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#activision Publisher Activision announced today new "strategic plans" for the Call of Duty franchise, announcing a new developer for the shooter franchise and confirming the departure of key Infinity Ward staffers. More »

Amid the roar of Call of Duty news today, Activision has confirmed that Treyarch's next entry in the series will be released this fall. Assuming Activision adheres to its thus far rock-solid Call of Duty schedule, a November release seems likely. Whether or not the series will make the rumored move to Vietnam remains unconfirmed.

In other unsurprising Cal of Duty news, Activision has confirmed that the upcoming Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 DLC will consist of multiplayer map packs. The map packs were more or lest outed last year, thanks to some loose-lipped energy drink packaging, but Activision hasn't actually confirmed the exact nature of the DLC until now. The first two map packs -- slated to appear first on Xbox Live -- are in development at Infinity Ward. Assuming initial plans haven't been altered by the executive shuffling, the first pack is scheduled to release this spring, while the second is slated for a (presumably later) 2010 release.

#callofduty Simmering problems between Activision and Modern Warfare 2 development studio Infinity Ward — involving the creative direction of the Call of Duty series — may have come to a head with yesterday's dismissal of IW's two studio heads. More »

As we continue to wait for official comment from Activision, Infinity Ward or any of the reported players affected by the alleged ousting of Infinity Ward executives, a related story has gained significant traction and deserves some attention. BingeGamer reports that Infinity Ward "has yet to be paid a single dime in royalties for Modern Warfare 2." As the developer is a wholly-owned Activision studio, we turned to some leading industry analysts to explain what appears to be a private contractual matter.

EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich tells Joystiq, "I couldn't speak to what the royalty agreement between Activision and Infinity Ward is. If royalties haven't been paid out yet, I wouldn't consider that too alarming. The game has only been out for a little over 90 days. Additionally, it is common to see royalty agreements based upon factors such as hitting release date, review scores (a.k.a. 'Metacritic Clauses') or revenue milestones. I think if you just replace the word 'royalties' with 'bonus' it should make some more sense."

Wedbush Morgan's Michael Pachter explains, "I don't know the nature of [Infinity Ward's] contract, but my bonus is paid after year-end (in February), and theirs is likely the same. The idea that they haven't been paid 'yet' is not all that surprising. The year just closed, and the final SEC documents were filed yesterday." He continues, "IW sold itself to Activision back in 2004, Activision owns the [Call of Duty] IP, and the guys leaving were employees under some kind of contract. Activision appears to believe that they have breached this contract, and may or may not be justified in withholding bonuses."

We'll continue to follow the Activision and Infinity Ward situation and report on it as soon as official statements are made. Check out Pachter and Divnich's full analyses after the break.

#callofduty Modern Warfare 2 developer Infinity Ward is now home to a very strange, currently very unclear story, as G4 reports that security guards have stormed the developer, with studio heads currently missing in action. More »

#infinityward Strange, hazy things are happening at Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward. This wouldn't be the first time for the studio. More »

British bookmaker Victor Chandler has a strange sense of what things people should be betting on. For instance, we never would have thought that high-stakes wagering would ever find its way into the British Academy of Film and Television Awards. Yet somehow, gambling on the BAFTAs has becoming a thing, leading Chandler to tally up the odds for each of the awards show's categories.

Perhaps a bit unsurprisingly, Chandler's calculations place Uncharted 2: Among Thieves in front of the video game category -- the only award chosen by a public poll -- with odds of 6/4. Modern Warfare 2 falls slightly behind that with 9/4 odds. Check out the full breakdown of nominee's odds to take home the prize after the jump. We went ahead and split our life savings evenly among the ten contenders, guaranteeing us a victory when the BAFTAs are distributed March 19. Man, we're so good at gambling.

Security shows up unexpectedly at studio late tonight.

#weekendreader In the past year, 70,000 men and women enlisted in the U.S. Army. Sixty-seven times that amount - 4.7 million - played Modern Warfare 2 on a console or PC, released one day before Veteran's Day. More »

A great game could be made even better with a few tweaks.

