GameSpasm

Glitches often do strange and unexpected things, like making cougar men and donkey ladies appear in games. That's why we love them, though, and those who own "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" and like free games may especially enjoy a quirk that's come to light on Xbox Live Arcade this week. With it, players have been given access to full, free versions of SNK games.

Both "MW2" and its recently released XBLA single-player demo have been unlocking games such as "Garou: Mark of the Wolves," "The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match," "Metal Slug 3," "Metal Slug XX" and "Samurai Showdown II," according to a post on Worthplaying.

This glitch comes with the distinction of being exceptionally bizarre, since Activision and SNK are two totally different companies. That may mean that this resulted from an error on Microsoft's end, but it'll be tough to say for sure until someone owns up. Gamers love surprise freebies, but in this case SNK can't be too thrilled to see their digital wares pouring out the back door via someone else's product.

Who do you think is responsible for the "MW2" glitch? Did you download any of those SNK titles yet? Let us know in the comment section or on Twitter! You can also follow me, MTV Multiplayer writer Brian Warmoth, on Twitter!

Tags: activision, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, Infinity Ward, NEWS, Snk, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade

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StarCraft 2 took a slide down the charts this week to fourth, as Toy Story 3 regained the top spot on the UK All Formats chart. There also appears to have been some promotion (the demo, perhaps?) in the region last week for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 because it surged up the charts from eighth to second. According to Chart-Track, Activision-Blizzard's Modern Warfare sequel could potentially overtake Dr Kawashima (aka Brain Age) as the UK's "biggest unit seller" next week.

Dance on Broadway, Ubisoft's pseudo-sequel to Just Dance (holding just fine at #6), knows that life is a cabaret and moves up another spot to third. The other chart-topping stalwart, Red Dead Redemption, drops to fifth -- its lowest position since launch. Check out the UK top ten after the break.

Continue reading Toy Story 3 regains UK's top spot from StarCraft 2

Toy Story 3 regains UK's top spot from StarCraft 2 originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Britain, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, chart-track, Dance-on-Broadway, mac, microsoft, Modern warfare 2, Nintendo, PC, Playstation, PS3, starcraft 2, Toy story 3, Uk, Wii, Xbox

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As many as 12,000 "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" players found themselves on the wrong end of a ban hammer recently via Steam. Unlike Blizzard's 320,000-account Battle.net ban spree in April, however, Valve's software targeted "MW2" players wrongly, which the company freely admits. In fact, they're restoring the banned accounts and even offering complimentary copies of "Left 4 Dead 2" as tokens of their regret.

"The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version," Valve president Gabe Newell wrote in an email that was sent out to users in response. "This was caused by a combination of conditions occurring while Steam was updating the disk image of a game. This wasn't a game-specific mistake. Steam allows us to manage and reverse these erroneous bans (about 12,000 erroneous bans over two weeks)."

If those who were banned are willing to come back to Steam, Valve hopes they will accept "Left 4 Dead 2" copies and even give some to their friends.

"We have reversed the ban, restoring your access to the game," he stated in the email. "In addition, we have given you a free copy of 'Left 4 Dead 2' to give as a gift on Steam, plus a free copy for yourself if you didn’t already own the game."

Valve may have lost the software glitch battle that allowed this whole scenario to occur, but they may at least win the PR war in the end thanks their action.

Did you find yourself banned from "MW2" in the last couple of weeks? What do you think of Valve's response? Share your opinions in the comment section below.

Tags: call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, NEWS, PC, steam, Valve

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NPD has revealed the bestselling games for consoles from January through June of 2010. IGN notes that Nintendo dominates sales by individual platform, with six of the top ten titles created for its hardware; and five of them developed by the money-printing publisher itself. In combined platform sales, runaway hit Red Dead Redemption rides high.

