Just hours after Microsoft added the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: World at War to the growing list of Xbox One backward compatible games, second-hand video game shops hiked the price.
UPDATE 29/9/16 8:40am: Digital Foundry has assessed World at War's performance on Xbox One, concluding that the game runs more smoothly than the same code operating on original Xbox 360 hardware. It's not the night and day improvement seen in Call of Duty 2, but many of the smaller sub-60fps dips in both campaign and zombie mode are ironed out.
Activision wants you to know that 100 million people have played Call of Duty since the release of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare in 2007 - the game that fired the series into the stratosphere.
Activision has sold 18 million Call of Duty: Black Ops map packs, the publisher has announced.
Call of Duty: Black Ops and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 were the two most active titles on Xbox Live last week.
Listings from online retailers suggest a new Call of Duty compilation pack, The War Collection, may be coming to retailers this June.
Activision has confirmed that Infinity Ward is working on a Call of Duty game.
Activision is planning to bring three new Call of Duty titles to market between now and April 2012.
Activision exec Tom Tippl has said there are plans to charge Call of Duty fans for online features in future.
Activision has halved the price of all three Call of Duty: World at War map packs on Xbox Live Marketplace, an offer that runs until 1st November.
Activision has made nearly $70m just by selling map packs for Call of Duty: World at War.
Sony has declined to comment on rumours that Killzone 3 is "deep in development" and will be released next year.
The third map pack for Call of Duty: World at War will be released for PC next week.
The PC version of Call of Duty: World at War is currently cheap at half the price on Steam.
Activision has released a free iPhone and iPod Touch app for Call of Duty: World at War.
The Companion lets PS3 and Xbox 360 owners keep track of leaderboards, game news, friend activity and a myriad information like which gun you use the most.
You'll need to link your Call of Duty: World at War website account to your PS3 or Xbox 360 account to make the most of the application.
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Activision has announced that Call of Duty: World at War's third map pack will be released on Xbox Live Arcade and the PlayStation Network on August 6th. That's this Thursday.
Activision has announced that a third map pack for Call of Duty: World at War will arrive in August.
Developer Treyarch has announced that PC fans will be given Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 as part of the upcoming v1.5 patch.
"I just wanted to give a brief update to let you know that Map Pack 2 will be included in Patch 1.5," said developer "JD" on the official forum. "It's in test right now, and is looking great - I will have more information [this] week."
A rundown of the gameplay tweaks in patch v1.5 can also be found on those forums.
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Treyarch will release the second map pack for Call of Duty: World at War tomorrow for PS3 and Xbox 360.
Activision is in discussions about turning Guitar Hero into a TV show or concert tour and bringing Call of Duty to the silver screen.
Activision has announced the first map pack for Call of Duty: World at War has now been downloaded two million times.
Half of those downloads occurred during the first weekend it was on sale, you may recall. The two million figure includes PSN and Xbox Live sales.
"This is a huge milestone and we are so appreciative of our incredibly supportive community who continue to play and enjoy the game," said Mark Lamia, head of Treyarch.
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Activision has announced the imaginatively-titled Map Pack 2 for its hit FPS Call of Duty: World at War. The add-on will be available in June for Xbox 360 and PS3.
The first downloadable map pack for Call of Duty: World at War was downloaded 1 million times during the first weekend of availability.
The first map pack for Call of Duty: World at War is released today on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Network.
Activision and Treyarch have finally released a Call of Duty: World at War demo on Xbox Live and announced that the upcoming multiplayer map pack will be released on 19th March for PS3 and 360. That's next Thursday.
Those of you fond of shooting one another in the face will be able to enjoy double experience points in Call of Duty: World at War for the next few days, or sample Unreal Tournament 3 for free on PC all weekend.
Treyarch has detailed the first Call of Duty: World at War map pack, which we can expect to see on PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime next month.
Treyarch plans to add more Nazi zombies to Call of Duty: World at War as part of the very first downloadable map pack.
Mario Kart Wii was the biggest selling game across the UK, US and Japan last year, shifting nearly 9 million copies.
Treyarch has unlocked Call of Duty: World at War's "Nacht der Untoten" playlist - the one where you and up to three friends fight off waves of zombie Nazis.
Treyarch has explained to the Call of Duty: World at War community why patching the PC version has taken so long.
The conclusion of a lengthy post by community manager JD_2020 (Josh Olin according to Kotaku) is that desktop updates take a minimum of eight weeks from start to finish.
