why does this game have no controller support

[noob]

the sequels are not playable controller either. frustrating that a game released in 2011 (MW3) cant be played with an xbox controller. pretty sure bioshock was released around the same time as cod4 & the store page says controller (even gta4)

[Slippy]

It does.
I don't know what changed, but I couldn't use the controller either. I kept trying to use the DS4 tool to get the game running, but it was impossibly lunky and unplayable. Here's what I did, generally speaking.
1- If you have DS4 or any other 3rd party tool running, close it. Hard close it, exit that crap.
2- Connect your controller via usb, that's how your going to be playing it most likely so get a good cord that won't dc constantly and kill you/make hulk angry. Not sure how xbox controllers are with the connection port, but I had to get a special right angled cord for my ps4 controller to save all life on the planet.
3- Go into Big Picture mode in the steam UI and make sure your controller is being detected correctly as an xbox or ps4 controller respectively.
4- In your library tab of the steam UI, select MW (which, obviously, must be installed)
5- If your controller is plugged in and being read by the steam app, a new Controller option will be available in the steam library Game menu under the primary game splash screen on the right hand side of the options.
6- Make sure you like the setup, then rock and roll. Fair warning, for ps4 the default right analogue click is not "v", which is the stab button. I'm a playstation gamer so I expected that stick to stab!
Hope that helps.

[lewosch]

in 2007 as this game's release year, controller support for shooter games on PC were relatively rare, even for multi-platform games such as CoD franchise. nowadays CoD is mostly a console-centric series, but PC had a comparatively bigger importance in the eyes of activision, back then.

I don't want to offend anyone, but aside from people who have originally played older CoDs like this one on console and recently bought it on PC several years later as a cure of nostalgia; controller support isn't much relevant for these ancient games. remember about what I wrote in first sentence, so blaming devs for having no foresight here wouldn't be fair, imo. consolization of the series actually took momentum since MW2 (removal of dedicated server system on PC for the first time, in favor of p2p matchmaking and game lobbies with frequent host migrations...); and almost all CoDs since then offer native support for controllers, albeit either without or with limited aim assist feature, unlike on consoles. afaik, MW3 is the last CoD on PC where controllers aren't supported, except use of third party tools.