http://store.steampowered.com/app/10195/

The map pack includes five multiplayer maps named Bailout, Storm, Salvage, Overgrown and Crash. Have fun playing three new maps and two regurgitated maps from COD4.

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It appears Activision Blizzard is considering a potentially controversial new way to generate revenue. During yesterday’s quarterly conference call, CEO Bobby Kotick hinted that the Call of Duty franchise will head the way of World of Warcraft and become subscription-based.

Activision Blizzard acts as the publisher of the Call of Duty games developed alternately by Infinity Ward and Treyarch. Though the franchise’s latest installment, Modern Warfare 2, was the best-selling video game of 2009 and generated more than $1 billion in revenue according to the NPD Group, Activision Blizzard still reported a $286 million loss in its fiscal fourth quarter. The loss was due, in large part, to the bottom falling out of the Guitar Hero franchise.

Conversely, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft franchise continues to be a cash cow for Activision, raking in $15 subscription fees from a reported 11.5 million people every month.

Put the pieces together and you can understand the company’s thinking: a financial loss, an enormously popular franchise, and a proven subscription model that generates a river of revenue. Kotick described the future of Call of Duty this way:

If you think about the success that we’ve had in other product categories on subscription, you can get a sense of the direction that we want to take that franchise.

World of Call of Duty? Subscription fees on the game’s online multiplayer? Kotick had nothing else to say on the matter, though the company did confirm that the next installment in the series is due out late this year.

If this subscription model does actually get applied; especially on the next installment of COD by Treyarch due out later this year, it will for sure be the killer of the Call of Duty series – especially after the blow that COD:MW2 did to the “true” COD community. The WOW community is a very different group of individuals than the COD community and a subscription based model for a FPS game like COD will only rid the game of the true players and leave the kiddies and casual gamers that feed off of their mom and dads bank account left to play.

Could this be the final stab in the heart of the COD gaming community minority?

Source: http://videogames.yahoo.com/news-1389056

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Numerous times in the BestBuy chat IW states things like “Just do me a favor and play the game first, we put a LOT of work into balance. We are big gamers here at IW and want a great experience just as much as you.” and “Multiplayer is incredible, you should not be worried!” but the problem is we ARE all worried. If IW has so much confidence in IWnet and thinks that this game will be great the way they have developed it then they should put their money where their mouth is and put out a demo of the game. If they have nothing to worry about then it shouldn’t be a problem (well other than the little test setup of the whole IWnet system) and it would satisfy many PC gamers need to know if this is right for them. Ohh but wait; if the game is a total failure and they know there are issues that PC gamers aren’t going to like then I guess they wouldn’t put out a demo. Instead they would just like us to give them $60 to “try” out their new gaming system that sounds like it has some serious issues as a PC game.

I guess the second part of this post is directed to you fellow COD gamers. If you claim to be involved with the MW2 boycott then don’t buy the game when it comes out. Once you hand over your $60 the battle is won. Activision/IW has your money and they don’t care what you do with the game after that point. If you are on the fence at least wait until it releases to get some real reviews and serious player comments from people that actually have played it. It’s understandable to want the game; it is a COD title, but at least wait to do some reading because you could still be swayed.

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Although some questions were tossed out there were many questions answered and the bad news is – there is more bad news for the PC community with mentions like the items below.

• The max amount of players is 9 vs 9
• The “lean” function has been removed from the game
• There will be no access to the console
• There will be no /record in the game

The full transcript of the chat can be found in the BestBuy forums but a few notable questions & answers are quoted below.

Josh111: PC Question… What will the max amount of players per map be for PC multiplayer on IW.net

Mackey-IW: The max number of players on all platforms are 1v1 through 9v9. This is the number of players we focused on when we were balancing map size, perks, classes, challenges, etc.

TheNinthAxis: Is there lean in PC multiplayer.

Vince-IW: No.

frzg: Is there a /record feature? Answer yes… please. We’re trying to give you a ‘chance’

Vince-IW: no

Laugh: Is there a console in the PC version of the game, so we can change our field of view from the xbox’s default 65 FOV to 80 also can we tweaks the weapon damage for each gun, removes perks, graphical debris, breathing sway, also thru console like we where able to before or is this all gone?

Vince-IW: We would like you to play the game the way we designed and balanced it.

Moriarte: Ignoring IW.net, is the PC version a direct port of the console version?

Mackey-IW: No, PC has custom stuff like mouse control, text chat in game, and graphics settings.

TRU-Jennifer: Are you considering dedicated servers for the PC gamer in the near future?

Mackey-IW: Our main focus right now is on making sure the game will work well when it is released (on all platforms)

Freeman06: Hello, are you considering ever patching in mod tools for the pc to make custom maps and such?

Mackey-IW: Right now we’re focused on launching our game.

DudezTY: Since we can not kick people in ranked matches, how will we stop hackers who get past VAC?

Mackey-IW: Our goal is to ban hackers from the game

GeneralClean: So how can you justify 9 vs 9 at the most on PC when we had 32 vs 32 in COD4?

strong>Mackey-IW: The CoD4 maps were not balanced for 32vs32. In MW2 the entire experience is carefully balanced for a smaller range of players.

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