Time Magazine once described Modern Warfare 2 as having "something intelligent to say about contemporary military conflicts." Which is why we haven't seen the addition of the popular Call of Duty staple, zombies -- it would ruin the incredible realism established by Infinity Ward's latest! Of course. Thankfully, Robert Bowling confirmed to IGN that there are no plans for Nazis, zombies, or Nazi zombies, in "any piece of Modern Warfare 2 downloadable content."

Thank goodness! We certainly wouldn't want to misrepresent the realities of modern warfare with something as ludicrous as that, right?

Up against the likes of the ... um ... Popcorn Hour C200 and the ... erm ... Asus O!Play (we'd better leave the gadget stuff to the folks who know what they're talking about), Sony's PlayStation 3 Slim has triumphed as the 2009 Engadget Awards winner in both "Game Console of the Year" and "Home Entertainment Device of the Year" categories. In fairness to the other game consoles, the Home Entertainment Device category didn't exactly feature Microsoft and Nintendo devices (the awards are for devices specifically released in 2009, as you might imagine), so the closest competitor (at 9.6 percent) was the HP MediaSmart Home Server -- the PS3 Slim took a commanding 54.3 percent of the vote.

In terms of the Game Console of the Year award, the margins were significantly ... slimmer, with the PS3 taking 43.3 percent of the vote, following close behind by the Xbox 360 Modern Warfare 2 Edition at 31.2 percent. The Slim also made the Editor's Choice top pick for Console of the Year, rounding out the love fest. Also of note, Wii's MotionPlus landed on both lists as well for "Game Accessory of the Year," beating out the Modern Warfare 2 night vision goggles by just 4.7 percent. Your giant golden USB hubs will be mailed out shortly, winners! Congrats!

The undead will be kept at bay until at least the next Call of Duty installment.

The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity bracket challenge was a lonely event for us gamers -- while there were lots of TV stars and NFL players around to talk to, we had to really search the club for someone who actually had some insight on the game for us. But there in the back, among the PR organizers and "Athlete Relations" representatives, we found the game's senior producer Patrick Bach (second from right in the picture above). He may never have starred on a network drama or celebrated on the field after a touchdown, but the guy knows how to make first-person shooters, and that's good enough for us.

After the break, hear what he thinks of celebrities playing his game, just how ready DICE is for release, and what kinds of secret plans his team has for DLC.

Are you looking for an addictive multiplayer shooter with a rabid, unimaginably skilled player base that will simply eviscerate you, a first-time player, during your first hundred matches? Good news, masochist: Amazon has discounted Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360 down to a cool $40 (the PS3 version is selling for $50). The zombie apocalypse sim Left 4 Dead 2 has also had its price reduced to a couple of Jacksons, as have both versions of Assassin's Creed 2.

Wait! We know you're excited about these delicious deals, but allow us to play the devil's advocate: Would you rather purchase all three, or -- for roughly the same price -- buy the entire series of Miami Vice on DVD? We're sorry to put you this position. We expect your decision by the end of the day.

In the five-ish years since the Xbox 360 launched, ushering in the current console generation, we've heard a whole mess of talk about this console life cycle pushing past the usual five-ish years they tend to span. Given that we're approaching the mark as we speak, MCV talked to execs from the big three and got an update on where each stands in terms of new hardware in the coming year(s). "The benefit of hardware remaining relevant for longer is the fact that it gives more developers a chance to get the very best and most out of current generation systems, rather than the cycle changing just as people have become used to maximizing a console's performance and abilities," says senior product manager at Nintendo UK Rob Lowe. "We strongly believe that there is still huge potential for both Wii and DS to continue to bring in new gamers and change rejecters' perceptions." Watch your back, rejecters!

Perhaps unsurprisingly at this point, Sony and Microsoft corroborate Lowe's claims, with VP of Sony Worldwide Studios Michael Denny adding, "Of course new hardware causes a large spike in consumer interest, but so does the launch of new, exciting games ... Modern Warfare 2 didn't need new hardware to break all the records." And with two new motion ... things coming to Sony and Microsoft's consoles -- not to mention the worldwide economy still struggling to recover from a near-meltdown -- we have to imagine that we won't be seeing any new $400 to $600 hardware anytime soon.

But hey, there's always 3D to take our money, right?

Infinity Ward has released its latest salvo of updates for Modern Warfare 2, dropping a predator missile on the dreaded "infinite care package" glitch and those awful, awful shotguns from 1887 (again). And all those matches you found you were getting negative XP? Yeah, that's a thing of the past.

