Unless your domicile is under a rock you are probably aware that Activision has sacked the two heads of Call of Duty maker Infinity Ward, over what it termed insubordination.

Following their dismissal, President Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella filed a lawsuit against Activision Publishing, alleging that the pair’s contracts were terminated “weeks before they were to be paid substantial royalty payments as part of their existing contracts for Modern Warfare 2.” The suit claims “breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, wrong termination in violation of public policy, and declaratory relief.” 

The duo’s lawyer, Robert Schwartz of O'Melveny & Myers LLP, stated:

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.”

Additionally, a press release announcing the lawsuit stated:

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.  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.

In response to the lawsuit, Activision stated that it “was disappointed” and believes that the claims are “meritless.” G4 managed to get their hands on internal legal documents from Activision which indicated that the company is looking for documents to possibly use against West and Zampella.

Here’s what Activision is looking for specifically:

• "Documents regarding past, current or future IW projects, including but not limited to any and all businesses analyses of future projects (e.g. Modern Warfare 3)"
• "Documents regarding any potential 'spin out' of IW, including but not limited to any communications with IW employees, West or Zampella regarding forming a new studio independent of Activision"
• "Documents regarding West and Zampella's communications with Activision's competitors, including but not limited to Electronic Arts"

So, it appears Activision’s actions against the IW pair may have been in reaction to a fear that they were going to jump ship to another publisher or form their own new studio.  Note that when Infinity Ward was formed in 2002, it was made up of a group of former developers from 2015, Inc., who developed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, which was in turn published by Electronic Arts.

Those that need to catch up on the drama should head over to G4, which has been all over the “Fall of Duty” story.

An Australian TV report on violent games and their impact on the country’s youth uses a quote from a psychologist to claim that the link between violent videogames and youth crime is greater than the connection between smoking and lung cancer.

The Ten News report details recent violent crimes—the slashing of a “young customers” throat at a Kings Cross, Sydney chicken shack and a bouncer who had his face slashed in Melbourne in one “of a string of weapon attacks,” and then attempts to link a perceived rise in violence to games, stating  that, “Psychologist say the explosion in youth crime is inextricably linked to violent videogames and other media.

Next to appear, Dr. Wayne Warburton from the Council on Children and the Media, who apparently came up with the lung cancer comparison, as he stated, “It’s much greater that the effect of smoking and lung cancer. There’s a study showing that the average child sees in a childhood, 16,000 murders and 200,000 act of violence."

The Council is calling for an information packet to be mailed to every household in Australia.

Reporter Matt Doran then cites  unknown “experts” as saying that the game industry has much to account for, then attempts to lay some of the blame on “Modern Warfare: Call of Duty 2,” a title in which “gamers plot terror attacks against civilians.”

Wrapping up, Doran quotes “psychologists” as saying that “regular exposure to games like these actually rewires a child’s brain, making them more amenable to violence.” He then alludes to a conference on youth violence taking place in Sydney “later this month,” which will feature “the world’s leading researchers.” He added, “Tougher classifications for violent media will be top of the agenda.”

The Council on Children and Media has a section on its website dealing with the R18 Discussion Paper, which it claims came about as “a relentless push by gamers and the industry.” They are against the addition of an R18+ rating category for games and run down their opposition here.

Among their points:

The gaming industry and gamers make much of the supposedly maturing and gender-balanced population who play video games. So what? One can say the same thing about many populations, such as car drivers and alcohol users, without this being an argument for, in effect, making drinking or car driving more easily available to minors.

 
Thanks Graham and Jamie!

Activision’s Blizzard’s Call of Duty Endowment (CODE), which provides funding to assist war veterans, has announced another funding initiative.

CODE’s first donation was a $125,000 endowment to the Paralyzed Veterans of America, which enabled the group to open a vocational rehab center. Via Bloomberg we learn that CODE’s second major donation will be a $100,000 grant to the Wounded Warrior Project, a Florida-based charity that assists injured veterans transitioning to either civilian life or new military positions. The funds will be used to open a new Transition Training Academy (TTA).

CODE also provided assistance to the families of victims from last year’s Fort Hood shooting.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick told Bloomberg that he hopes to grow CODE’s endowments to between $50.0 and $100.0 million by the end of this decade. Current CODE funding totals about $1.0 million.