This process involves listening to fans, reproducing the issues to engineers, testing, submitting the patch to Activision, more testing, and then finally building an installer and distributing the files.
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Call of Duty: World at War reclaimed the UK Charts summit in the last Top 40 of 2008, after losing out to FIFA 09 in the last week before Christmas.
There's no change at the top of the All-Format UK Charts this week as Call of Duty: World at War, Mario Kart Wii and FIFA 09 hold firm in the top three positions.
Gears of War 2 has topped the November software sales chart for the US, in what was a strong month for Xbox 360 games.
Call of Duty: World at War has notched up a fourth week in command of the UK All-Formats Chart. With just two weeks to go, looks like it's a strong contender to take the Christmas top spot.
The world is most definitely at war. It may not be top of the Xbox Live charts, but Call of Duty is king of the All-Formats Top 40, and with double experience points this week for LCE owners, now seems a good time to relate what we've picked up from the last few weeks running around the internet shooting people in the dogs. Thankfully, Eurogamer's recent intern Matt Edwards happened to write some of it down. Quite a lot, actually. Here's what he reckons.
Call of Duty: World at War boss Daniel Suarez plans "at least" two bouts of downloadable content for the shooter, and said the first batch was on course for the New Year.
Activision has confirmed that the Call of Duty: World at War double-experience promotion in the US next week will also take place in Europe.
The UK all-formats chart has settled into a familiar rhythm after a helter-skelter November, with Call of Duty: World at War top of the pops once more.
Call of Duty: World at War has clung onto the UK all-formats top spot this week despite a chart stuffed with newcomers.
Activision has deployed modification tools for the PC version of Call of Duty: World at War so you can make your own levels and game modes, among other things.
Call of Duty: World at War may blasted its way to the top of the UK charts this week, but the same cannot be said for Xbox Live, where its first-week performance leaves it trailing Gears of War 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Halo 3.
Once again, PC meets Xbox 360 meets PlayStation 3 in the latest of our special Bonus Round comparisons, reserved for the most important games of the moment - in this case, Call of Duty: World at War.
Despite its incredible first week of sales, controversy still surrounds the latest release in gaming's most powerful first person shooter franchise. Infinity Ward handing off the Call of Duty baton to Activision development workhouse Treyarch was enough to make many fear the worst. Deeply unimpressive Treyarch PS3 work such as the awful Spider-Man: Web of Shadows suggested that owners of the Sony format should be more than a little cautious of the latest Call of Duty offering.
While Treyarch's output has hardly been impressive of late on PlayStation 3, the fact is that Call of Duty: World at War is easily their best work yet on the Sony platform. There's little in terms of criticism in Dan Whitehead's 8/10 Eurogamer review that doesn't apply equally to both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game.
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Call of Duty: World at War has charged to the top of the UK all-formats chart this week, becoming the third fastest-selling game ever in the region.
So it's come to this. Right at the very start of World at War, you're a helpless prisoner of the Japanese, saved from execution at the last second by a rescue squad of US Marines. Handed a rifle, you begin to exact your payback. As you move from hut to hut, one of the game's many scripted moments occurs. Directly in front of you, a Japanese soldier, his uniform ablaze, bursts out at a fellow US soldier. Should you manage to shoot the assailant quickly enough, and thus prevent your team mate from burning alive, you're awarded your first Achievement or Trophy - Saved Private Ryan.
It's an obvious gag, and a revealing one. World at War, it seems, is not a game concerned with avoiding the obvious. Quite the opposite in fact. For a game that goes out of its way to rub your nose in the grisly underbelly of war (opening, rather tastelessly, with what looks like real archive footage of Japanese military executions) it nevertheless nestles snugly inside the predictable comfort zone already established by over a decade of similar WW2 shooters.
That's not to say that World at War doesn't impress. Much like its predecessor, Modern Warfare, this is an exhilarating and painstakingly designed journey through the smoke, flames and dust of armed combat. It's linear and scripted, as all shooters must be to some extent, but the series has always succeeded by hiding the strings better than most. That success wavers here, but there's still plenty to enjoy for those who enjoy shock and awe more than surprises.
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The PC version of Call of Duty: World at War has been patched to v1.1, with a host of tweaks and fixes arriving just in time for the game's European release this Friday.
Weighing in at a mighty 317MB, the patch promises improved SLI support, as well as enabling mods in all game modes. Check out the full list of changes below.
Mods are now enabled in Co-op, Single Player, and Multiplayer.
