Modern Warfare 2

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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After the record-setting popularity of Modern Warfare 2, Activision Blizzard now posts a better-than-expected results on Wednesday saying that it but still couldn’t manage a profit.

Modern Warfare 2 though has sold over 12 million copies, but the loss of the company grew to $286 million in 2009’s last three months due to accounting changes and also because of a hefty reduction of music games value such as Guitar Hero and some other titles for the Wii console of Nintendo.

Bobby Kotick, the CEO of the company said, “Last year was a really tough year in the category. The casual consumer in an economy like this one is going to be very cautious about where they spend their dollars.”

The shares of Activision rallied in after-hours trading after the company announced that it would be paying an annual stock dividend. The company even announced about a $1 billion stock buyback program. In the regular session, the shares of the company added 5 cents, to $10.10. Later on they rose to $10.55.

Kotick also added, “It shows you the strength and confidence we have.”

In the holiday quarter the sales were led by CoD and games like World of Warcraft in online. The monthly fees of it makes the company compared with other software games

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A report issued by an association of industry analysts noted that the revenues of the video games market slumped in 2009. The top three consumers of video games in the world, -UK, US and Japan- showed less interest in the purchasing. The sales faced highest slump in the UK i.e. 14pc.

If it wasn’t for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 by Activison, God knows how much these figures would have had fallen. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 proved to be the fastest selling game of all time, selling out 11.86 million in under a couple of months after its release in November, in the three economies.

The NPD Group, GfK Chart-Track, and Enterbrain- the firms who had made the once a year Top Global Markets report reverberated the NPD’s 2009 report of the US markets. The NPD Report had pointed out that the sales for the industry fell in all sections, hardware, software and accessories dropped 8 percent from last year. Although, December got the best sales numbers, that NPD had ever seen in the industry.

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Modern Warfare 2 has made a record by becoming one of only a handful of entertainment franchises that has taken a revenue of over $1bn says the publishers.

The game was released on November 10 and had made an estimated sale of $550m in just first 5 days.

The sales of MW2 has put the game alongside other games of $1bn titles like the Guitar Hero III and the World of Warcraft. Both owned by the same publisher Activision.

This sales has also puts the game alongside other entertainment franchises like the 3D science fiction smash Avatar.

On the 4th January reveal, the Avatar is the fourth-biggest film that has been ever made.

Well, direct comparisons between video games and films are difficult because the retail of games are between 3 and 5 times than the cost of a cinema ticket.

Michael Rawlinson, Director General of Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) said, “The phenomenal success of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was undoubtedly one of the leading entertainment stories of the year and firmly established videogames as one of the leading forms of entertainment in the UK.”

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Modern Warfare 2 is the biggest money spinner for Activision and it has also become the biggest money spinner for the pirated games market. According to Torrent Freak, MW2 is the most pirated game for 2009.

Activision has sold over 13 million copies. This is legal. The illegal part is that the PC edition of Modern Warfare 2 has been downloaded over 4 million times and around one million times the Xbox edition. So, the total illegal downloads of the game is over 5 million.

Other games that were downloaded in 2009 over 2 million times for PC are The Sims 3, Prototype, Need for Speed Shift and Street Fighter IV. Not only for PC, most of them have also been downloaded for the Xbox 360.

The New Super Mario Bros game was downloaded illegally downloaded over one million times according to Torrent Freak. This has been followed by Punch-Out and Wii Sports Resort.

Earlier the older games were most pirated. But in 2009 it is a surprise that the same year released games were most pirated. The biggest surprise is that Modern Warfare 2 was launched at the end of the year i.e. November 10.

One more interesting fact in the pirated market for year 2009 is that the most pirated games are actually PC downloads and not for the gaming consoles.

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This December 5th and 6th, Activision and GAME, the UK specialty retailer, joins forces for GAME For Good. It is a promotion that is aimed to get the gamers log into Xbox Live and blast some fools in Modern Warfare 2 to help those children who are in war-torn environments.

Those gamer in UK who spends time playing Modern Warfare 2 this weekend then Activision will be donating money to the War Child Charity. It will come to £250,000 ($416,000).

For this no signups are required, gamers don’t have to pay any fee and nor they need to register. Gamers will be clocking hours which will be counting toward donations.

According to the official website, the War Child Charity is “an international charity that protects children living in the world’s most dangerous war zones.”

So, go ahead with Modern Warfare 2. Play this great game online this weekend so that the company can donate money to an extremely worthy cause.