Kotick added:

Being able to meet these brave men and women and hear their stories firsthand has strengthened my conviction that the private sector as well as the government is responsible for ensuring they have employment and that we don’t penalize them for their years of service to this country.”

Note: The Bloomberg story puts CODE’s grant to the Paralyzed Veterans of America at $375,000, versus our original story which reported it as a $125,000 grant. Official PR (PDF) announcing the founding of CODE put the figure at $125,000, so we will stick with that.

The lack of dead U.S. civilians portrayed in Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 implies that foreign civilians are more expendable than their American counterparts.

This is the vein of a column appearing in France24, in which the author notes that the game’s Brazilian and “No Russian” levels feature plenty of dead civilian bodies, while a level set in Washington D.C. depicts nary a body from American non-combatants.

Mehdi Chebil writes:

But while Activision producers go to great lengths to depict fatally wounded Russian civilians leaving big streaks of blood as they crawl on the airport floor – all in the name of realism - they designed the US-based levels in such a way that no virtual American civilian can be seen nor hurt.

An Activision representative refused to comment “…on the use of civilians in our games.”

The author also thinks that the media focused too much on the game’s overall violence:

The fact that critics focused their attacks on the generic violence of “Modern Warfare 2”, forgetting its big red 18 rating, without playing enough of the game to see the discrimination it applies within its civilian categories, also reveals another form of contempt for the entire video game industry.

He encourages the media to “pay attention to some of the videogame industry’s more disturbing messages.”

GP: Just to play devil’s advocate, the “No Russian” airport level could feature American civilians… there’s no way to know without checking passports or ids.

Dr. Michael Rich, Director (and self-described “Mediatrician”) of the Center on Media and Child Health for Children’s Hospital Boston  recently fielded a question on the hospital’s blog from a parent asking about the impact Call of Duty might have on teenage boys.

Dr. Rich’s first attempt at answering the question resulted in a bit of a misstep, in that he misrepresented the Modern Warfare 2’s controversial “No Russian” scene, referring to it as the game’s opening scene and then falsely wrote that the player earns points by gunning down civilians in the airport.

The doctor’s recommendation? “Given all the evidence, I personally would never recommend that a parent give this game to a child or teen.”

Following a handful of comments on the original post which pointed out his errors in describing the game, the good doctor scripted a second blog in which he apologized, writing, “… even though I play video games, I have neither the skills nor the practice time to be a great gamer, so Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was demonstrated to me—I have not played it.”

He then went on to explain his interpretation of how violent games affect younger gamers:

…many research studies have shown that the majority of violent video game players do not go out and start shooting people—but they do show that those who view violent movies or play violent video games experience a consistent, measurable shift in their attitudes and behaviors toward greater fear and anxiety (especially in children), desensitization to suffering, and, in some, increases in aggression.

Therefore, as a pediatrician, I would steer parents and kids toward video games that are sports-, logic-, or strategy-based, instead of those that center on violence.

GP: A relatively even keel, non knee-jerk recommendations from the doctor in that at least he didn’t claim that all studies suggest violent games have a negative impact on youth. Or maybe we’re just learning to expect less from non-gaming experts that judge games. What do you think?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 raked in more than $550 million in its first week of sales, making it the most popular entertainment launch in history. That popularity has also shown up in the number of unauthorized downloads, topping the charts as the most pirated game of 2009.

According to numbers posted at TorrentFreak, as of November, the PC version of MW2 had been downloaded from BitTorrent more than 4.1 million times, with the Xbox 360 version being downloaded another 970,000 times. Those numbers far exceed Spore on the PC and Street Fighter IV on the 360, both coming in second.

According to the article:

The overall trend across all platforms is that, unlike last year, all of the games are 2009 releases. What makes Modern Warfare 2’s chart-topping even more impressive is that this has been achieved after just two months of availability. We further see that the figures for the most downloaded titles have more than doubled compared to last year, equaling the growth in uTorrent users.

The top Wii game to be downloaded was New Super Mario Bros. with 1.15 million downloads.

(Thanks to DarkSaber for the tip, since we know he loves posts on MW2 and Activision)

Many game companies strive for realism when creating games based on real-world locales. Topography, architecture and landmarks are given detailed consideration and review. Military games even look at uniforms, weapons and hardware to provide the most realistic experience possible for the gamer.

