In the one time Michael Pachter may actually be right, he chimed in to say that in the current “war” between Infinity Ward and Activision, Jason West and Vince Zampella may be “unlikely” to get the rights to the Modern Warfare name (via Critical Gamer).
A leaked Activision memo might give some insight onto why Jason West and Vince Zampella were fired from Infinity Ward.
Well, it just keeps going, doesn’t it?
Seeking $36 million from Activision, Activision has responded to the claim and said that they are “disappointed.”
Bloomberg announced that West and Zampella are seeking “at least $36 million” from Activision in the lawsuit.
The $36 million is sought in addition to control over the Modern Warfare name, which is seen as “a subset of the ‘Call of Duty’ combat games, according to a copy of the complaint,” according to the Bloomberg piece.
First part of today’s IW vs Activision news here.
The shitstorm still goes on as ex-Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella seek action against Activision for unpaid royalties.
According to BingeGamer, Activision has not paid royalties to Infinity Ward over the success of Modern Warfare 2.
The article cites sources “associated with Activision” who says this could be one of the reasons for the confrontation between publisher and developer earlier today.
BingeGamer also mentions that Infinity Ward have been looking for a new deal with another publisher.
IW is contracted to Activision as a developer until October, and it’s rumoured that Activision’s move is a power play to try and bully Infinity ward into staying with Activision. Both developer and publisher owns equal parts of the Call of Duty Franchise, so Activision might be moving to acquire IW’s half of the CoD name.
[UPDATE] G4 reports that a source close to Activision has revealed that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will adress the employees of Infinity Ward in a meeting today. There will also be a second meeting adressing the studio as a whole, but no details on either meetings are clear.
Trouble seems to be brewing within the halls of Infinity Ward. According to a report from G4, security guards of the “bouncer-types” showed up at the offices of Infinity Ward.
Studio heads Vince Zampella and Jason West reportedly met with Activision this morning and wasn’t seen by Infinity Ward employees since.
Modern Warfare 2’s first batch of DLC is currently “planned for the wonderfully vague time-frame of Spring”, according to Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling on his twitter today.
No details at were provided on the content and what it would be, but then, there’s not really much you can say in 140 characters.
Ah Twitter, where would us journalists be without you?
Do you live in the UK? Do you have an Xbox 360? Do you have Modern Warfare 2 and a Gold Subscription to Xbox Live? Do you like to feel better about yourself by giving to charity?
If you just so happen to fit all of those criteria, then here’s your chance to give something back, as Activision UK has announced that it will be donating money to the War Child charity during an online event in Modern Warfare 2.
The even is scheduled to run between December 5th and December 6th on Xbox Live. Activision will donate a “life changing” amount (they haven’t specifically said) to the charity per UK player that plays the game during those two days. The more UK people play, the more money will be donated.
If you’re interested in taking part, you should become a fan of the event on Facebook, add the Game For Good application, and invite others. You can keep track of details and results via the event’s Twitter feed.
Hey, it’s for a good cause, so you have no excuse!
Based on figures gathered by MCV today, Modern Warfare 2 has sold approximately 1.23 million copies on it’s first day on sale in the UK, according to GfK-ChartTrack.
The figure is impressive. Do you want to know just how impressive?
It’s double the figure of GTA IV’s day one sales (609,000). This makes making Modern Warfare 2 the fastest-selling video game in UK history, with 1,230,588 copies sold in total day one.
This roughly means that Modern Warfare 2 is in approximately one of every 24 UK homes.
Impressive would be an understatement.
Well, that didn’t take too long. Modern Warfare 2 has only just been released, having had its street date broken, and The Daily Mail is already digging its tabloid claws into it.
One of the most clear criticism from the article is the scene from the first chapter of the game, that allows you to kills innocent civilians if you so choose to.
“Among the most controversial is a situation where the gamer must decide whether to kill unarmed civilians at a Russian airport in order to infiltrate a terrorist group.”
Not surprisingly, the politicians have already come out of the woodwork (in this instance Labour MP Keith Vaz) and promised to save our children from these vile and socially destructive video games…
“I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks,” Vaz stated, and promised that this would be brought to light in parliament this evening.
Could British politicians be any more out of touch with society? Seriously?
Thanks to VG247 reader Dannybuoy Twitpicced his copy of Modern Warfare 2, we can confirm that GAME has broken the Modern Warfare 2 street date, a day before the title is due to go on sale.
Many more reports from around the country seem to indicate that retailers all over the UK and US have broken the game’s street date, including GameStop.
Activision has said that it “has not given any retailer permission to sell Modern Warfare 2 prior to the Nov. 10 street date.” Looks like they didn’t listen!
Speaking recently on GameTrailer’s Bonus Round, industry analyst Michael Pachter made the prediction that Modern Warfare 2 will manage to sell over 14 million units before this year is out.
“Last year sold about 8 million in the Christmas quarter, I think most people think this will do 10-12. It really depends on marketing – if they blitz the airwaves and we see ads on every basketball game, football game, college football game, every beauty Pageant … maybe 14 million,” said the Wedbush Morgan analyst.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has sold over 13 million units since it’s original release,, as of May 2009, and the user-base of console owners has increased significantly since since then, so this figure may not sound as crazy as one might think.
I honestly wasn’t expecting this, but it seems there will be a DS version of Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, subtitled “Mobilised”.
The DS title will be developed by n-Space, and is set to feature a unique story to the single player campaign, as well as a six-player online multiplayer mode.
How the whole game turns out remains to be seen, obviously, but a DS FPS has been done well before with Metroid Prime: Hunters.
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