With new MW2 map pack announcement, it all becomes painfully clear...

Fresh off our show about Activision, the company gives us another reason to dislike them. When Infinity Ward announced the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 would not support private servers and wouldn't be releasing the development tools to the player created content community there was an outcry. These are both things that have been staples of the PC first person community and have been responsible for games living long lives beyond their console based siblings. One of the biggest factors that Activision and Infinity Ward sited for this changes was fairplay. The new IW.net was promoted as a place where people could play without worry of cheaters and hacks. Unfortunately, the game itself has many issues that can be exploited without the aid of additional programs, leading to what can be equated to state-supported cheating. So with the general failure of nearly every goal that IW.net set forth the most cynical of us are now having our point reinforced daily.

Activision, feeling my job as a video game industry muckraker and general loud mouth is too easy, announced it's first map pack for Modern Warfare 2 today. G4tv.com reported today that the new map pack, which includes 3 new maps and 2 recycled maps from the original Modern Warfare, will be released at a price of $15. That's right folks, the same thing that Valve and other companies often give you for free, Activision is charging you for. But not only charging, charging you 1/4th of the game's original value. A game who's multi-player has been fundamentally broken since day one.  It seems that the move to 100% IW.net was nothing more than a ploy to require all content come directly from Activision, and of course, at a price.

Maybe it's just the person I am, but I would think a map pack like this could be a "Thank you for making this the best selling game of all time" or "We're sorry the game has been broken and exploited." These maps could have been an olive branch for Activision to it's customers in a time that they really need it. I'm not sure if they read what people are saying, but the gaming community isn't really happy with them right now. But instead, of fostering goodwill with the very people that keep them in business, they decided to twist the knife and gouge for a few more dollars.

It seems that Activision is hell bent on alienating the fans and developers of one of the most popular franchises of all time. Just remember though, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has tanks, destructible environments and is releasing some free maps shortly. Not saying you should stop playing Call of Duty games and jump onto Battlefield, I'm just saying...

Episode 58: Activision all acts the fool

In this episode, Ali Baker makes her Kneel Before Pod debut as a guest host while joining Ryan and Carl as they discuss recent shake ups at Infinity Ward. Is this the nail in the Activision coffin, or will they be able to stay afloat with that sweet, sweet Blizzard money? Listen and find out what we really think of Bobby Kotick...

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Activision and Infinity Ward update

Yesterday we brought you a story about Activision shaking up it's development house Infinity Ward and their plans to make Call of Duty into more or less it's own company. Well the drama isn't over yet. Just like in a Call of Duty game, there's always a twist.

Just moments ago, G4tv.com broke a story that Infinity Ward's former CTO Jason West and president Vince Zampella have filed a lawsuit against the software giant Activision. In statements released today, the two are claiming that Activision is terminating their contracts mere weeks before they were to receive royalty payments for their record breaking game Modern Warfare 2.

"We were shocked by Activision's decision to terminate our contract," said West in today's release. "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."

In today's release, the former heads of Infinity Ward also stated that the reasons suplied by Activision for the duo's termination were completely false. Robert Schwartz, the lawyer representing West and Zampella, went on to say "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."

To top this all off, West and Zampella are also claiming that in their contracts with Activision that they were given creative control over the Modern Warfare brand. If this is correct, it is possible that Activision could no longer produce Modern Warfare titles and that West and Zampella would be able to approach another publisher with the franchise.

Stay tuned folks, because this is apparently going to last longer than a CoD single player campaign.