Starting today, the new maps from the Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Package have been intergrated into all of the playlists, which means that two more playlists have popped up. Hardcore Moshpit is made up of every hardcore mode – deathmatch, demolition, capture the flag, headquarters pro, search and destroy, and sabotage.

The other playlist is actually a returning favorite: the capture the flag playlist. So go ahead and capture the fun.

The playlists should be available right now on Xbox Live. PlayStation and Steam users should see the playlists in a week or so.

The two main developers behind Call of Duty have tonight debunked rumours that a subscription plan to play the series online will be coming into play in the near future.

Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward and its community manager Robert Bowling tweeted:

“For the record, nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they.”

This has since been followed up by Josh Olin, community boss of Treyarch, who’s developing this year’s iteration in the series Black Ops.

The tweet says:

“No, you will not have to ‘Pay to Play’ #CODBlackOps Multiplayer either. Rumor -> Squashed.”

It comes as a user from 360Junkies posted a video earlier this morning, where he tried to join a friend’s multiplayer session of Modern Warfare 2.

Instead, a menu for a subscription plan for the game was shown instead.

But there you have it. Dead. In the water. Like a drowning pigeon.

Looks like there’s no smoke without fire. The video apparently shows a “membership” plan for Call of Duty, via Modern Warfare 2.

If a video recorded by a 360Junkies member is to be believed, the sub-plan would be payable via MS points.

The video shows the player trying to join a multiplayer session in the game via a friend’s gamercard, as detailed below.

“I was trying to join a friend’s session on MW2 the other day and had this screen pop up. It clearly says at the top of this menu: ‘Modern Warfare 2 Membersh’, in which we can confidently assume that the last word is “Memberships”. If you’ll notice at the bottom is an option to “Add Microsoft Points”, clearly indicating that this was intended to be a menu for purchasing different levels of Membership, presumably memberships would have been offered in a variety of durations.”

Remember, this could be anything.

How can this short action flick manage to knock out the previous title holder for best fan made Call of Duty movie? It’s bigger, bloodier and has a more substantial budget. And it’s from the same creative team.

The second chapter of Niko Pueringer and Sam Gorski’s Modern Warfare: Frozen Crossing makes use of its comparatively massive budget—this one cost about $600 USD, compared to the $209.42 USD—with sharper effects, more bloodspray and loads of slo-mo bullet-filled action. It even switches to iron sights for a moment, just to show the makers of the Doom movie how it’s done, Modern Warfare-style.

In fact, there might even be a story in there too, if you’re looking for even more reasons to click play.

With nearly half of the team at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward bailing on the troubled developer, publisher Activision appears to have found a new source for Call of Duty development.

Raven Software, the developer of sci-fi shooters Wolfenstein and the just completed Singularity, has been pulled off its current projects and may be the latest studio to pick up the Call of Duty slack, according to a source close to the studio. Kotaku was told that the developer has had its next game, one based on the James Bond franchise, to which Activision holds the rights, put on hold.

Raven’s other future game, one based on the X-Men franchise, a follow-up to its work on X-Men: Origins Wolverine, is said to have been put on hold as well.

The team is said to now be on the path to Call of Duty development, with Activision “flipping out” about the current Infinity Ward situation. Activision execs said earlier this month that the IW team is working on another Call of Duty game in addition to further map pack development.

The world premiere announcement of Treyarch’s new Call of Duty game will happen on GTTV, according to a tweet from Keighley.

Here’s the post:

This Friday’s GTTV on Spike will feature the world premiere of the next CALL OF DUTY.

That’s right. Friday. Set the clock.

Apparently, there’s an interview with Jake Gyllenhaal, Bruckheimer, and Resident Evil: Afterlife stars Milla Jovovich and Ali Larter as well.

See the teaser for yourself below.

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey has said that he believes Infinity Ward will be “essentially closed” once the next map pack for Modern Warfare 2 is released.

Due to the numerous defections within the developer and all the lawsuits floating around, Hickey is under the impression that the studio will be absorbed into Activision and future work in the series will be spread out amongst the rest of its developers.

“Continued defections from [Activision's] Infinity Ward studio have created meaningful uncertainty around the future of their Call of Duty: Modern Warfare franchise,” said Hickey.

“We expect Infinity Ward studio will be essentially closed after their next map pack release, with development work on Modern Warfare 3 spread between two studios not historically tied to the franchise.”

At least two map packs were promised at the onset, with the Stimulus Pack already released to great sales.

