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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All the MW2 fans on the Xbox 360 was a bit surprised this week. The surprise was in fact unwanted. The “Stimulus Package” download of the game was released before any necessary content patch. This exactly led to problems for the Microsoft home console owners.
It became a headache for the players while installing because there was no patch to accept the DLC pack. Microsoft in fact had forgotten it and it resulted in “unpredictable” online after effects.
Eric Neustadter, the Xbox Live operations manager, said: “For a couple of hours the result was unpredictable but most people couldn’t get into a game through matchmaking… In technical terms, it was a big hairball that we had to unwind.”
Many reported it to be a speed bumps that was related to the update including an inability to connect to the online service of the game and also a lack of access to the multiplayer maps.
Well, Microsoft claims that this update problem and also the resulting matchmaking wrinkles were ironed out completely by 1100 PST.
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Robert Bowling, the community manager of Infinity Ward, maintained optimistic tone while addressing the morale at the studio of MW2 after the dismissal of its two top executives and also a subsequent lawsuit against Activision.
Bowling said in an interview that it’s “business as usual” at the studio as the company prepares to release first batch of downloadable content for the game.
On the website Bowling said, “Right now morale is high, because we’re really excited to get this DLC out. Any time we’re just about to launch something out to the community, morale boosts up, because you’re excited to see what your players think of it, and to watch them get on there and see what tactics they come up with.”
The two top executives who were expelled were former Infinity Ward execs Jason West and Vince Zampella. The two sued Activision for breach of contract and are now seeking $36 million along with the rights to all Modern Warfare branded titles.
However, Activision calls this lawsuit as “meritless.”
The upcoming DLC is called Stimulus Package and Bowling defended its price tag to be $15.
He said, “I think from a content standpoint, anyone who is playing Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer and is dedicating a lot of hours to it is definitely going to get their money’s worth from this map pack.”
The DLC features 5 multiplayer maps that includes the two from 2007’s Call of Duty 4. By next week it will be available on Xbox 360.
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Next week the downloadable Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack will hit the Xbox 360 and it will bring with it 5 new maps.
Recently the founders of Activision owned Infinity Ward were fired. The allegations was there that royalties were being withheld by the publisher and the two of them were insubordinate to their parent company.
Well, the internal upheaval and also the lawsuits have not managed to impact the team.
Robert Bowling said, “Not at all, our main focus as a team here at Infinity Ward is this pack. We want to focus on making the games we love.”
On the other side the Stimulus Pack has brought a bit of its own controversy. Many claims that the price is too steep of it for what is being delivered in actual.
It costs $15 and it will hit the market on March 30. For the PS3 it will be available in the market by April 30.
Three new maps are included in the pack, “Bailout,” a multi-level apartment complex; “Storm,” an open industrial park littered with heavy machinery; “Salvage,” a snowy junkyard fortified by stacked debris and crushed cars.
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There was an announcement made recently by Infinity Ward that they are coming up with downloadable content for Modern Warfare 2 by March 30. The promises are yet to come but the developer of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 countered it a day before by making announcement of launching the DLC of its product. Not only this, it will be launched on the same day and it is absolutely free for the VIP members.
The DLC of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 unlocks the Laguna Presa Rush and the Arica Harbor Conquest Modes as two separate maps with its respective game modes. The maps will be made available for Xbox 360 game and PS3 copy holders who had downloaded the VIP codes.
One question which comes to mind here that will the BBC2 DLC take on the superpower MW2? Not to forget, both the games are praised equally for individual multiplayer game modes.
The DLC of MW2 is referred as “mapathy”.
Let us check what DICE has written on its official blog:
“We’re dedicated to taking care of this product for a long time – helping you avoid “mapathy” without getting nickel-and-dimed.”
Well, the word “mapathy” could not be found anywhere on the Infinity Ward’s official site.
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When the two top executives of Activision, who were responsible for the success of Modern Warfare 2 that helped in generating $1 Billion, were expelled by the Company last Monday, everybody was expecting a lawsuit. As predicted, the suit came on Wednesday, and it could have repercussion for publisher and contestants.
Jason West and Vince Zampella are in a process of suing Activision for unfair decision and looking for $36 Million.
They also declare that, no such game with name of Modern Warfare cab be published without their written permission.
In reply, Activision has called the suit meritless and consider itself right in dismissing West and Zampella due to their misconduct and behavior and announced that it will keep on releasing thrilling and inventive game.
But if West and Zampella proved themselves right, they are going to put Activision’s most precious franchise in danger.
Call of Duty holds over $3 Billion sale till date and Modern warfare has been pronounced the top selling game of 2009.
Even Activision keeps hold of game, there is always a danger that the development team of infinity ward might join West and Zampella in new project.
The matter will be settled amongst the Company executives they will be beneficial in terms of money for West and Zarnpella
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GoGamer goes further in madness in terms of sale. It now offers best deal for several video and PC games along with coupon code “SHIPFREE25″ at checkout to bag free shipping.
This offer of the GoGamer has put many titles at the lowest ever prices that anyone ever found. The two notable deals of GoGamer madness sale are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for PlayStation 3 (pictured) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Hardened Edition for Xbox 360. The first one is available at for $39.90 and the latter for $42.90 only.
There are some other titles also available at low prices. Those are as below:
* Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. for PC for $6.90
* Razer Goliathus Standard Speed Surface Mat for $7.90
* Razer Copperhead Mouse in Green or Red for $34.90
* Mass Effect 2 for Xbox 360 for $44.90
* shop the entire GoGamer.com Madness Sale
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