Sledgehammer Games’ Glen Schofield has taken to Twitter to ask Call of Duty fans to support Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3on Metacritic.

“I don’t usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score,” writes Schofield. “It’s suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree.”

Modern Warfare 3 is attracting a torrent of user scores of zero across all three platforms. The current user score (out of 10) is:

2.7 on Xbox 360
2.0 on PS3 and
1.5 on PC.

Ouch.

Activision has sent out the official launch trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 developed by Sledgehammer Games and Infinity Ward. The launch trailer gives you a general overview of the main campaign, as we already know what to expect from the multiplayer.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launches on November 8th for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC and it also supports two player co-op local and online.

Over the last year details on Modern Warfare 3′s multiplayer has been a bit of a mystery and Activision has had yet to reveal any detail. Now, we have a full length trailer for you to feast your eyes on.

The new trailer details some interesting perks and kill streaks for you to earn this go around. It should turn your 5 minute gaming session into 5 hours or more. I fondly remember back in the day playing more then 5 hours a night on Modern Warfare 2 for a while there. Infinity Ward is looking to make a splash again and it looks like they just might accomplish that.

A filthy Manchester-based teenager was arrested after preventing thousands of players from playing on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 by using a DDOS program. The 17 year-old (one year younger than the game’s 18 rating) was arrested on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act. He used his own brutal Denial of Service program called Phenom Booter to prevent others from playing Activision’s FPS on t’internet.

Scotland Yard’s Central e-Crime Unit traced the little swine’s IP address after Activision contacted the police in September. Quite why someone would do this is beyond us, and the mainstream media is useless at understanding games (the BBC said he did it for “more points”) so we’ll probably never know. Oh well, at least the little git has been caught.

Stats from Gfk ChartTrack have unveiled that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the best-selling game of all time in the UK. It has finally overtaken Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training after 41 weeks of being on sale. Modern Warfare 2 has spent three weeks outside the top 10. Dr Kawashima took about 36 months to overtake Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the previous record holder.

Activision has released a single-player demo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. It comes nine months after the game’s launch and is available to download from the PlayStation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace. It includes the entire Cliffhanger level.

Activision has confirmed a few details about the upcoming second map pack for Modern Warfare 2, the Resurgence Map Pack. It will be released on June 3^rd on Xbox Live, costing 1200 Allards. It features Vacant (Russian office complex) and Strike (urban town surrounded by hotels) from Call of Duty 4, as well as new maps: Carnival (abandoned carnival area complete with Ferris wheel, fun house and other attractions), Trailer Park (features a pool and tight corridors) and Fuel (based in and around an oil refinery, apparently a sniper haven).

The maps will be exclusive to the 360 for a short time before being released on the PS3 and PC. The new maps will be tied to specific playlists but may be made available for every playlist if demand is high enough.

Activision has announced that a second map pack for Modern Warfare 2 will be released during the “back half of the year”, according to CFO Thomas Tippl.  During last night’s earnings call with activation, Tippl said: “With respect to the Call of Duty franchise, we plan to release the second Map Pack for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, which is currently in development at Infinity Ward. I think they’ve been selling incredibly well. As you know, we’ve expanded the number of maps that we are providing as part of that release,” he stated.

“And therefore, the $15 price point has still provided a fantastic value to gamers and is also evidenced by the billions of hours that people are playing the game online. So we think that has worked. We have currently the second Map Pack in development at Infinity Ward. So we expect this to be launched sometime later this year. And we haven’t made any comment beyond that at this point.”

Microsoft is adamant that the first two map packs for Modern Warfare 2 are exclusive to the Xbox 360 for a timed period.

More staff members from the talent pool of Infinity Ward have jumped ship for the newly opened Respawn Entertainment. Lead character artist Joel Emslie and artists Ryan Lastimosa and Brad Allen are the latest members to leave the crumbling developer. In total the headcount for developers remaining at Infinity Ward has dropped to 11 so it’s only a matter of time before the studio becomes a desalt wasteland.

Although with all the drama from the studio crumbling, the developer still managed to release some downloadable content for Modern Warfare 2 calling it the “Stimulus Package” for the Xbox 360 costing you 15 bucks. The DLC will see release on the PC and Playstation 3 on May 4th.

Via G4TV

Seven ex-members of Infinity Ward’s staff have joined Respawn Entertainment, the company set up by previous Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. The studio is starting to work May 1^st. The seven who jumped ship are: Todd Alderman, Mackey McCandlish, Mark Grisby, John Paul Messerly, Chris Cherubini, Rayme Vinson and Jon Shiring.

Developers are leaving Infinity Ward after the disagreement between West and Zampella had with Activision, whom owns the studio. Lawsuits for both parties have been launched. Respawn Entertainment has a publishing and funding deal in place with the EA Partners programme but remains an independent studio with complete creative control and ownership of its IP.

“Video game releases such as the Call of Duty series have outperformed the launches of major Hollywood blockbusters for several years and the day-one sales for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 proved once again that video games have become cultural events in their own right,” said Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition Editor, Gaz Deaves. “The fan movement and hype surrounding this game in the run-up to launch was almost unprecedented in scale; we acknowledged early on that the big question wasn’t if it would break all-time entertainment records, but rather by how much.”

Lead designers Steve Fukuda and Zied Reike have resigned from Infinity Ward. Both had been with the developers since they opened back in 2002. They join the previous departures of programmer Jon Shiring, designer Mackey McCandlish, software engineer Francesco Gigliotti, lead designer Todd Alderman and former studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Programmer Jon Shiring and designer Mackey McCandlish have resigned from Infinity Ward. McCandlish had spent eight years with the Modern Warfare 2 developers, with Shiring notching up six years with the company. The news comes after last week’s resignation of both software engineer Francesco Gigliotti and lead designer Todd Alderman.

Former studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella have gone on to form their own development outfit – Respawn Entertainment. They have signed a publishing agreement with EA and are currently building up their studio by obtaining more staff.

Infinity Ward has announced that the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package DLC will be coming to the PC and PS3. The maps will come to the PC on 4^th May and on the PS3 on 5^th May. The content is exclusive to the Xbox 360 for a month, and has had more than 2.5 million sales on that platform alone so far.

Today, lead designer Todd Alderman and software engineer Francesco Gigliotti have been confirmed to have left Infinity Ward after being a part of the company for a combined fifteen years. Recent rumours suggest the pair resigned. The Call of Duty and Modern Warfare developers have recently lost their studio founders (Vince Zampella and Jason West) after they were fired by Activision. They have gone on to sign with a Hollywood talent agency.

Infinity Ward, Activision and Xbox have announced that the Modern Warfare 2 Avatar Night Vision Goggles are now free until Sunday 4^th April to celebrate the launch of the Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus map pack. If you purchased this item prior to the beginning of this promotion, Microsoft will automatically credit your account of the original purchase cost by May 1^st. Click here to queue up your download of the goggles.