As far as Modern Warfare 3 is concerned, Hickey predicts that it will land in stores during Q4 of Activision’s fiscal year 2011 and potentially rake-in $738M.

That figure is reasonable, considering that Modern Warfare 2 won a Guinness for making $401M in just its first 24-hours on the market.

Currently, three titles are in the works in the Call of Duty franchise.

There’s Treyarch with the oft-rumored Vietnam-centric game, slated for a reveal through  the May issue of OPM; Infinity Ward was  developing Modern Warfare 3; and then there’s  Sledgehammer’s “innovative take” on the Call of Duty franchise that Thomas Tippl, Activision’s COO, said would “further broaden”  the franchise’s audience.

So, regardless if Infinity Ward as we all know it remains intact after the next map pack or not, Activision will still be pumping out the CoD titles – just with different names on ‘em.

Via Gamasutra.

Activision blogger Dan Amrich has revealed that the company plans to release three new Call of Duty titles in the next two years.

Speaking in a Facebook thread – in an Activision/Bobby Kotick hate group of all places – he said:

“As for COD, they’ve confirmed three games in the next two years. Seeing as how there is a pattern of one new COD game every year, this is one new COD game from one new developer, and in a different genre from the core games we’ve seen.”

Treyarch are handling this year’s release in the series, with details to come in this month’s issue of Official PlayStation Magazine, while Infinity Ward are expected to be developing Modern Warfare 3, despite rumours it was being “held hostage” and a lawsuit from former bosses of the studio Vince Zampella and Jason West against Activision for $36 million and the Modern Warfare IP.

The company also announced back in March that upstart Sledgehammer Games was developing an “action/adventure” title in the series, which was first thought to be a 2011 title Acti was referring to. An internal memo soon after the announcement killed that off.

The title is expected to “broaden the audience” for the series.

Activision COO Thomas Tippi has said that the upcoming Call of Duty title from upstart Sledgehammer Games will “broaden the audience”.

Speaking with the LA Times, Tippi said the studio – headed by ex-Visceral heads Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey – will bring an “innovative take” on the series.

He also reiterated, despite the firings of ex-studio bosses Vince Zampella and Jason West nearly two months ago, what Activision had previously said, by stating that Infinity Ward remains “central” to the Call of Duty franchise.

“Today, we have three studios working on Call of Duty,” said Tippi. “We have Infinity Ward, which made Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Then we have Treyarch, which will be releasing a Call of Duty game in the fall of 2010. Treyarch also developed Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty 3.

“And, most recently, we’ve added Sledgehammer in the Bay Area. We haven’t yet announced the content of their game, but it’s going to be an innovative take that will further broaden the audience for Call of Duty.”

Not much has actually been said of the Sledgehammer CoD since its announcement in March other than it will be in the action-adventure genre, suggesting it may move away as a first-person shooter.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward continues its slow crumble today with the departure of two more key team members, sources close to the studio tell Kotaku.

Longtime Infinity Ward employees Mark Grigsby and Paul Messerly have both left the studio, the team’s lead animator and lead character animator, respectively. Grigsby had been with Infinity Ward from 2005, spending more than five years at the company. Messerly was there from the very beginning, moving from former Medal of Honor developer 2015 Inc. to Infinity Ward in 2002. Both former employees have updated their LinkedIn profiles to confirm that April 2010 marks the end of their tenures at the studio.

Former lead animator Mark Grigsby may be familiar to Call of Duty fans as the inspiration for and voice actor of Staff Sergeant Griggs from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. He’s also the guy who ably rapped over the end credits of that game.

The departure of Grigsby and Messerly leaves Infinity Ward at least 12 employees weaker since March 1. That number includes high level staffers like fired studio founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, plus a quickly growing list of team leads and veteran developers.

According to sources close to the studio, morale at Infinity Ward is unsurprisingly low due to a worrying lack of leadership.

So far here’s the names of those that jumped ship not including West & Zampella:

Zied Reike – Lead Designers
Steve Fukuda- Lead Designers
Rayme Vinson – Programmer
Jon Shiring – Programmer
Bruce Ferriz – Senior Animator
Mackey McCandlish – Lead Designer
Todd Alderman – Lead Designer
Francesco (”Frank”) Gigliotti – Lead Software Engineer
Mark Grigsby – Lead Animator
Paul Messerly- Lead Character Animator

Activision has filed a cross-complaint against Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella, claiming  it was “forced to sever the relationship” with the duo.

According to a statement given to IGN, the company had attempted to “convince West and Zampella” to conduct themselves as was dictated by their contracts, however, these attempts “failed” and the two were let go.

