Activision announced today during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that “the Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 Stimulus Package will strike worldwide on March 30.”
The name Stimulus Package is a potentially confusing tie-in to President Obama’s economic plan. Sorry, you can’t get paid to play Modern Warfare yet.
But the downloadable content package for Xbox consoles includes the first new multiplayer maps — that means there’s all-new terrain on which you can fight with or against other human players — for what has been called the biggest entertainment launch in history, Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2.
As VentureBeat games guru Dean Takahashi wrote last week, Modern Warfare 2 has been a huge hit for gamers, but a black eye for the gaming industry. A lawsuit filed by Infinity Ward’s founders against parent company Activision Blizzard exposed a personal and professional rift within Activision’s hotshot unit.
Leaked photos and video of the Stimulus Package were posted to the Net in recent weeks, but Activision has done a good job of taking them down. Hopefully they’ll send me some official grabs.