So how could a company that puts so much effort into those details screw up the language on signs in a map? Apparently that's what happened with the Karachi map in Modern Warfare 2, as a Pakistani reader at Kotaku picked up on the faux pas, noticing that Arabic was used instead of Pakistan's Urdu language.

According to reader Saad:

"Infinity Ward probably thought, 'Oh hey its a Muslim country so Arabic is the language,'" says Saad. "To someone who doesn't know urdu won't be able to tell the difference," Saad explains. "It's like Spanish and English, I guess. Some letters are same, some are different but the words are completely different."

GP: Urdu is nowhere to be found on the map, only Arabic. Someone obviously didn't do their homework and its mistake for a game already wrapped in enough controversy, be it calculated and planned or not.

Maine’s Christian Civic League is calling for a ban on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The League writes that we live in a time where “the public has been dangerously desensitized to violence,” and that “many find a thrill in participating in violent video games.”   It claims that Modern Warfare 2 goes too far, “even in our own desensitized age,” and specifically calls out the No Russian scene (which it calls the “Massacre Level”) as most offending.

“All decent people should denounce the game,” continues the League, which goes on to suggest that the state of Maine should open debate into banning “these” games completely.

The League then attempts to play up the link between violent videogames and school shootings, and while  Maine has yet to have a school shooting of its own, “the danger is growing each passing day” adds the League.

Videogames are just one manifestation of current social ills however:

The ready availability of drugs, violent video games, and outrageous rock music is a witch's brew which will eventually lead to tragedy here in Maine.

In related League news, the group also accused the owner of a local book store of being a witch and claimed that the store owner cast a spell on the Administrator of the League, Mike Hein, in return for being “outed” as a “practitioner of the occult.”

Color-blind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 gamers have started an online petition in the hopes that it will convince developer Infinity Ward to release a patch for the game that addresses their needs.

In multiplayer MW2 matches, the quickest way to tell a teammate from an enemy is if their name is in red (enemy) or green (teammate). The same colors are used in the game’s radar, which allows players to view the location of others, both friend and foe. The petition cites statistics that 8.0% of all males are color blind and 0.5% of females.

A glitch of some kind has also affected the Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2. As noted on Geek.com, in multiplayer matches, players are running around with unlimited ammo, firing off their noob tubes at will. Rumor is it’s the result of a modder’s exploit that gets passed around to everyone in the online game, residing in the 360’s cache. Disconnecting from Xbox Live and rebooting the console seems to get rid of the problem. Infinity Ward is aware of the problem and has promised a fix.


|Via Evil Avatar|

Since it’s Monday and we can all use a bit of levity, check out the embedded video from Nexon, the developer of Combat Arms.

The video spoofs Infinity Ward’s now infamous Fight Against Grenade Spam (F.A.G.S.) video, which called out grenade spammers in the Call of Duty series. Nexon applies the same anti-explosive theme to its online, multiplayer first-person shooter. Video funding was provided by “Fight Against Nade Spammers (F.A.N.S.).”

This video is not immune to criticism either however: several YouTube commenters note that the bleeped out curse words in the video are the same ones that got them banned from Combat Arms itself.

Retailer Game, Activision and Xbox Live have teamed up for a UK-based charity drive based around Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Activision will donate £1 to the War Child charity for every UK gamer playing MW2 on Xbox Live on December 5th and 6th. Additionally, Xbox Live Gold Memberships will be free that weekend in an effort to boost participation in Games for Good.

War Child benefits children affected by war.

Openly gay New Zealand Chief Censor Bill Hastings is the recipient of personal attacks from a radio host for allowing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 into the country.

Radio Live host Michael Laws (pictured left), who is also Mayor of Wanganui, bashed Hastings on a recent radio show reports GayNZ.com. Laws made sure to mention the censor’s sexual preference, stating, “I know the gay guy we've got at the moment who is the Chief Censor Bill Hastings is a liberal sort of guy.”

He continued, “I don't care if he lets gay sex through because, well, that's what he enjoys watching in a darkened room somewhere and thinks everybody else of his ilk should be able to do so as well.”

Just last month, Laws made headlines for proposing that New Zealand’s poor be offered money in return for undergoing sterilization.

Hastings has been New Zealand’s Chief Censor since 1999.