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$10 price hike on Modern Warfare 2 PC version Activision has again done what they think in pricing. This time it is for the PC version. The normal PC game RRP of $50 has been replaced. Modern Warfare 2 will cost $60 on PC.

The main advantage for PC gamers is that the games cost less than the PS3 or Xbox 360 version. It costs at least $10 or £10 in the US and UK market respectively. This time it is not the same story. Amazon.com as well as the GameStop has listed their PC version for $60. This means Activision is again charging more cash for a game.

Earlier we had seen that the Call of Duty series had too many piracies on PC. This time how the situation will help Activision is unknown. The price hike gives opportunistic situations to piracy in fact.

Well, one thing is sure. Raising the prices of videogames and consoles instead of dropping them is really becoming a disturbing trend.

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MW2 DLC coming in spring 2010. Activision hinted. It is on a tie-in energy drink.

Activision has struck a deal with the Monster energy drinks to launch branded caffeine juice. The can will carry a competition and the prize will be Modern Warfare 2 map pack.

According to claims of the competition, there will be 5000 MW2 map packs that will be given away and the expected date of the release is not exactly confirmed but it may be sometimes in Spring 2010.

Apart from MW2 map packs as a prize, other prizes include dashboard themes, copies of MW2 for Xbox 360 and PS3, and of course free drinks.

Monster Energy will start the selling of this branded drinks called (may be) “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Energy Power Maxxtreme 2″ later this month in the US. Boxes of six and four will be available. Fans buying box of six can get an involvement in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Combat Training Experience, which is an online event hosted by Infinity Ward.

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A range of new accessories has been announced by MadCatz for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and those will be available across North America and “key European” territories “with the release” of long-awaited FPS sequel by Activision.

Mentioned below is the list of the accessories:

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller (360)
Price Tag: $49.99 USD
It is basically a wired “latency free” controller having two additional buttons at the back that can be mapped to any thumbstick or button command. It also features “Immersive Analog ThumbStick Backlighting” and Dual Vibration Feedback.

Modern Warfare 2 Throat Communicator (360)
Price Tag: $29.99 USD
This is in fact based on a military design and it reduces the background noise. It is compatible with the standard 360 controller and also with the combat controller that is mentioned above.

Modern Warfare 2 Faceplate and Console Skinz
Price Tag: $29.99 USD
It is a skin with “z”, kids and it easily wraps around the sides of the console to create “a fully immersive themed landscape.”

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Controller (PS3)
Price Tag: $49.99 USD
This also has the two additional buttons along with backlit thumbs and an internal battery. The battery of it can be charged through PS3’s USB port and it can provide gameplay up to 60 hours.

Modern Warfare 2 Wireless Bluetooth Headset (PS3)
Price Tag: $39.99 USD
It is a noise-reducing microphone and can be used about 30 feet away from the console. , It is of Bluetooth 2.0 technology.

Modern Warfare 2 Controller Faceplates (PS3 and 360)
Price Tag: $14.99 USD
It is durable and has a gloss finish.

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Game Pad (PC)
Price Tag: $24.99 USD
It has analogue sticks, 4 trigger and 4 action buttons. It is pre-programmed and compatible with Windows 7, Vista and XP. It even comes with button mapping software.

Modern Warfare 2 Sniper Mouse (PC)
Price Tag: $49.99 USD
It allows in altering cursor speed.

Modern Warfare 2 Combat Keyboard
Price Tag: $49.99 USD
This features “Anti-ghosting” for key action areas. Media Keys in it is used in controling volume and other media functions.

Modern Warfare 2 Elite Keyboard (PC)
Price Tag: $49.99 USD
It also has multi-colour backlighting and Tru-Vu illumination.

Modern Warfare 2 accessories, activision, madcatz

Rumor is there that Modern Warfare 2 is going to get a public beta. Robert Bowling of Infinity Ward puts a check on this rumor. He says that they will be doing an internal beta, but if they feel for a public beta then they will explore that route also.

Bowling said that they will not say something as definitive as ‘No Beta Ever!’ He added that as of now all the fans and gamers have to wait till November 10. He further mentioned, “Unless of course you happen to be 50 Cent, Will Arnett, Dane Cook, or any other celebrity that wants to stop by.”

According to Bowling, “Once the internal beta is completed, if for any reason we feel we didn’t receive the feedback, address the issues, or have the result we expect…we would consider pushing forward with a public one, however at this point only an internal Closed Beta is planned.”

Long story. But we can still keep an expectation that before November 10 we may (only may) get to play Modern Warfare 2. Well, put down your views here whether you all really want a beta version of the game.

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