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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Dear Mr. Murray Shalowitz,

As you are the sole Xbox 360 owner who has yet to play Modern Warfare 2, we would like to inform you that a demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Cheers,


P.S. A reminder for little Rosie Erickson: A PS3 demo is available as well.

---

Xbox.com: Add Modern Warfare 2 Cliffhanger Demo to your Xbox 360 download queue

Modern Warfare 2 demo finally hits Xbox Live originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 04 Aug 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: activision, Demo, Infinity Ward, microsoft, Modern warfare 2, xblm, Xbox

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Activision has announced that, as of June 30, 2010, the Call of Duty franchise has managed to sell 20 million map packs life-to-date. So apparently this Call of Duty thing is kind of a big deal. In other news: water is wet and cookies are delicious.

Call of Duty map packs enlist 20 million originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: activision, call-of-duty, Infinity Ward, microsoft, PC, Playstation, PS3, treyarch, Xbox

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The anti-cheating software embedded in Valve's Steamworks platform recently took on a mind of its own, banning over 12,000 non-cheating Modern Warfare 2 players over the past two weeks. The cause for its insatiable ban lust? Valve president Gabe Newell explained in an email to those affected, "the problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version." See, we were just thinking that that had something to do with it.

Newell begged pardon for the erroneous bans, adding "this was our mistake, and I apologize for any frustration or angst it may have caused you." An apology and a swift reversal of the ban aren't all that these users will receive -- Newell promised a giftable copy of Left 4 Dead 2 to all those affected, as well as one copy for themselves, provided they don't already have it.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

Valve apologizes for banning over 12,000 legit Modern Warfare 2 players originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: Ban, cheating, gabe-newell, Infinity Ward, Modern warfare 2, PC, steam, Valve

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The oft-surfacing rumor of Activision's intent to incorporate a pay-to-play plan for the multiplayer portions of its Call of Duty franchise sprung up once again yesterday, when a player reportedly captured video of a hidden Marketplace item titled "Modern Warfare 2 Membership." The buzz was quickly quieted by a Tweet from Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling, who stated, "nobody has to pay to play COD or MW2 multiplayer, nor will they."

A more thorough report on the subject of Modern Warfare subscriptions came from Activision's Dan Amrich, who explained, "This video shows just a glitch," further explaining, "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." See, we always said some poor menu would fall into those cracks on the surface of Xbox Live Marketplace. Now we've gotta get it out. Denny! Denny, fire up the backhoe.

Modern Warfare 2 subscription message dismissed as 'just a glitch' originally appeared on Joystiq on Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: call-of-duty, call-of-duty-black-ops, Infinity Ward, microsoft, Modern warfare 2, PC, Playstation, PS3, treyarch, 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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According to Kotaku, an amended version of the lawsuit filed by 38 former and current Infinity Ward developers against Activision was recently submitted to a California court. The suit uses a bit stronger language when describing the policies of the monolithic publisher, claiming its agents created a "police state" atmosphere while IW worked on Modern Warfare 2, and would regularly conduct "interrogations" of the studio's members. Despite the increased intensity of these claims, the group has reduced the amount of punitive damages and unpaid bonuses sought from half a billion dollars to $216 million.

A trial date for the Infinity Ward Employee Group's case against Activision (and possibly West and Zampella's case, should the judge decide to consolidate the suits) is currently set for May 23, 2011.

Report: Infinity Ward suit updated, claims Activision created 'police state' originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Digital distributor Direct2Drive is offering a puzzling offer until August 6: purchase the Modern Warfare 2 bundle (which includes the game and both map packs) for $89.99, and get the original Modern Warfare for free.

Continue reading Buy Modern Warfare 2 bundle from Direct2Drive, get Modern Warfare free

Buy Modern Warfare 2 bundle from Direct2Drive, get Modern Warfare free originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments Tags: activision, call of duty 4: modern warfare, Infinity Ward, Modern warfare 2, PC, resurgence-pack, stimulus-package

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Infinity Ward still has plenty of map pack support left in their future for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," but with recent senior position vacancies and replacements, the question has been up in the air as to whether the Call of Duty franchise would still have a home there. Asked if Infinity Ward would in fact be working on a Call of Duty game next, Activision EVP of studios Dave Stohl kept Infinity Ward's options open, but indicated that new franchises would be part of the picture going forward.

"We're not saying right now," Stohl told VG247. "There is definitely a strong shooter philosophy there, for sure. And I think that there’s a short- and long-term view on the whole thing. But I think we’re rebuilding a studio that can go off and build great new franchises in the future."

Infinity Ward recently opened up a phone line for voicemails in the wake of the significant transition period that the staff there is now going through. Since the departure of former bosses Jason West and Vince Zampella, the fate of the studio's creative direction has been publicly uncertain, but a establishing a new franchise might help to refresh Infinity Wards branding with gamers.

What do you think Infinity Ward's next project should be? Would you rather see them stick with Call of Duty or develop something new? Share your opinions in the comment section below.

Tags: activision, call-of-duty, Infinity Ward, NEWS

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