In US alone ten million copies of Modern Warfare 2 has been sold, though there was too much of trash talk and controversy. It seems that the developers is running off to join Respawn. Activision are in the hope of doing the same with Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Cowen and Company does some prediction for the Black Ops. The game is going to be released by November and it has even started charting in some territories due to the pre-orders.
Well, the main question here is that can Black Ops sale be as fast as Modern Warfare 2, which has hit 4.7 million sales in just 24 hours after its release last year on November 10. Within four months the sales of its had hit ten million milestone.
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Activision still is cashing its effort of Modern Warfare 2. The company reported recently that its profit doubled in first quarter and revenue shot up by 33 percent.
Robert Kotick, Chief Executive Officer, said in an interview: “The results definitely speak for themselves… Our key franchises are performing.”
The publisher posted a profit of $381 million in the quarter ended March 31.
Modern Warfare 2 generated about a sales of $1.3 billion across the world. It became the best selling of the publisher of all time.
The Stimulus Package, add-on of MW2, sold 1 million copies on one day, March 30, when it was released for download on Xbox Live. At $15 it generated $10.5 million in a single day.
Analyst Colin Sebastian said, “Activision’s game franchises are pretty healthy in spite of what’s happening with Infinity Ward… The impression was that things were falling off track, but for now Call of Duty remains strong.” Sebastian is an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets.
In a recent management turmoil the publisher lost around three dozens key talent at Infinity Ward studio. In March the company fired two top executives who in return sued the publisher for allegedly withholding royalties from MW2’s sale. Following this other talents who made MW2 started resigning.
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It seems that Infinity Ward will be following its earlier formula for its new map pack for Modern Warfare 2. Recently community manager of the studio, Robert Bowling, shared some details about the Resurgence Pack.
He said that the Resurgence Pack will be sold for 1200 points ($15) and as the earlier Stimulus Package, this map pack also feature five maps, in which there are three new environments and two maps updated from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. These two are
Vacant, set inside an open Russian complex, and urban environment Strike.
Below are the details of three new maps as shared by Robert Bowling:
Carnival – This map is set inside a “desolated amusement park” and it has unique locations like a rollercoaster and fun house.
Trailer Park – Bowling says that this is a cozy map and it features abandoned trailers and tight corridors. He also says further that this map is like a maze with various chokepoints.
Fuel – This is like a “sniper haven”. It is based in an oil refinery and according to him this is one of the larger environments of the game.
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A second map pack for Modern Warfare 2 is under development confirms Activision.
Thomas Tippl, the COO of Activision says in the quarterly earnings call of the company, the downloadable content will be available late this year.
As with the earlier and original package, Infinity Ward will be developing the second set of maps.
However, the publisher did not said anything upon the pricing.
The first DLC was sold for $14.99. It was titled as Stimulus Package and was sold on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. It featured five new maps, of which two were featured in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare released in 2007. In the first week of its launch, the DLC downloads was 2.5 million.
The publisher releases data saying they have sold 17 million map packs till date for the CoD franchise excluding the recent release on PC and PS3.
Activision says gamers have spent 1.75 billion hours on MW2 online multiplayer since its release in November last year.
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All the fans of Modern Warfare 2 across the world should be able to play the game now with a little less lag now. This is possible because a new fix has been applied to the matchmaking system of MW2.
However, this does not mean that you will log on and see anything fundamentally different in your gaming experience, but if you are facing any such problem then this update to the process will be helping you a bit.
According to Microsoft in a blog post of Xbox Live says, “When you search for a match, our servers sort through the many thousands of available matches to find the ‘best’ potential games for you.”
It is also added there, “We’ve changed how we determine ‘best,’ and your country is now an even more significant factor than it was before.”
By now the international lag issues entirely won’t be eliminated, but may be the fix doing good job and the game may be good and swift.
“If you live somewhere that’s geographically isolated – like Australia, for example – most of the world is not near you,” the post states. “On behalf of that Australian gamer we’re now trying harder than ever to find a session in their country for them to join. Of course, this requires there to be games hosted in Australia with open slots at the moment they’re looking – but we’ve maximized the odds of those gamers getting together.”
