They will not let you download a 3D printable automatic rifle, nor will they let you 3D print your favourite multiplayer character. They do not want to bring their virtual stuff into your physical world as much as they want to bring 3D printing into their virtual world. Which means they have invented a whole new type of 3D printer, one that can only exist in futuristic war video games: a 3D printing gun.
The new Call of Duty will be set in 2054 and the game’s developer, Sledgehammer Games, envisioned an “automatic-automatic rifle”, one that 3D prints bullets on the fly. The 3D Printer Rifle is not necessarily 3D printed but it is a 3D printer in and of itself: it automatically, additively manufactures its ammo in the weapon’s chamber.
Judging from Game Informer’s exclusive images, the 3D Printer Rifle will make the bullets out of “liquid matter” so it is likely to be an evolution of DLP: using a laser would seem improbable for 3D printing explosives but hey: anything is possible in the virtual, imaginary world of tomorrow.
