modern-warfare-2 posts

Ever since it started in the early 2000s, Infinty Ward's team members have worked on one game at a time during its life and all of them are based on the Call of Duty/Modern Warfare franchises. However things have changed at the developer as its owners Activision Blizzard fired Infinity Ward's co-founders. Soon afterward a number of other team members left to join those co-founders and launch a new company Respawn Entertainment.

However the remaining team at Infinity Ward has been hiring others and now, in a chat with VG247.com, Activision EVP Dave Stohl hints that the team may be working on non-Call of Duty games in the future. He states, " ,,, I think we're rebuilding a studio that can go off and build great new franchises in the future."

Fans may hate it that they have to pay money for a five level multiplayer map pack for Modern Warfare 2 but the first such Stimulus Package map pack for Infinity Ward's mega selling shooter was a huge seller on Steam for the PC version of the game. Now Steam has launched pre-orders for the second and final Modern Warfare 2 map pack.

The pack will be released on July 5 and if you pre-order you can knock off 10 percent of the pack's normal $15 price tag. As we have noted before the Resurgence Map Pack will contain three all new levels plus two others that have been adapted from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Even with its $15 price tag the launch of the PC version of Modern Warfare 2''s Stimulus Package of multiplayer maps continues to sell well via Steam. Now come word from developer Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling (via his handy Twitter page) that the second and final map pack for the hit first person shooter will be released soon for the PC.

The Resurgence Pack will become available for PC owners via Steam on July 6 and its likely to cost $15 as well. As we have reported before the map pack contains five multiplayer levels. Two of them (Vacant and Strike) are remakes from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare while the other three (Fuel, Trailer Pack and Carnival) are all new maps.

We thought it might be a long while before we heard anything concrete from the new developer Respawn Entertainment. But the new studio formed by ex-Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella maybe making their first big game announcement next week at E3 2010.

A Facebook page with both men's names declares, "big time announcement at E3 next week. stay tuned, kiddies!" If the Facebook page is legit, it's likely any announcement will come during Electronic Arts' press conference that's scheduled for Monday afternoon at 5 pm Eastern time. EA is publishing Respawn Entertainment's first game title under their third party EA Partners brand.

[Via VG247.com]

One of the better elements of Modern Warfare 2 is the game's up tempo action movie-like soundtrack This week publisher Activision announced that the soundtrack to developer Infinity Ward's hit first person shooter is now available for purchase online via iTunes.

The $9.99 17 track release contains the main music composed by Lorne Balfe as well as the game's main music theme which was composed by Academy Award winning music composer Hanz Zimmer. Activision states this will be the first of many of its game soundtracks that it will release thanks to a new agreement with music publisher Fontana.

This weekend the US celebrates the Memorial Day holiday with a three day weekend and developer Infinity Ward is using the occasion to give players of Modern Warfare 2 a special treat. From now until early on Tuesday players on the online multiplayer portion of the hit first person shooter are getting double XP for their efforts online.

We were not sure if this double XP weekend would cover the PC portion of the game so we contacted publisher Activision and they indeed confirmed that the double XP event is for all platforms, including the PC port. So head on online. Maybe you can finally get up to level 70. In a related note, Infinity Ward's community manager Robert Bowling posted on his Twitter account that the developer has pushed out an update that stops a PC hack that prevented movement in the game.

Getting over 20 games and DLC products in one shot was apparently too good to pass up for many Steam users this week. The $89.99 bundle of Sega PC game titles was the number one best selling product on Steam's latest weekly top 10 best seller list (according to revenue). The bundle topped the $15 Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package add-on when went down to the number two spot while the main game was in the number five position.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 gets the third spot this week while a 75 percent sale on Tropico 3 put that game in the number four position. The full list is below.

1. Sega Bundle - Sega
2. Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package - Infinity Ward/Activision
3. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Digital Illusions/EA
4. Tropico 3 - Kalypso Games
5. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
6. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
7. Killing Floor - Tripwire Interactive
8. Torchlight - Runic Games
9. Civilization IV Complete Collection - Firaxis/2K-Games
10. F.E.A.R. - Monolith/Timegate/Warner Bros Interactive

The popularity of Modern Warfare 2 for the PC continues over to the new Stimulus map pack. This past week saw the multiplayer level pack for Infinity Ward's hit shooter was number one on Steam's top 10 sales list for the second week in a row. The main Modern Warfare 2 game is number two on the list this week, followed by Battlefield Bad Company 2 at the number three spot..

Toirchlight returns to the top 10 slot in the number four position after a price sale and its release via Steam for the Mac. The rest of the top 10 list (as rated by revenue) is below:

1. Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package - Infinity Ward/Activision
2. Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
3. Battlefield Bad Company 2 - Digital Illusions/EA
4. Torchlight - Runic Games
5. Civilization IV Complete Collection - Firaxis/2K-Games
6. Steamplay Indie Pack - Various
7. Left 4 Dead 2 - Valve
8. Tropico 3 - Kalypso Games
9. Telltale SteamPlay Pack - Telltale Games
10. Counter-Strike Source - Valve

Developer Treyarch is going to make a lot of PC multiplayer gamers happy today. According to the new issue of the UK-based PC Zone (and posted at Computer and Video Games), the developer of the upcoming shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops will support dedicated servers for the PC multiplayer portion of the game.

In fact Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia states, "I think dedicated servers are excellent. I don't see any reason not to see them unless... well, I just don't see any reason not to." It's sister developer Infinity Ward certainly found ways to rationalize their move in 2009 to eliminate dedicate server support for the PC port Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It was a decision that caused a massive firestorm of internet hatred towards Infinity Ward although in the end it didn't affect seem to affect sales of the game. However Lamia states that for their game, "We do work very hard to reconcile the desire to manipulate and modify those dedicated servers with offering them the persistent experience and benefits that the console system provides."

For some odd reason, Activision decided not to go into any real details Thursday when it first announced its plans for the second map pack for the hit first person shooter Modern Warfare 2. The company left that up to Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb and Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling late in the day on Thursday via a special edition of the Major Nelson podcast.

Bowling stated during the podcast that the five maps for the Resurgence Pack would contain two levels from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Vacant and Strike). The three all new levels include Fuel (a large outdoor map set in an oil refinery), Trailer Park (a level made to look like a mobile home park) and Carnival (a amusement park level complete with rollercoasters, a fun house and more). The Xbox 360 audience gets first crack at the map pack on June 3. The PC version will likely be released later this summer at a cost of $15.