2010 Top Five Combined Platform Sales from January-June:

1. Red Dead Redemption (PS3, Xbox 360)
2. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3, Xbox 360)
4. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (PS3, Xbox 360)
5. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)

Check out the top ten individual platform sales leaders after the break.

Continue reading 2010 halftime report on bestselling US console games

2010 halftime report on bestselling US console games originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Battlefield bad company 2, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, microsoft, new-super-mario-bros-wii, Nintendo, npd, Playstation, pokemon-soul-silver, PS3, red-dead-redemption, Sales, Software, Wii, Xbox

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Activision, Infinity Ward and Treyarch all piled on for a collective denial yesterday that a "Call of Duty" video contains evidence of a plot to charge for playing online. In fact, despite CEO Bobby Kotick's public admission that he "would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow" if he could, representatives from all three offices shot down the speculation as rumor, and Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling even went as far as to use the word "never."

"There is not, and will never be, additional fees required to subscribe and play 'Modern Warfare 2' multiplayer," Bowling wrote on his blog at FourZeroTwo.com.

Likewise, Activision social media manager Dan Amrich, called the video a "glitch" and denied that any such plans for an additional subscription-based service were in the works for "MW2."

"This video shows just a glitch — since you can access a Live subscription renewal from within the MW2 game interface, it appears some data got jammed between two parts of Live," he wrote on his One of Swords blog. "It's not a secret portal to some nefarious plot to charge people for COD multiplayer — and there are no plans to do that."

Lastly, Treyarch community manager Josh Olin chimed in on Twitter, probably hoping to put potential "Black Ops" pre-orderers' fears at rest about the CoD series' next installment.

"No, you will not have to 'Pay to Play' #CODBlackOps Multiplayer either. Rumor -> Squashed," he explained.

That's about as comprehensive a denial as you're liable to see anywhere in the video game industry this year. Activision also gave an official statement to IGN that more or less restates what all three of these guys said. Their responses do paint Kotick's comment to The Wall Street Journal into a strange place, though. It looks like his dream model will be getting applied to another game or not at all, unless Activision changes its mind down the road, of course.

Are you glad to know that Activision doesn't want to introduce subscription fees to "MW2"? Are you surprised by the three-pronged response? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Tags: activision, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-black-ops, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, Infinity Ward, NEWS, PC, PS3, treyarch, Xbox 360

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Activision wants a way to charge for online "Call of Duty" play. Whether or not a video posted by a message board user Sunday represents a first look at what their strategy looks like remains to be seen, but the "Modern Warfare 2" player claims to have evidence that new options appeared on the Xbox Live menu.

"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,' board member PwnShop posted on 360Junkies.com. "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."

PwnShop posted a video from YouTube that appears to show these messages. The authenticity of the footage hasn't been verified yet, and it wouldn't be the first time someone that someone had faked a CoD rumor. Nevertheless, the new memberships would represent an initiative in line with wishes that CEO Bobby Kotick has pondered aloud and on the record in the past.

Would you pay an extra fee to play "MW2" online? Do you think the video is real? Share your responses in the comment section below.

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, Infinity Ward, NEWS, Xbox 360

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Treyarch has already indicated that they may one-up "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" by using dedicated servers for "Black Ops," but the game could be poised to outdo "MW2" in terms of pre-order numbers as well. Their November 9 release date is still months away, but some numbers from the retail sector have "Black Ops" tracking to do just that.

Right now, "Black Ops" pre-orders are outpacing "MW2," Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson said, based on accounts from retail sources, according to Industry Gamers.

Sales numbers may come up short in the long term, however, Wilson noted, predicting that "Black Ops" would be the first Call of Duty title that fails to outsell its predecessor. Though he foresees "Black Ops" selling 12 million copies, he also believes that "competition, weaker marketing, and the Infinity Ward situation" will prevent Treyarch from eclipsing the 16 million mark that "MW2" hit in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Now that Treyarch is a "100-percent Call of Duty studio," they will of course be hoping that Wilson is mistaken about post-launch sales, but this year's holiday is liable to be a fierce one in the games market. When the final store flyers are out and the receipts are printed, there may only be so much Treyarch and Activision can do to connect with more buyers.