If you want to read up on the patch notes, head on over here.

[Thanks, Nick]

Those of you not into getting your hot gaming scoops from specially branded Modern Warfare 2 energy drinks will be happy to hear that Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2 will be officially receiving its first infusion of post-launch DLC content this Spring. As Microsoft is keen to point out in its press release announcing the release window, the content will only be available (at least initially) on the Xbox 360. Unfortunately, no other information is given on the first DLC pack (though the energy drink case you see above seems to indicate that it'll be maps), but the announcement does note that this is but the first in a series of "content packs" that will be exclusive to Microsoft's console.

Considering the Xbox 360 received the lion's share of Modern Warfare 2 purchases, it comes as a bit of a shock to us that the already released on PS3 and PC "care package patch" is just now being submitted to Microsoft for certification. That said, developer Infinity Ward's community man Robert Bowling tweeted as much to Game Informer's Andrew Reiner approximately 24 hours ago when Reiner asked about a possible release for the much anticipated fixes.

As Bowling has pointed out before (and details in this forum post on the subject), the patch is set to remedy the following (you might need a pillow for all of this pure, unbridled excitement:

• Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.
• Fix for "infinite care package" exploit.
• Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry.
• Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.
• Fixes to prevent various XP hacks.

And no, there's no date given for when it's coming out. So stop asking. (Seriously.)
[Via Game Informer]

Total software unit sales declined eight percent globally.

Other explots and glitches will be removed.

A new Modern Warfare 2 patch will be releasing tonight for the PS3 version. Once again, a number of exploits will be addressed, including: Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized Fix for "infinite care package" exploit Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s Improved player collision removing cases of getting into geometry and "elevators" Fixes to prevent various XP hacks Unfortunately, the patch went live earlier in Europe, and broke a key feature of the game: being able to play online. Since then, the patch has been pulled, and is awaiting yet another fix. Once SCEA certification clears the patch, it will go live in both territories. An Xbox 360 version of the patch is also in the works, but there is currently "no ETA" on when it will go live. [Thanks Kurby!]

That's a lot of extra Wiimotes.

That's a lot of extra Wiimotes.

A patch for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 is available for download on Steam right now, which nips the negative XP and "running man" issues in the bud. PC gamers should find the game more or less is back to normal, but there are still plenty of problems for console gamers, so we we contacted Infinity Ward's Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling. He told us a console patch is "currently in test for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions." Sadly, he didn't have any word as to when the patch would go live for Xbox 360 and PS3 owners, but we'll be sure to let you all know when we hear something.

Player rank dropping back down to 1.

Many Modern Warfare 2 players still debate the game's best piece of weaponry. Fortunately, hackers have settled this timeless dispute once and for all: It is, of course, the gun that hurtles your opponent back in time, back to the days when he or she was a lowly, classless Private. Okay, there's apparently a new homebrewed glitch which accomplishes this feat, not a gun -- but it would be awesome if there was. We're envisioning the Infanto Ray which Borf used in Space Ace to turn awesome-Dexter into pantywaist-Dexter. Yes, according to a few incensed forum posters, hackers have allegedly found a way to augment the amount of experience rewarded for killing them. Instead of the usual 50- or 100-point increments we usually see, these dubious players can punish their murderers with negative five million points, dropping their hard-earned rank back to level 1. Check out a NSFW video after the break to see this horrific new exercise (which appears to only be happening on Xbox Live) in motion. We've contacted the folks at Infinity Ward to find out what they're doing to crack down on these total Borfs. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

For nine straight weeks, the UK's gamer populace has been mesmerized by the siren's song of Modern Warfare 2. Today, that's all changed, with the latest Chart-Track data showing a new entry usurping Modern Warfare 2's top spot: Just Dance. Ubisoft's quirky dance title for the Wii has enjoyed a level of success there we would never have thought possible. Can its performance be attributed to good advertising or simply the United Kingdom's unrestrained love of Kevin Bacon? And MW2 wasn't even in the second spot, either. Wii Fit Plus managed to grab the silver, while Infinity Ward's shooter was bumped down to a respectable bronze. Newcomers Bayonetta and Darksiders also managed to stay on the list, along with Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2, which stealthily secured the tenth spot.