Update: Laws' entire show is available online (thanks Andrew). Even worse than his attacks on Hastings, comes this bit on gamers:

…it’s a graphic and violent came called Call of Duty: Modern Wafare 2 and it was released in stores on Tuesday, a couple of days ago, and it’s proved extraordinarily popular with gamers, a very unusual group of people, and just the kind of people, if mass murder was ever to be committed in this country, it would be committed by a gamer.

The Russian government is apparently not a fan of how the country is represented in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, as all copies of the console version of the game have been recalled from stores.

Infinity Ward has also released a patch for the Russian PC version of the game which will remove the “airport” mission from the game entirely reports HellForge, citing a Russian gaming website. The mission in question features a civilian slaughter carried out at the behest of a Russian terrorist named Makarov.

Re-edited console versions of the game, once given the go ahead by Russian censors, could be introduced to stores within a month.

As GamePolitics alerted you to late Tuesday, yesterday’s Fox & Friends morning show aired a segment covering Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The short segment was introduced by host Steve Doocy, who began, “A popular new videogame actually allows you (points at camera) to be a terrorist and kill people.” He asked, “Is this fantasy game just a little too real and is it appropriate?” before kicking off a “fair and balanced” debate on the subject with Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media and John Christensen from SlashGamer.com.

Steyer was concerned about the age of the person playing the game, while a flummoxed Christensen attempted to explain the context of the scene in question.

Doocy followed up with the question, “Is it ever appropriate to simulate killing people?”

Steyer replied, “We live in a world of free speech so you can create these games. The issue for violent videogames is there’s no question that there is a correlation between videogame violence and screen violence and aggression in real life. The American Academy of Pediatrics just came out with a statement about that. The violence is the issue… you need to use common sense in terms of using games like this.”

GP: Of course, other researchers have refuted a suggested link between violent games and aggression. Overall, a less than engaging debate. What do you think?

Thanks KayleL

Washington Times Culture Columnist Marybeth Hicks’ latest column calls on Americans to reject violent videogames.

“Tuesday was one of those days when the news can confuse us,” the columnist writes, imparting her take on the release date of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 falling on the same day that a memorial service for the victims of the Fort Hood tragedy aired on television.

MW2 is poised to become the largest media launch in entertainment history, to which Hicks says, “We ought not be surprised, but we ought to be concerned.” She calls the title, “Another immersive first-person game offering players the chance to vicariously participate in acts of violence for the sole purpose of ... entertainment.”

Depictions of “senseless” violence can be found in many forms of American media, writes Hicks, including television and movies, but “worst of all” in videogames, which enable “a realistic experience of ‘the thrill of the kill.’”

She finishes:

It's not maturity that's needed to play these games. It's maturity that rejects them as barbaric and harmful to the psyche of anyone who would play them.

According to Hicks’ bio, she began her career as a writer of special correspondence and talking points for President Reagan. In addition to her columnist duties she is a motivational speaker and the author of several books, including Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid’s Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World.

GP: Oops, Washington Times, not Washington Post. Thanks Jack!

It was only a matter of time before Fox News got involved in the issue of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and we have confirmation that they will tackle the game tomorrow morning during the Fox & Friends show.

The ECA, which operates GamePolitics, received an email from FOX News around 11 a.m. EST today asking to speak to an "expert gamer" about the controversies surrounding the game. The pertinent part of the email:

Hello,

I write to inquire about a possible interview tomorrow on Fox & Friends. We're the morning show of the Fox News Channel, and are planning on doing a segment on the new Xbox game, Modern Warfare 2. We're hoping to have a debate on the game, and would love to speak to an expert gamer on the controversies surrounding the game. The debate is for 6:50am tomorrow morning, on camera.

The email came to Jason Andersen, the ECA's director of PR. When he responded that the ECA might be interested but they needed more information, he did not receive an answer. So it appears that the ECA will not be the representative side of the games industry.

Hal Halpin, president of the ECA, said that he heard from other sources that FOX wanted to "discuss the ethics and morals that game developers employ when making decisions about what content/direction to employ when they're creating games."

GP: We all know what a pillar of integrity FOX News can be when it comes to covering video games, remembering in particular their coverage of the alien sex simulator that was Mass Effect. Cooper Lawrence, an author used by FOX to bash Mass Effect, later recanted her comments saying:

"Before the show I had asked somebody about what they had heard, and they had said it's like pornography. But it's not like pornography. I've seen episodes of Lost that are more sexually explicit."

