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!

After putting in copyright claims to ALL of the sites that were hosting the leaked campaign mission video, Activision have released a statement on the shocking events that take place in the airport based terrorist slaughter spree.

“The scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit. By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them.

Players have the option of skipping over the scene. At the beginning of the game, there are two ‘checkpoints’ where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can’t be disabled.

Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older.”

Just about the whole Call of Duty community has been speculating over when or indeed if there will be a public Multiplayer beta for Modern Warfare 2. Today Activision told CVG at Gamescom that there will be NO beta!

CVG – “Activision has told CVG at Gamescom that there’ll be be no multiplayer beta for Modern Warfare 2. You may remember that the first MW game had a huge open beta test that you could say was a massive success in bringing people round to Call Of Duty’s multiplayer options. But it looks like there’s no need to do that this time round. The sequel will be big enough, thanks.”

After the fans on Infinity Ward’s forum got wind of the no beta news the community manager cleared up the beta speculation once and for all.

402 – “I wanted to clarify the supposed “news” coming out of GameCom this morning regarding no MW2 Beta.”

“First, nothing has technically changed by this news. As I’ve told you many times in the past, expect no Public Beta unless we announce otherwise. That is still the case. We would never say something as definitive as “No Beta Ever!” as that’s simply not how we work. We’ll do an internal beta, if we feel a public one is needed, we’ll explore that route as well.”

“It is true that we have not announced a Public Beta for MW2, and that remains true unless I announce otherwise.”

“However, while no Public Beta is currently announced we do plan on running an extensive Closed Beta among Infinity Ward, Activision, and possibly 1st party partners worldwide. The internal beta will allow us all the benefits of a public beta test without the impact it takes on the time required to prep, distribute, & manage a public beta during this crucial time in development.”

“Remember, Multiplayer has been in development since Day 1 of working on Modern Warfare 2, and this is the essential run up to launch when we’re playing everyday, hammering away on it to make sure it’s as polished as can be by launch. As always, our internal QA team has daily multiplayer tests in addition to company-wide nightly MP tests we hold from the moment MP is in a running state throughout development.”

“Once the internal beta is completed, if for any reason we feel we didn’t receive the feedback, address the issues, or have the result we expect. We would consider pushing forward with a public one, however at this point only an internal Closed Beta is planned.”

“That said, any fears that no Public Beta will result in any quality loss in the final multiplayer game is completely unfounded; Multiplayer has always been and will always remain a major focus for the team at Infinity Ward and we would never ship a product we didn’t feel lived up to the high standards we hold ourselves to.”

“While we love public betas for all the obvious reasons, an internal Closed Beta allows us the extra freedom and flexibility to give the entire multiplayer a chance to be widely beta tested without requiring excess development time simply to prep the game for public release instead of an internal beta test which is ran on dev kits / test kits. That fact alone, allows us to have a smoother and faster process of iteration when addressing issues and pushing fixes out to beta participants.”

“This decision allows us to deliver a more polished experience, which in the end, is what we all want.”

“We’ll be filming plenty of Multiplayer videos for you to get a glimpse of new perks, features, killstreak rewards, and other additions you can look forward to in Modern Warfare 2′s Multiplayer.”

“In addition to the official multiplayer videos and features we release, we’ll be doing more and more multiplayer press from now until launch so you can get your fill of intel before jumping online day 1.”

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Yesterday we wrote about Activision’s plans for Modern Warfare 2 DLC…

Activision – “We plan to launch two separate map packs for this title. Map packs help extend the shelf life of the franchise, as evidence by the strong catalog sales and premium pricing that we maintained a year and a half after launch.”

This led to some confusion that only two map packs would be released for the game. But now, Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling is clarifying that statement saying that while only two maps are planned, there is still a possibility for more.

Infinity Ward – “As far as DLC goes, we love it and plan to support ‘Modern Warfare 2′ heavily with post-launch support. We’ve confirmed we’ll be doing AT LEAST two map packs which were announced at E3 as a timed exclusive for Xbox 360. The fact that we confirmed at least two map packs doesn’t mean there won’t be more; honestly we plan on shaping our DLC based on community feedback from the full game, and first two DLC map packs. Therefore, the community will really determine what comes after that.”

Sounds like Modern Warfare 2 will be a more give-and-take experience with the fans, and that it’ll be up to them what sort of content should be included in future DLC. Quite a shift from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which had just the one map pack. The big question is, after Activision said at E3 that the first two map packs will be Xbox Timed Exclusive, will this apply to any further DLC?

“We plan to launch two separate map packs for this title,” Griffith said. “Map packs help extend the shelf life of the franchise, as evidence by the strong catalog sales and premium pricing that we maintained a year and a half after launch.”

“To date, we’ve had strong success with map packs on this franchise, selling more than 8 million units for both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3,”

The new European games convention, Gamescom, is scheduled to begin in two weeks. Gamescom will feature most of the major game developers, plenty of press conferences and an absurd amount of games. The list of developers on hand include Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, Square Enix, Take-Two, Ubisoft and Capcom.

Today Activision announced the titles they plan to bring with them to the show and that includes Modern Warfare 2!

Here’s the full playlist for Activision at Gamescom….. Modern Warfare 2, Bakugan, Singularity, Blur, Tony Hawk RIDE, DJ Hero, Band Hero and Guitar Hero 5.

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Activision have announced that the Modern Warfare 2 launch will be expanded to include a version for Nintendo DS.

The game will be entitled Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized and is being developed by n-Space, the same studio behind the handheld editions of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: World at War.

Modern Warfare: Mobilized won’t follow the same storyline as that of Modern Warfare 2, with Activision saying it will serve as a companion narrative to the Infinity Ward-developed flagship title. Handheld gameplay will be similar to the console and PC editions, though, as gamers will be afforded a variety of weapons, vehicles, and reconnaissance drones with which to wreak havoc on the battlefield.

Gamers will fight on the ground in intense building-to-building tactical combat, hack into enemy computer terminals, take the controls of military vehicles like Battle Tanks and UAV spy drones, or man the guns of an AC-130 gunship.

Beyond the single-player storyline, Modern Warfare: Mobilized will feature a handful of additional modes. Survival mode is all-new to the handheld Call of Duty franchise, charging players with mounting a desperate defense against waves of increasingly lethal forces. A six-player multiplayer mode will also be available, and gamers will be able to set up their own server and host matches.

Arcade Mode will allow gamers to replay the game’s single-player with a time limit and running score, with extra points awarded for specific achievements.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Mobilized will be available alongside the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC editions of the game on November 10.

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[UPDATE] First Modern Warfare: Mobilized hands-on

Bonus Round is a Gametrailers.com exclusive show hosted by Geoff Keighley featuring interviews with the gaming industry’s top experts about today’s hottest topics. Infinity Ward’s community manager, Robert Bowling, joins the guest’s in episode 307: Rise of the Multiplayer.

Watch it on Gametrailers

If you’re in the UK and was thinking of buying Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 then you’re in for a bit of a shock. Because of  “the weak Pound and increased development costs”, Activision have decided to set the following RRP for the upcoming title.

• Standard Edition £54.99
• Hardened Edition £69.99
• Prestige Edition £119.99

If you’re in the market for the Prestige Edition, you have to shop at HMV, who have secured the exclusive rights to sell the Night Vision Special Edition.