“Activision’s cross-complaint filed today against Jason West and Vince Zampella makes clear that the company did not arrive at its decision to fire them lightly or without good reason,” said an Activision rep.

“It further shows Activision was forced to sever the relationship when it became apparent that long-standing attempts failed to convince West and Zampella to conform their conduct to what was required of them by their contracts, company policies and as fiduciaries.”

The countersuit against the former executives, claims they had tried to “hijack” the company’s assets and threatened the future of the “Call of Duty franchise.

According the papers filed with the courts, West and Zampella signed contracts -good through 2011 – that forbade them to hire any Infinity Ward employees for three years if they ever chose to leave Activision.

It also claims the two were “insubordinate and self-serving schemers” who negotiated with competitors while under contract with Activision, and tried to prevent the company from compensating Infinity Ward employees so that they were “easier to poach” once the two left the company.

This was done by West and Zampella taking an “inordinately large share of the bonus pool” from the Modern Warfare games, up to one-third of the total bonus set aside for Infinity Ward employees, and demanded even more for MW2, claims Activision.

It also claims that this is something it plans to rectify should it prevail in the countersuit against West and Zampella, as it is seeking monetary damages, along with the return of the bonuses handed to the men.

“When Activision prevails in this matter, it intends to reallocate any share of the Modern Warfare 2
bonus pool that might otherwise have been payable to West and Zampella to those employees responsible for the success of the game who remain employees of the company subsequent to the resolution of the matter,” read the court documents.

Activision also claims that the duo became increasingly unmanageable when it came to discussing terms of the Call of Duty business plan, and threatened on numerous occasions to halt development of Modern Warfare 2, going so far as to threaten to leave and start their own company.

The way Activision found this out, was when word reached it that West and Zampells had discussed signing on with an agent who could “secretly contact the CEO and other senior executives of Activision’s largest competitor.”

Here is a sample email quoted by Activision in the filing:

“Dunno how to scan secretly 13 [sic]. . . . [IW Employee's] computer down. . . . [IW Employee] did it for me last time. .. .Really. No paranoia about it being in [IW employee] user folder? Her comp down anyway now. . . She had a secret area it scanned into. . . . Probably better to just photocopy and fedex. .. .Can scan or photo – your call. . . . Boom boom pow. Away.”

The attorney representing Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella call Activision’s allegations “false and outrageous.”

“Just one example is Activision’s allegation that Jason and Vince conspired to spin off Infinity Ward,” West and Zampella’s lawyer said today in a statement to Kotaku. “Activision itself proposed spinning off Infinity Ward when, last year, it sought to renegotiate Jason and Vince’s contract and induce them to forego developing a new game in favor of doing another Modern Warfare sequel. ”

“Jason and Vince had hired the Creative Artists Agency to advise them in their negotiations with Activision, not to breach their contract,” said Robert M. Schwartz, the attorney representing West and Zampella. “The conversations with IW employees, talent agents, and others during these negotiations with Activision were not conducted to see if Activision’s proposal could work, and not in disrespect of their obligations to Activision.”

Schwartz continues.

“Activision’s inaccurate and misguided allegations lose sight of the reality here: 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. And none of this changes the fact that Jason and Vince would still be at Infinity Ward developing new games except that Activision kicked them out. This is just an Activision tactic to avoid paying Jason and Vince and everyone else at Infinity Ward the millions of dollars they all earned and that Activision owes them.”

“Since being fired by Activision, Jason and Vince have taken steps to regain control over their creative future and plan to have an announcement very soon.”

Activision claims that the two Infinity Ward heads had begun negotiations with the publisher’s biggest competitor—which the suit doesn’t name, but is likely Battlefield and Medal of Honor publisher Electronic Arts.

Activision has responded to the suit brought on by former-Infinity Ward execs as “meritless”.

According to the company, Jason West and Vince Zampella seeking at least $36 million from Activision has “disappointed” the company.

Click “Read More” for Activision’s Statement.

“Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless. Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided these executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth.

“In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans.”

It was revealed this morning that West and Zampella would be suing Activision for “refusing to honor the terms of its agreements” and for withholding royalties.

Wow. Don’t expect this to go away anytime soon, and expect it to get very ugly indeed before all is said and done.

When you believe you’ve created the most successful entertainment product in history and you’re owed millions of dollars in royalties, you don’t go without a fight, right?

Ex-Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella have sued Activision for unpaid royalties and the “contractual rights” to control “Modern Warfare-branded games”. The full press release is here.