So it will be interesting to see how they handle this, seeing as there is already a lot of misinformation about the Modern Warfare 2 terrorist sequence in the mainstream press. Hopefully, whoever responds for "the gamer" will be able to hold their own as well as Geoff Keighley did against Cooper Lawrence.

Watch the episode tomorrow at 6:50 a.m. and tell us what you think.

Update: For a cartoonist's take on the Fox News coverage, check out Crispy Gamer's Backward Compatible.

Funny stuff, but what else would you expect.

Looks like Infinity Ward provided some assistance as well.

In a follow up to yesterday’s news of a brewing Boss battle between Labour MPs Keith Vaz and Tom Watson over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the BBC has a short video online which captures the exchange between the two in Parliament yesterday.

A GP transcription of the video follows:


Keith Vaz: At midnight tonight, a new and violent videogame called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is to be released. It contains such scenes of brutality that even the manufacturers have put in warnings within the game telling people how they can skip particularly scenes. Given the recommendations of the Byron Review, specifically paragraphs 32 and 33, what steps is the government proposing to take in order to ensure that these violent games do not fall into the hands of children and young people. It’s not about censorship; it’s about protecting our children.

Sion Simon (Minister for Creative Industries): The clearest recommendation of the Byron Review is that content suitable for adults should be labeled as such and sold as such, that it should be an offense to sell such content to children. That’s the case under current law. It will be the case under the law when it changes in the Digital Economy bill. This game the honorable gentleman refers to is a certificate 18 game. It should not be sold to children and the governments job is to make sure that adults clearly labeled can get what adults should be able to and that children are not in danger of being subjected to adult content.

Tom Watson: I’ve seen the content in this video game… it is unpleasant, though no worse than in many films and books. It carries a content warning; it is an 18+ game and carries a BBFC 18+ rating as well. Does the Minister agree that it would be better for members of this house to support the many thousands of games designers and coders and the many millions of games users rather than collaborating with the Daily Mail to create morale panic over the use of videogames.

Sion Simon: I was in Dundee last week visiting the videogames industry. I can certainly agree with him that videogames is an industry…  a very large…  a very important industry, in which we have a national competitive advantage in this country, which it’s important that all members of this house and he government continue to support.


In response to Vaz’s public comments about the game, Watson set up a Facebook group called Gamer’s Voice, as we noted yesterday. That group has grown from 478 yesterday to almost 9,500 at the time this story was written.

GP: It appears Vaz’s comments about paragraphs 32 and 33 from the Byron Review reference the following two bits from the report’s executive summary:

32: There are some possible negative effects of violent content in games, but these only become ‘harmful’ when children present other risk factors…

33: However, we need to approach unequivocal claims of direct causes with caution – there is a strong body of ethnographic research which argues that context and the characteristics of each child will mediate the effects of playing video games. This means considering the media effects evidence in light of what we know about child development. We can use this to hypothesise about potential risks to children from playing some games….

Definitive purchase intent for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (out today) is almost three times that of the average videogame title (21% to 8%) reports Nielsen.

Noting that buzz has “been consistently strong” for the title over the four weeks preceding its launch, the data gathering firm said that MW2 had unaided awareness levels in gamers six times higher than historical benchmark titles. Aided awareness numbers were almost triple that of the average videogame (71% to 26%).

46% of all gamers aware of MW2 reported seeing TV ads last week while 30% reported hearing info on the game from a friend or co-worker.

While an average game release has about 3% of gamers indicating they would pick up the title in the first week of release, the number jumps to 9-12% for MW2.

Nielsen said that households which purchased Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare “spend nearly 3 times the amount of money on video game purchases annually vs. the typical video game buying household,” making MW franchise fans “valuable, highly desirable customers at retail – which is perhaps why we see a concerted effort to entice them to not only purchase the game itself, but also special editions and limited-edition consoles.”

Count Ice T (pictured) among those who already picked up a limited edition version of Modern Warfare 2. (via GiantBomb)

Whether it was planned in advance or a reaction to all of the recent negative press, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 publisher Activision Blizzard has said it will donate $1 million tomorrow to set up the Call of Duty Endowment (CODE) to support other groups that help veterans find jobs. Veterans' Day is Wednesday.

