So, if you want to get your hands on some Modern Warfare 2 swag signed by the full IW team, and do your bit for the recent disaster in Japan at the same time, read on.

Framed Modern Warfare 2 Signed Poster - Autographed by the entire Infinity Ward team

A large Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 poster featuring the key art found on the Hardened Edition of the game. Professionally framed in premium wood and plexiglass front. This poster has been autographed by the entire Infinity Ward team, including every dev member who worked on Modern Warfare 2.

Click here to bid on this item.

Life-size Modern Warfare 2 Ghost Statue - Autographed by Infinity Ward

A life-size statue of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2′s Ghost character, with the base signed by the entire development team at Infinity Ward. This statue was never available for sale publicly and was created solely for Infinity Ward and partners related to the production and release of Modern Warfare 2. It is brand new in box, with the base opened solely to be autographed for this Play For Japan auction.

Click here to bid on this item.

Modern Warfare 2 Prestige - Xbox 360 Prestige Edition autographed by Infinity Ward

One of the first 200 Prestige Editions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 ever produced and autographed by the entire Infinity Ward team. The exact production number is unknown as this has never been opened but was in the first batch of (200) Prestige Editions off the production line and sent to Infinity Ward. The Prestige Edition of Modern Warfare 2 includes the Hardened Version of the game in a limited edition steelbook case, an Artbook, a download token for Call of Duty: Classic on Xbox Live, and fully functional Night Vision Goggles branded with the Infinity Ward and Modern Warfare 2 logos.

Click here to bid on this item.

Modern Warfare 2 Soap MacTavish Statue - Autographed box by Infinity Ward

A 12″ statue of the character Soap MacTavish in his famous ‘Cliffhanger’ gear with ice picks and interchangeable weapons from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The statue is brand new and unopened with the original box autographed by the entire Infinity Ward team.

Click here to bid on this item.

Looking to pick up a copy of Modern Warfare 2 but don’t want to brave the mean streets to go buy a copy? Well, you could always order a copy of the blockbuster FPS from an online retailer and wait a few days for it to arrive. But if you are an Xbox user there is now a easier option.

Modern Warfare 2 is now available for direct download via the Xbox Live Marketplace, meaning no need to get up out of that comfy arm chair or wait for your copy to arrive in the mail. For $60 you can initiate your download from Xbox.com and have it put in your download queue. Or you can search for Modern Warfare from the Games on Demand section of the dashboard.

According to a report by LATimes, Activision are pulling out all the stops to get the next game in the Call of Duty series, Modern Warfare 3, developed and ready for a November, 2011 release date. The game has not been officially announced by Activision yet but the title is well into production and is expected to come out in November, the same month that the publisher has annually released a new Call of Duty installment, people with knowledge of situation said.

People “close to the matter” told LATimes that Activision have three studios knee-deep in Modern Warfare 3, one of which has been pulled off of development of another Call of Duty game. Sledgehammer are currently working with Modern Warfare 2 developers Infinity Ward on the single player portion of the game, while Singularity developers Raven are lending a hand with the multiplayer part of the shooter.

Due to the developer collaboration, sources said the Call of Duty spin-off project in development at Sledgehammer, rumored to be set in the future, has now been put on hold.

When contacted for a comment in response to the LATimes piece an Activision spokesman said… “There’s been much specultion recently. We look forward to releasing details for the next Call of Duty in the near future.”

UPDATE: Get the latest Modern Warfare 3 news at imodernwarfare3.com

After forty-one weeks, only three of those weeks outside of the top ten, Infinity Wards shooter took the crown from the previous all-time UK best-seller, Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training. Chart-Track didn’t have any official sales numbers to hand but you can be sure Activision will have some sort of announcement about Modern Warfare 2′s latest milestone soon.

It took ‘Dr Kawashima’ around 36 months to overtake the previous record holder!

This week’s Xbox Live ‘Deal of the Week’ sees the first discount on the two Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 map packs, The Stimulus Package and the Resurgence Pack. If you want to get the map packs before Black Ops hits the streets, now is the time at 50% off (until Monday, October 11, 2010.)

Normally 1200 MS Points, the two map packs are now 600 MS Points ($7.50) and features three new maps and two remade CoD: 4 maps in each pack.

Hit the Xbox Live dashboard ‘Deal of the Week’ section to take advantage of the 50% off Modern Warfare 2 map packs deal, or you can use these links to add the packs to your Xbox 360 download queue: Stimulus Package, Resurgence Pack.

After almost a year, a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 demo is available on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. It seems a little strange that a demo for a game is released so long after the full game has been released, but it’s pretty obvious that Activison are trying to squeeze out as many Modern Warfare 2 sales as they can prior to Call of Duty: Black Ops hitting the streets this November.

Check out the press release below.

Cliffhanger, the breathtaking and epic mission from Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2, is now available worldwide for download as a single player demo on the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace and on PlayStation®Network*.

