A pair of new playlists has been added to the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 by studio Infinity Ward. These new playlists have removed the killstreak rewards and add party chat.
The game options is yet to be released on PlayStation 3 and PC. Only Xbox Live players have been blessed.
July 6 is the possible date of its release alongside with the debut of Resurgence Pack DLC. Detailed information can be availed from the blog of Robert Bowling, the community manager of Infinity Ward.
The first playlist is named as Barebones Pro. This will be featuring Team Deathmatch and Free-For-All game types. The other one is Objective Barebones Pro that includes match types Domination, Demolition, Capture the Flag and Headquarters Pro. Up to eight and twelve players can play in both the lists.
Killstreak are the perks players that are receied after notching certain amount of kills in a row. The rewards are from a Predator missile strike or else from a helicopter attack to a nuke which immediately ends the game.
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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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Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, acknowledged during the quarterly earnings call of the company that since top two executives were dismissed, Infinity Ward has seen 35 employees quitting their job.
He says the resigning of so many executives have “obviously disappointed” the publisher. He also said that he expects more will be leaving the troubled studio.
Well, Kotick still stands with the decision of Activision to remove the two executives in March, Jason West and Vince Zampella. He said, “We felt that we had no choice.”
He said further that the studio “remains an important part” of its future plans for the CoD franchise and will also continue to support the remaining employees of the company.
West and Zampella, after their dismissal, sued the publisher. They claimed that they were owed royalty payments in MW2 sales.
Activision counter-suit the two for breach of contract. It claimed that both the executives secretly flew to Northern California for meeting the closest competitor of Activision. However, Acitivision did not mentioned the name of the competitor. Well, the largest publisher in the region is Electronic Arts.
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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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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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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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It was a huge November for Modern Warfare 2. It crossed 6 million marks in its sale in the month. Recently the Product Manager of Microsoft Xbox 360 Aaron Greenberg also said in an interview that it would have been a different month without the blockbuster hit of Infinity Ward.
He said, “November without Modern Warfare 2 would have looked very different.”
Greenberg further added in the interview to G4TV, “There’s titles that appeal within the inner circle of the core, but this is that title everyone that owns a video game console buys… If they buy two games a year, this was one of those games.”
He also mentioned that the software numbers would have been looked much different and he thinks that people would have spent so much of money on another game. He added that MW2 stopped people from buying other tech gadgets.
Greenberg also said, and it is true even, that Modern Warfare 2 was just like a new blockbuster movie in November. He added that it is an event and people knew about it.
Well, would the MW2 in would have been as huge? May we know from your comments below.
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