According to a story in the Washington Post, the new foundation comes at a time when President Obama is scheduled to sign an executive order creating the Council on Veterans Employment. Several private and government-backed organizations are stepping forward to aid returning veterans with the challenges they face after their service.

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said:

"The joblessness rate that [veterans] should have should be far less than the national average, not more. How do you expect people to actually join the military if when they leave the military they can't integrate back into the free market they're supposed to be protecting?"

The story said that CODE will make it's first donation of $125,000 to the Paralyzed Veterans of America "to open and vocational rehabilitation center."

"These are super-capable people," Kotick said. "To the extent that you can put them on track to develop more skills, the development potential that we've identified is extraordinary."

GP: The story stayed focused on the plight of veterans' finding jobs, but this writer wonders whether the endowment, announced so close to the release of MW2, is purely a public relations ploy to take the negative light off the controversy surrounding the terrorist sequence with civilians in the game. It's hard to look negatively on any gift that will aid veterans, but the name of the foundation as well as timing of endowment just seems more staged than magnanimous. 

Noted anti-game politician Keith Vaz is up in arms over Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The Leicester East Labour MP made comments to the Daily Mail about the title, saying, “'I am absolutely shocked by the level of violence in this game and am particularly concerned about how realistic the game itself looks.” Vaz said he would let his concerns be known in Parliament this morning.

Meanwhile, West Bromwich East Labour MP Tom Watson told the BBC that Vaz’s remarks had pushed him over the edge. Watson responded by setting up a Facebook group called Gamer’s Voice, which is billed as “unashamedly pro-video games.” In recruiting people to join, the group asks, “Are you sick of UK newspapers and (my fellow) politicians beating up on gaming? So am I. The truth is, UK gamers need their own pressure group. I want to help you start one up.” 478 members have already joined. Watson writes on Twitter that he’s looking for a logo for the group.

In regards to Vaz, Watson stated:

Everything that comes out of Parliament in relation to video games is relentlessly negative. There are thousands of people employed in this industry, there are 26 million people playing games. We should have a much more balanced view of the industry, indeed we should be supporting them through difficult times.

While noting that he found the MW2 content in question “deeply repulsive,” and that he would not play it himself, Watson thinks that as long as a classification is in place and policed, there is no issue.

Thanks wardrox

Are you getting Modern Warfare’d out yet?

Spoilers below, so avoid reading if you are in a self-imposed Modern Warfare 2 blackout.

Outside of issuing a rather benign statement, since leaked video surfaced that showed gamers apparently playing a role in a terrorist attack Activision and developer Infinity Ward have been relatively quiet in regards to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Actually, quiet is a relative term, and fitting if you don’t include the ill-received F.A.G.S. video released, and then pulled, at the end of last week. Anyway, in response to a thread on the GetOffTheX website forums in which the leaked footage was being discussed, inside information on the title was shared from someone claiming to be a member of the Infinity Ward development team.

On the initial internal reaction to the action in the leaked level:

I work for IW. When I heard what they wanted to do I KNEW it would be a bad idea. They said that it needed to be done to get the right "feel" and that it was part of the story.

After some more give and take about the subject on the forums, the user came back and added:

I can't tell you how many people thought this level was a bad idea. The higher ups wanted to push it. Activision gave them the thumbs up and they went with it.

More on the player’s role in the terrorist scene in question, perhaps answering the question of what “skipping” means exactly:

You are under cover. You have joined a bad guy team and they are going to set up "the Russians" What you do is shoot stuff up but not the bad guys or people in the airport.

GP: This jibes with a higher-resolution video of the level in question that is currently on the MapModNews website. This version of the video actually shows a player shooting a civilian in the airport. The action immediately stops and a warning in German pops up on the screen, “Sie haben einen Zivilisten getroffen. Vorsicht beim Feuern!” Google translates this as “They have taken a civilian. Be careful when firing!” While certainly something is lost in the translation there, the fact that the level restarts when you shoot a civilian certainly implies that you are merely an observer in this mission.


Thanks Dan!

A VentureBeat story details how Activision Blizzard was able to track down a pirate selling Xbox 360 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 bundles on Craigslist, and how the cracking of that crime led to the arrest of another individual selling illegal copies of the game.

