Infinity Ward delayed MW2 DLC for EA

Activision’s latest addition to the stoush now alleges that the former IW heads were colluding with EA to delay the launch of the Stimulus Pack map pack for Modern Warfare 2 until after the launch of EA’s competing Battlefield: Bad Company 2 title that was released earlier last year.

In a move that was going to no doubt incense Activision, after their departure from IW, West and Zampella started their own new games development house aptly called Respawn Entertainment.  Purportedly a large number of staff from IW who worked on the Modern Warfare 2 title coming across to their new venture with them signing an exclusive deal with EA to publish any game titles that they produce.

No doubt this will take some time to be sorted out in the courts.  In the meantime, until Activision rebuilds Infinity Ward then Treyarch remains as the only other to-date developer of games in the Call of Duty franchise.

Via:  Gamasutra

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Need For Speed: Shift to get free DLC

The DLC will include a number of new cars and a new multiplayer racing mode, and the best part?  EA won’t be charging for the DLC at all – it will be a free download for owners of the game.

The specifics of the extra cars include the following:

• 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 427
• 1967 Shelby GT-500
• 1969 Dodge Charger R/T
• 1971 Dodge Challenger R/T
• 1998 Toyota Supra Mark IV

The new multiplayer mode will be a team based mode, but further details aren’t available for the moment.  But one detail that is available right now is the release date – the 3rd of December – just in time for Christmas!  At this stage the DLC will only be coming out on the PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms on the 3rd, with no details currently available for when (or if?) the PC platform will receive it.

Via:  Shacknews

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Bad Company 2 will have dedicated servers

In what is a very obvious response to Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 not supporting dedicated servers, EA have announced that the PC version of their upcoming title Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will indeed have multiplayer dedicated server support.  EA’s Frank Gibeau made this clear by saying that “deep new online play with dedicated server support … will put Battlefield in head-to-head competition with Call of Duty for quality and online gameplay.”

So EA appear to not be watering down their support for multiplayer on the PC platform, at least not in the Battlefield franchise at least, so it’ll be interesting to see how this one develops.

Via:  Joystiq

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EA: Medal of Honor making a come back

Electronic Arts have confirmed that they will be reviving the World War II themed Medal of Honor series in the near future.  The last game came out in 2007 and seemed all but dead, but maybe they will be hoping to beef up the series to compete with Activision’s Call of Duty series. Call of Duty of course also started out as a World War II themed game, but has turned into a game set in more current day warfare environments, so it’ll be interesting to see if EA decide to follow this path as well.

There are no timeframes from EA on when a game is likely to materialise, but given they have also decided to lay off 1500 staff, it probably won’t be out anytime soon.

Via:  IGN

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