Do you think "Black Ops" will sell better than "MW2"? What do you think the best-selling game of the 2010 holiday shopping season will be? Share your guesses in the comment section below.

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-black-ops, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, NEWS, PC, PS3, treyarch, Xbox 360

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Infinity Ward has arrived at a transition period, for better or worse. Despite all of the petition-sparking criticism that "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" received last year, the game still managed to become one of the most successful launches of all time. In the wake of recent map pack releases and documented lawsuit drama surrounding bonuses and key developer departures, though, Activision and their studio have a PR hurdle to get over as they plot their course for Infinity Ward's next project. The first step appears to be opening up a phone number that you can call to share your concerns.

"You can now call or text (402) 500-0119 to give feedback, ask questions, or just leave a rant thanks to Google Voice," Infinity Ward creative strategist Robert Bowling wrote this week on his Twitter account. "Accessibility ftw!"

As far as how those questions will be answered or processed, that part of the new initiative isn't entirely clear, but just taking the step to open up a line of communication for the kind of complaints that anything Activision/Infinity Ward-related tends to stir up on comment threads lately is a significant one.

How things pan out publicly between Activision and Infinity Ward's estranged employees will undoubtedly go a long way toward influencing public opinion as well. So will rebuilding the studio's senior creative ranks and proving their mettle in their next game. However you feel about them, though, you now have a number to call.

What do you think the future holds for Infinity Ward? Do you plan on calling their voicemail number? Share your opinions in the comment section below.

Tags: activision, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, Infinity Ward, NEWS

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Hey, remember that fancy new map pack that just came out for "Modern Warfare 2" on Xbox 360? Didn't it bug you that your platform of choice got bupkiss while those Microsoft fans were crawling greedily over their new content? Well, you'll be happy to know that your angry hand-wringing will come to an end on July 6th, when the "Resurgence Pack" drops on PS3 and PC.

Selling for $15, the pack adds five maps to "Modern Warfare 2":

Fuel
This wide-open map set around an oil refinery is one of the largest yet seen in "Modern Warfare 2." Separated between two main buildings, the design encourages a focus on rooftop sniping, as well as window-to-window combat.

Trailer Park
Much smaller and more cramped than Fuel, Trailer Park takes place in and around a variety of motor homes and picnic tables. The tightly spaced lots mean numerous corridors and choke points, so if you're lacking in quick reflexes, you're going to have some trouble here.

Carnival
The only thing scarier than clowns? Nothing. But guys with guns is a close second. Carnival takes place on abandoned fairgrounds, with rides and attractions left to rust. The map is broken up into themed areas ranging from the futuristic to the medieval, and players can use obvious landmarks such as castles and rocket ships to coordinate their efforts.

Strike
Returning from the original "Modern Warfare," Strike features a Mideast setting and some reasonably frantic urban combat. Small changes were made to some of the buildings in Strike, requiring new tactics for success.

Vacant
Set in an abandoned Russian office complex, Vacant is the second returning map. Its popularity peaked during the original "Modern Warfare" beta, so its return should be appreciated by many. The developers made some tweaks to the layout of the map, though, so players should take it slow the first time through.

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, Infinity Ward, NEWS, PC, PS3

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On June 3, five more maps will be added to the "Modern Warfare 2" rotation on Xbox Live, presuming you're willing to pay $15 for the forthcoming Resurgence Pack. Activision released screenshots showing off the five new maps (two of which are slightly spiffier versions of 'Modern Warfare 1' maps). At the top of this post you can see "Funhaus," which is the wackiest of the bunch. After the jump, the remaining four.

"Strike"

"Fuel"

"Trailer Park"

"Vacant"

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, Infinity Ward, NEWS, Xbox 360

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