The game in question, of course, doesn’t come out until November 10, prompting the publisher to call in IPCybercrime, a Dallas-based private investigation firm that specializes in online crimes. Turns out, employees at a retail outlet had stolen a crate of the bundles from a store.

However, the thieves had already sold a bundle to a software cracker that was able to figure out how to make illegal dupes of MW2. In what was probably not a coincidence, copies of the game started to make their way onto online torrent and peer-to-peer websites soon after.

Using an email address from a forum post, investigators were able to link a Facebook account to the poster and then, in turn, link an address to the Facebook account. Following a buy/bust sting involving a physical copy of MW2, police were able to pin the crime on 18-year old Christian Del Amo of Miami (pictured).

IPCybercrime’s owner, Rob Holmes, said Del AMo was in position to sell “thousands” of the illegal copies.

The forced integration of the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with Valve’s Steamworks platform has turned off other digital game distribution services.

IGN-owned Direct2Drive has opted not to offer MW2 on its service reports Gamasutra, calling the forced use of Steam a “Trojan Horse.” The company will offer $5 off other Activision games as compensation. From a statement on Direct2Drive’s website:

At Direct2Drive, we believe strongly that when you buy a game from us, you shouldn't be forced to install and run a 3rd party software client to be able to play the game you purchased.

Meanwhile, VoodooExtreme received confirmation from both Stardock and GamersGate that neither of those two services will sell MW2 either. Stardock elaborated to VE on the reasoning for not selling MW2 through their Impulse service:

We share some of the same concerns as Direct2Drive over the bundling of the Steam client with the game. The most obvious issue is the forced inclusion of a competitor's store that blocks us from carrying the game.

Our issues with the game are solely with the Steamworks bundling. We enjoy a great relationship with Activision and would love to sell the title, but not with Steam.

GP: A commenter on the Gamasutra story noted that Direct2Drive offers other games that require a Steam install, such as Zeno Clash. Of course that game will not move nearly the amount of copies MW2 will, so it appears in this case that IGN/Direct2Drive is just being selective in its stand against Steam.

A fan of the upcoming Battlefield: Bad Company 2 was so impressed with developer DICE’s efforts to include dedicated server support in the title he sent the company a check for $60.00.

The $60.00 was sent in lieu of Eddie from New Jersey (the letter writer) using the funds to purchase Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which is opting to use a matchmaking service in place of dedicated servers for PC users. Eddie suggested to DICE that they use the funds to aid development on the upcoming game.

DICE posted a copy of the letter and check on their Battlefield website (thanks Joystiq), thanking Eddie and writing, “It's moments like this that make all the late nights and weekends of crunching to make the best game possible all worth it.”

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is due out March 2, 2010 for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

The seemingly constant storm clouds surrounding the upcoming Activision-published and Infinity Ward-developed Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 have not done much, if anything, to negatively influence pre-sales of the title.

Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter thinks the title can reap global sales of in excess of $500 million in its first week of release reports Industry Gamers. Pachter also believes that the game could sell over 10.0 million units in this year’s fourth quarter.

Across the pond, MCVUK talks about the Modern Warfare 2 selling 1.7 million units in its first week at retail in the UK, citing pre-order numbers for the game at around 500,000 already. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto IV currently holds the UK mark for unit sales in a week, with 926,000, a number that MW2 could obliterate. Factor in the rising price (suggested retail prices at least) of videogames in the UK and MW2 setting a record for gross dollars culled at launch seems almost a given.

In light of all the controversy surrounding the game, Destructoid posted a pair of opinion pieces, one stating why the author would support MW2 and the other stating why he wouldn’t.

From the “support” side, discussing "the scene" leaked to the Internet, Jim Sterling states, “Whether you approve of the scene, find it disturbing, love it or just don't care, I believe that this is a scene that needs to happen, and was bound to happen sooner or later.”

Brad Rice takes the “can’t support” side, arguing, “The way that the plot is likely being handled comes across with a lot of the wrong messages, and shows a poor method of thinking when it comes to the sensitivity of the issue.”