One of the most recognized levels in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Cliffhanger thrusts players into an epic fight of a lifetime amid near-blinding snowstorm conditions high in the frigid mountains of Kazakhstan. One wrong move and it’s certain death as players scale a frozen mountainside, battle their way through a raging firefight, and race for survival aboard a snowmobile under heavy enemy fire.

Click here to download the Modern Warfare 2 demo via Xbox.com (also available on the Xbox 360 Marketplace).

You may have heard, or been victim of the latest Modern Warfare 2 VAC ban wave that has been going down over the last week or so on Steam. People have been complaining all over the Interwebs and creating groups to voice their frustration about the unfair and seemingly random 12,000 MW2 bannings on Valves PC gaming platform. It was thought that those who have been hit by VAC would need to repurchase the game in order to play it again.

Well, as it turns out, affected users have been given an apology from Valve president Gabe Newell, their bans have been lifted. By way of apology affected users have been given a free copy of Left 4 Dead 2, plus another copy for gifting.

From his email: The problem was that Steam would fail a signature check between the disk version of a DLL and a latent memory version. 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).

We have reversed the ban, restoring your access to the game. 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.

[via Dtoid]

Take this Modern Warfare 2 character concept (below), for example. Looks like a Juggernaut, right? Well, would you be surprised if I said that this design was originally intended as a playable multiplayer character? Yeah, I thought you would. The character concept also illustrates how Infinity Ward experimented with a different way of setting up your classes in Modern Warfare 2. You could focus on a specific class – whether your thing was speed, strength, stealth – there was a perk class for you. Obviously, not how the game turned out!

Check out the full story below from Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling.

“I was going through old character concepts done by our artists for Modern Warfare 2 and came across this variant design for what became the Juggernaut in the Spec Ops mode. You might have seen this in the artbook that came with the collectors edition of MW2. What you may not know though, is at this stage in development, this design was intended as a playable multiplayer character.”

“At one point in development, you could focus on a specific class – whether your thing was speed, strength, stealth – there was a perk class for you. This idea eventually evolved into what is now known as ‘Pro Perks’. Where any and all perks could be upgraded once to their pro version for an additional benefit. At this time, you had more than just standard and pro; You actually had four tiers for each perk. Each upgrade not only gave you a different ability but also changed your character model to visually reflect your new ability. The above is the concept for V4 Juggernaut, the fully upgraded version, essentially a walking tank.”

“This proved severely over-powered for MP, but with a few tweaks, ended up making an awesome addition to Spec Ops mode! Ultimately, Juggernaut was removed as a perk and morphed into Painkiller once the concept of ‘Deathstreaks’ were introduced.”

If you’re tired of getting pounded by killstreak rewards in Modern Warfare 2 you’re in luck because just moments ago Infinity Ward added two Modern Warfare 2 ‘Barebones’ playlists. The two new playlists, called Barebones Pro and Objective Barebones Pro, are in a variety of game modes and also allow for Xbox Live Party Chat.

While they’re not quite ‘barebones’ modes in the full sense of the word (you still get to use perks,) being able to play Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer games without those pesky killstreak rewards in the sky will be a godsend to the more hardcore First-Person-Shooter gamer.

Fans of Capture the Flag might be dissapointed to learn that in order to make room for the new Playlists CTF no longer has it’s own Playlist. It’s still in Team Tactical, Objective Barebones Pro, and Resurgence playlists. Just not its own playlists anymore.

The Barebones Playlists are only live on the Xbox for now but they will hit the Playstation 3 and PC alongside the Resurgence Package DLC on July 6th. Check out Infinity Ward’s announcement below.

Infinity Ward

Just uploaded two new playlists to Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer that allow you to play public matches with no Killstreaks in a variety of game modes. This update is available currently on Xbox Live, and coming to alongside the Resurgence Package DLC for PC and Playstation 3 the week of July 6th. The exact details of each new playlist are below:

Barebones Pro:

Play Team Deathmatch and Free-for-All. All Killstreak rewards are disabled.

Players: 4-8

*Xbox LIVE Party Chat allowed

Objective Barebones Pro:

Play Domination, Demolition, HQ Pro, and Capture the Flag. All Killstreaks rewards are disabled.

Players: 8-12

*Xbox LIVE Party Chat allowed.

Will you be hitting up Modern Warfare 2 for some killstreak-less games?

It’s a shame that the Modern Warfare 2 map packs don’t arrive on all platforms at the same time, but hey, in the words of Tupac – that’s just they way it is. Well, as of today, at least nobody is in the dark about the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence Pack PS3 and PC release date.

Infinity Ward’s Creative Strategist announced just moments ago that the Modern Warfare 2 Resurgence pack will arrive on the PS3 (US) and PC (Worldwide) on July 6th. EU Playstation gamers, you’ll have to wait one more day (July 7th) to get your hands on the Resurgence Pack.

fourzerotwo - The Resurgence Package DLC for Modern Warfare 2 will hit @playstation (US) and PC (worldwide) July 6th! For @playstation (EU+) its July 7th.