West and Zampella were sensationally fired from the Acti-owned studio this week, with the publisher citing “insubordination” as a reason for ousting the duo.

“Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned,” said O’Melveny & Myers LLP attorney Robert Schwartz in a press release.

“Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.”

Quite obviously, the two developers aren’t exactly “happy”.

“We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract,” said West. “We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.”

Zampella added: “After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid.”

West and Zampella are suing Activision not only for unpaid money, but for control of the Call of Duty brand.

“Modern Warfare 2 is arguably one of the most successful games in history and together with Call of Duty, has generated more than $3 billion in sales for Activision,” said the suit.

“In addition, Activision seized control of the Infinity Ward studio, to which Activision had previously granted creative control over all Modern Warfare-branded games. The suit was filed to vindicate the rights of West and Zampella to be paid the compensation they have earned, as well as the contractual rights Activision granted to West and Zampella to control Modern Warfare-branded games.”

Update – March 4th, 2010: Read the 16-page complaint filed by the founders of Modern Warfare 2 development studio Infinity Ward against Activision here at Kotaku.com.

In this edition of Talkabout, G4 editor-in-chief Adam Sessler and news editor Patrick Klepek discuss the ongoing situation with Infinity Ward and Activision and the future of the Call of Duty franchise. Check out the video, and express your own opinions in our comment section below.

Just a caveat: This was shot a few hours ago, and more information has been made public since then.

The video is below…

Read more: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702933/TheFeed.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=twitterblog&utm_campaign=so-0907-twitterthefeed-702933&cmpid=so-0907-twitterthefeed-702933#ixzz0h48fXwQb

An LA casting call for Call of Duty-related “voice over/motion capture” for an Activision “video game” has described character Frank Barnes as being part of an elite Vietnam unit, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group.

 SOG was responsible for covert operations in Vietnam, and was active from 1964-1972.

The news appears to confirm the game for a Vietnam setting. This follows heavy tips that Treyarch’s next Call of Duty game, slated to release towards the end of this year, would take place during the Vietnam War.

The call is for motion capture and VO work for what looks like four major characters from the game, namely Barnes, “a fiercely patriotic veteran of WW2… A solid leader, possessed with an excellent ability to assess and respond to any situation quickly and decisively”; Joseph Lewis, a “very physically fit” black man in his 20s; Jason Hudson, a white man in his 30s with “over 15 years of military experience, making him an excellent tactician and mission co-coordinator”; and Kristina Ivanova. a Russian-born martial arts expert and CIA operative who’s “calm to the point of being cold and detached”.

The details come from a US casting site. Hit the image below for everything on the listed characters.

Activision has yet to say anything about the Treyarch title other than it’s coming this year and it’s not expected to be bigger than Modern Warfare 2.

Source: VG247.com

In this episode the Year begins:

• UF: 141 Details finally revealed
• Review of Mass Effect 2
• Review of Army of Two The 40th Day
• Hello Europe are you out there
• Final Prep for BradyGames
• and more!!!

In a press release issued on Friday, November 27th, Activision-Blizzard, Inc. announced that it’s Call of Duty franchise has surpassed US $3 billion dollars in worldwide retail sales.

Read more… Call of Duty Franchise Surpasses $3 Billion In Revenue.

Just as Veteran’s Day comes to a close, it appears Infinity Ward has finally been able to get the online infrastructure stable for the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 2. It appears the third party-powered servers simply couldn’t handle the overwhelming demand following the game’s launch. Makes sense: it did sell close to a zillion copies. “We expect smooth skies ahead,” IW’s Robert Bowling stated in a recent tweet. That is, unless all of you rush to your PS3s again now that multiplayer is working yet again. Remember, though: this is simply a server-side fix that allows you to play multiplayer. The party system still won’t work until a patch, planned for release on Friday.

Urgent Fury is proud to announce Boot Camp. 

Unlike Hell Week, this is your clan’s opportunity to experience the ins and outs of an actual Urgent Fury tournament.  Boot Camp is also a chance for Urgent Fury Staff and Admins to evaluate your clan’s ability to follow the basic procedures required of a clan to compete in any of Urgent Fury’s intense tournaments.
Each month, orders will be issued to up to 16 new clans each for: 

1. XBOX 360 – Modern Warfare 2
2. Playstation 3 – Modern Warfare 2
3. Playstation 3 – Socom: Confrontation 

Matches will be: 

1. Tuesday and Thursday or
2. Monday and Wednesday

 All clans will be assigned to a Regiment.  Your clan’s regiment will be based on your clan’s assignment orders.