The lack of dedicated servers for the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 upset computer gamers enough to start a petition, which has reached almost 180,000 signatures at the time of this post, up from 96,000 when we first covered the story two weeks ago. Unfortunately for PC gamers—as evidenced on a pretty nifty Amazon pre-order page detailing MW2 pre-orders (thanks Kotaku)—the PC version accounts for a small amount of sales versus its console brethren.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hits retail in the U.S. next Tuesday, November 10. Are you getting it? Did any of this controversy impact your decision?

Update: Via USA Today comes word that MW2 has officially broken the record for pre-orders at GameStop. Tony Bartel, EVP for Merchandising and Marketing told the paper, “As of today, the number of pre-order reservations we've taken for the game is the highest for any title we've ever sold in our 6,200 store network."

|Image Via TopatoCo|

The missteps following Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 continue as a video posted online Friday night raised the ire of both journalists and fans of the series.

Starring Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, the video was designed to highlight the problem of grenade spam within the Call of Duty series, but an unfortunate acronym pushed the video from funny to offensive reports Destructoid. The mock public service announcement was provided by an organization called Fight Against Grenade Spam (F.A.G.S.) and had Hamels proclaiming that random grenades “are for pussies.”

Game Informer’s Philip Kollar Tweeted that video was “stupid and makes me reconsider my purchase more than any other controversy surrounding the game thus far,” while freelance writer Mitch Dyer wrote that “The problem is that it was so poorly handled/executed that it looks derogatory.”

Infinity Ward Community Manager Robert Bowling responded on Twitter that “the core gag is great, the end is a bit too far from the intent of the joke & can appreciate the concerns,” and pulled the video.

Update: Several copies of the video are still on YouTube for those who haven't seen it.

Is Activision taking a little liberty with their explanation of a leaked controversial scene from its upcoming title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2?

In a response issued earlier this week, Activision stated that gamers had the option of “skipping” over the controversial scene in question, which had players taking part in a terrorist act. The publisher’s statement doesn’t exactly jibe with a description of the game as presented in the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s rating information page for the title.

Spoiler ahead! Avoid if you’re trying to maintain a media blackout on MW2.

The ESRB’s description of the terrorist scene:

The most intense depiction of violence occurs during a "No Russian" mission where players take on the role of an undercover Ranger: Several civilians are gunned down at an airport as players are given a choice to participate in the killings (e.g., players can shoot a wounded civilian that is crawling on the ground), or walk by and observe without opening fire.

In my mind, an option for “skipping” the scene would mean avoiding/not seeing all the action within that specific chapter, which, to be honest, if implemented, could interfere with or ruin the storyline of the game. Observing, as used by the ESRB, implies that the player is still fully immersed in the action, just not pressing the “fire” button on a controller or mouse.

Semantics? Perhaps, but it appears Activision’s explanation is a little misleading. We have a request for clarification on the matter in to Activision and will update this post if/when they respond.

Thanks Andrew!

The leaked Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 footage has raised the hackles of a few parties in Australia.

The footage, which showed gamers playing the part of a terrorist and taking part in a massacre of civilians at an airport, prompted the Australian Council on Children and the Media to call for a re-review the game’s MA15+ rating.

The group’s President, Jane Roberts, told Australia’s The Age:

The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that's meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against. We understand that it's a game but ... we're not far off when you look at the images that you could actually put it on a Channel Nine news report and you'd think maybe that is real.

South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson, who is usually described as the main reason the country does not have an R18+ rating for videogames, offered that, “Expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment."

Electronic Frontiers Australia lobbyist Nicholas Suzor was a bit more rational, saying the topic highlighted even further the need for an adult rating in Australia:

Films often show the villain's perspective and, by doing that, they get across the character's story and the heinous nature of people who carry out atrocities. Games, too, are becoming more expressive, and are telling more involved stories

Suzor added:

We may make an argument that these sorts of topics are not suitable for children, but I don't at all accept that it is unsuitable for adults.

An Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) spokesperson said the Board could not review its own decisions.

Activision has since said that the scene in question is skippable by players.

Thanks Ryan and Dante

Responding to footage leaked online yesterday from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 which showed the apparent ability for gamers to take part in a terrorist attack, Activision verified that the content was legitimate and explained that players will have the opportunity to skip over the scene in question.

VG247 has the full statement:

Players have the option of skipping over the scene. At the beginning of the game, there are two ‘checkpoints’ where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can’t be disabled.

Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older.

About the events taking place in the scene itself, Activision explained:

The scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit. By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them.