World War 2 that they hadn't seen before, but Call of Duty 3's single-player mode didn't quite live up to the lofty heights of its predecessor. For those that played Call of Duty 3's multiplayer, it's another story entirely, and eager fans may want to know if its servers are still up after all these years.
Does Call of Duty 3 Multiplayer Still Work?
Coming just a year before Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty 3 lacked a lot of the bells and whistles its successor went on to create. Call of Duty 3's multiplayer had no custom classes, no kill streaks, and no attachments. To fans of modern Call of Duty entries, CoD 3 will look extremely simplistic in comparison. Call of Duty 3's online multiplayer saw up to 24 players go head-to-head on Xbox 360 and PS3, and just 16 players on PS2 and Xbox. There were just two multiplayer modes in this early entry, Player and Ranked matches. After dropping into a game, players would need to select a class, each with a pre-determined loadout, much like other contemporary military shooters.
Rather surprisingly, Call of Duty 3's multiplayer servers are still functioning today, at least on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. On PlayStation 2 and Xbox, some private servers may still exist, but players would need to try and track down the specific DNS code to gain access to the server, along with a password to be accepted in. Unfortunately, the Wii version of Call of Duty 3 never had multiplayer, so players on that console are definitely out of luck.
Call of Duty 3 also never came to the PC in any capacity. This is a particular shame as classic Call of Duty games still have a pretty active following on Steam, with Call of Duty 2, Modern Warfare, and World at War still having fairly high player counts. Activision could easily activate a nostalgic group of fans if it relaunched CoD3 on Steam, but it so far seems content with the games it has available.
While Call of Duty 3's multiplayer servers are still technically up and running, it might be a little difficult to find a match nowadays, especially for those trying to play on PS3. For those on the Xbox 360, however, thanks to Xbox's backwards compatibility program, those with a copy of Call of Duty 3 for Xbox 360 can play the game on any of the modern consoles, including any of the Xbox Ones, or the Series S and X. Because of its accessibility, it's much more likely for Xbox 360 players to be able to find a populated lobby than those on PS3.
Call of Duty 3 is available on PS2, PS3, Wii, Xbox, and Xbox 360.