Clans will battle each other and veteran clans for three weeks.  Each week, Staff and Admins will conduct a review and communicate anything that needs to be addressed.  At the end of the three weeks, a final assessment will be made to determine if all basic requirements have been met and that your clan was able to “Win with Honor or Lose with Dignity.”

Get signed up now! 

If you are new to Urgent Fury, go to http://www.urgentfury.com/uf_forum/index.php#24  to pick your console and your game and enlist in the hottest Tournament Community on the WWW.

First Boot Camps are slated to begin December 2009.

The limited edition Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 pack includes a 250GB Xbox 360 with an exclusive Modern Warfare 2 design printed on the console, wired headset, 2 black 360 wireless controllers and of course, a copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

This valuable pack is now available to pre-order from Amazon priced at $399.99. Weather it’s worth the price is up to you to decide but the game itself really looks spectacular.

Posted by Josh Olin // Community Manager, Treyarch

 For one week only (offer ending November 1, 2009), Call of Duty: World at War Map Packs 1, 2, and 3 for PS3 will be half-off in the PlayStation Store (only available in North America). So if you are missing one, we hope this makes it a bit easier to complete your collection!

With this, we’re announcing some important playlist changes you’ll want to take note of:

• Hardcore HQ: The addition of Hardcore Headquarters to the Hardcore playlists has taken effect, by popular demand.
• Team Flags: In the MAP PACK category, the old “Team Objective” playlist has been removed, and replaced with two playlists; Team Flags being one of them (CTF, Domination, and War).
• Team Objectives: Also in the MAP PACK category, the counterpart to Team Flags is this new playlist, Team Objectives (S&D, HQ, and Sabotage).
• Also, all 3 map packs are now in the MAP PACK rotation. So if you want to play only new content, but are tired of the same 3 maps, this will hopefully be a happy medium for you =).

Finally, we’ve turned on Double-XP which will also end Monday, November 1st. So hit that prestige button one more time while the XP is cheap!

To your last breath!

Source: Playstation Blog

Killstreak Rewards are special bonuses that can be acquired by killing a certain amount of enemies in a row without dying. You can lower the required amount by 1 with the Hardline perk.

Modern Warfare 2 expands the killstreak system from Call of Duty 4 and World at War, as you are now able to customize your killstreak rewards to your liking. You can choose a maximum of 3 per class.

Other than the default set, you have to unlock the rest of the killstreaks, but you get to choose the order you unlock them. Below you will find 9 of the current known killstreaks, there are a total of 15 in the game.

3 Kills

UAV

Description: This deploys a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) that shows the enemies on the radar as dots. The UAV can be shot down by the enemy.

4 Kills  

Care Package

Description: After you throw the red signal flare, the Care Package will be airdropped into the battlefield. This can be picked by anyone, even the enemy.

The package contains either a random killstreak or ammo. The killstreak can be anything from the UAV to the AC-130 Gunship, regardless what killstreak rewards you have chosen.

Counter UAV

Description: This disables the enemy radar for a short period of time.

5 Kills

Sentry Gun

Description: Airdrop a placeable XM312 Sentry Gun. It will automatically fire at enemies, but it can be destroyed.

This can be of great help in for example, Demolition and Capture the Flag (Flag Runner) game modes.

Predator Missile

Description: This allows you to remote control a Predator missile. After opening the laptop, you have approximately 5 seconds to control the missile to your target, as it goes down. You can also give the missile a boost to make it go down faster.

You are vulnerable while using the Predator missile, but if you get killed, you can still continue to control it.

6 Kills

Precision Airstrike

Description: This is much like the Airstrike in Call of Duty 4, but this time you can control the direction of the Airstrike for more accurate kills.

7 Kills

Attack Helicopter

Description: Deploys a helicopter to the map like in Call of Duty 4. It will circle the map and automatically attack the enemies for a few minutes and leave. It can be destroyed with guns and missiles.

All the enemies that it kills are added to your kill count.

9 Kills

Pave Low

Description: This deploys a heavily armored Attack Helicopter (Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low) to the map for maximum carnage. As with the Attack Helicopter, all the kills are added to your kill count.

 11 Kills

AC-130

Description: After deployed via laptop, an AC-130 Gunship will enter the map. You control it remotely for 30 seconds and you can use the 25mm, 45mm and 105mm canons to shoot at enemies. You are vulnerable while controlling the AC-130, but if you get killed while using it, you can still continue.

Note: The AC-130 can be shot down by the enemy, but it does have flares as countermeasures.

Source: themodernwarfare2.com