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After most of the high profile executives left Activision, the company said in a legal document that Mr West and Mr Zampella had “morphed from valued, responsible executives into insubordinate and self-serving schemers”. However, both of them have described the claims as “false and outrageous”.
According to analysts, the other 9 employees that left Infinity Ward last week apparently disgruntled at the treatment of the creators. Before these employees left the company, the game was believed to have the strength of about 90 executives.
The global first-day sales of Modern Warfare 2 crossed $500 million (£323 million). Modern Warfare 2 puts players in the position of special forces across the Middle East and former Soviet states in fictional way.
Industry analyst Evan Wilson said: “Investors are starting to think that Activision really ticked off the whole studio.”
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The two lead designers of MW2, Steve Fukuda and Zied Rieke, are set to quit the studio.
Earlier it was reported that Modern Warfare 2 studio has fired the directors Jason West and studio head Vince Zampella. The exit of the two lead designers now leaves Infinity Ward inundated. The developer may have to do a lot of work to fill up the vacancies.
The list of resignations does not stops here. The multiplayer lead designers Todd Aldermann and Mackey McCandlish also tabled their resignations.
Report also comes that Rayme Vinson and Chris Cherubini have left for good.
All these resignations no doubt says that there has been a major withdrawal of talent.
The news does not ends here. It is reported that another set of departures are also there, which includes software engineer lead Francesco Gigliotti, Bruce Ferriz and programmer Jon Shiring. All of them were posted at high levels in the company.
To avoid all these resignations, the company also had decided earlier to provide bonuses to the contributors of the game, but this step did not support to retain the employees.
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The first success of Modern Warfare 2, released on November 14 last year, was that it sold astonishing 14 million copies across the world till date. Well, most of us knows this. Here comes one more milestone of this modern military shooter. The “Stimulus Package” map pack has been downloaded 1 million times in its first 24 hours of its availability nine days before. Till now it has been downloaded more than 2.5 million times. Isn’t that too great?
Released by Activision and time-exclusive to the Xbox 360, the map pack is price tagged $15. It adds five multiplayer maps to MW2.
For the PS3 version owners the “Stimulus Package” will be made available April 30 onwards and we hope that on PlayStation Network also it sets a record. What you all say? Surely will agree with me. Put your comments.
Let us talk about lucrative. At $15 a pop, Modern Warfare 2 garnered a sales of $37.5 million and it is estimated that out of it about $26 million went to Activision.
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Recently two of the former studio heads were fired for insubordination apart from also trying to poach Activision’s key employees according to the allegations filed in court by the gaming giant.
On Thursday Activision countersued former Jason West and Vince Zampella, Infinity Ward executives, who had earlier sued the company for over $36 million. According to West and Zampella’s lawsuit, the former studio heads were fired and hence they should not be getting hefty royalties for their work on the franchise of “Call of Duty”.
The filing done by Activision in fact seeks of showing that the firing of those were justified and the company also claims that the men met with a key gaming rival and this is violations of employment contract.
According to breach of contract, the two former studio heads, West and Zampella, held up further developments on other CoD games in the series in order to gain more money. Activison is also seeking for withholding their additional payments.
However, Robert M. Schwartz, the attorney of West and Zampella, had called the countersuit’s claims as “false and outrageous.”
In a statement Schwartz said, “None of the false claims of insubordination or breach of duties had any negative affect on Activision — none… Modern Warfare 2 has been the world’s most successful video game.”
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Great news for all the fans of Modern Warfare 2. There is something for free in store for all of you. Yes, you heard it right, FREE.
If any of you have not played Modern Warfare 2 till now on the PC then here’s a very good chance to play it absolutely free.
This offer is only for the multiplayer component of Modern Warfare 2 and it is limited to only this weekend. So, don’t delay. Pre-load the game right now. In this way you will be ready to kill it when it’s available this Thursday at 4 PM PDT.
One more thing. Don’t worry if you have not been able to play the SP campaign. Anyway, the multiplayer is infinitely better.
This offer of free playing is taking place on steam. It will provide players an online experience packed with new improvements and also new perks.
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