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Call of Duty 4 community manager Robert Bowling won't like it, but COD: World at War producer Noah Heller has been sounding off to Eurogamer about comparisons between the Treyarch and Infinity Ward shooters.
Call of Duty 4 community manager Robert Bowling has raged at Activision "senior super douche" Noah Heller for "pulling s*** out of his ass".
Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has explained that various Sierra (Vivendi) games were dumped for not exhibiting "potential to be exploited every year across every platform".
Activision has announced that it has made the multiplayer beta for Call of Duty: World at War on Xbox 360 open to all.
No money or beta key is required to access the game. Simply find the multiplayer beta under Call of Duty: World at War on Xbox Live Marketplace, download it, and start getting killed by all the people who've already been playing it for weeks.
Alternatively, the PC version of the beta went live this time last week, and you can access it just by signing up at the game's website.
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First things first, apologies if you were disappointed, having read our Eurogamer Expo preview on Monday, to discover that the MotorStorm: Pacific Rift vehicle outside the Expo entrance was a monster truck instead of a Humvee. We are also sorry that so many of you missed the chance to touch Bertie's moustache, which endures even now atop the sweater-clad granite torso and arms of news-typing sultriness.
As announced on the official Call of Duty website, the multiplayer beta test for the PC version of Call of Duty: World at War has gone live.
Sign up as a member of the website to participate in the PC beta. The Xbox 360 beta test has been running a little while now; if you didn't grab a key in Eurogamer's giveaway, you still have a chance to by pre-ordering World at War from GAME in the UK, and Gamestop in the US.
There's no indication of whether there will be a beta test for the PS3 version of the game.
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A London press event over fifty years after World War II, and it's still being fought. At least for one last time, as this Call of Duty - reading between the lines - seems to be Treyarch's capstone to the period. And another battle quickly surfaces when I ask producer Noah Heller, who handles the game on the Activision side, about whether the developer feels upset about how they're viewed, considering they turned around the maligned Call of Duty 3 in less than a year. Do the angry internet men frustrate him?
Activision and Treyarch have announced details of the Call of Duty: World at War PC beta - and by extension multiplayer in general.
All you have to do to get on the beta is sign up on the official website, by the sound of it, although there's no specific start date just yet.
"All registered users", the site says in bold, including people who sign up after the beta starts, will receive a special key that enables them to create a unique profile name and play.
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Remember when Call of Duty 4 managed to topple the mighty Halo 3 from the online gaming throne? This may yet prove to be a pivotal moment in the evolution of the venerable wartime shooter, or so it would seem from the first glimpse of Call of Duty 5's multiplayer component. It's familiar, you see. Very familiar.
What with the excitement of giving away 20,000 keys for the Xbox 360 version in one hour yesterday, we quite forgot to add that Activision has restated plans for a Call of Duty: World at War PC beta.
The betas - 360 and PC - both allow players to play as US Marines, German Wehrmacht, Japanese Imperial Army and Russian Red Army factions in team deathmatch, free-for-all, CTF and "War" across three maps.
The maps are Castle (a daytime battle in the grounds of an ancient Japanese stronghold), Makin (a nighttime fight in an outpost on the Makin Atoll in the Pacific) and Roundhouse (a daytime fight in a train depot, featuring tanks and infantry combat).
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After more traffic than we can ever remember (and we used to live next to a roundabout), the Call of Duty: World at War beta keys are all gone! Congratulations if you got one.
In the end we had 20,000 of the things, and all of them were gone within an hour of posting them on the site. Despite a few hiccups earlier in the day, the servers even managed to maintain their dignity throughout. Well, mostly.
The good news, however, is that if you missed out you can still get a key by visiting GAME and pre-ordering Call of Duty: World at War. GAME pre-orders on Xbox 360 are guaranteed a key.
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Eurogamer is happy, historically sensitive and proud to announce that we will soon have thousands of beta keys for Call of Duty: World at War on Xbox 360 to give away. (Yes, we're reinforcing the servers first.)
The Call of Duty: World at War European multiplayer beta test will begin in October for PC and Xbox 360. Either a PS3 beta has yet to be announced, or simply won't happen. Wii beta tests have yet to be invented.
Publisher Activision Blizzard has announced that the Boot Camp will open its doors on an unspecified date next month, also confirming the UK release date as 14th November. That puts the UK a mere three days behind the US, where the game will see first light on 11th November.
Players will be able to try their hands at the new squad system, as well as experimenting with the features inherited from Modern Warfare, such as the perk system.
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Activision Blizzard has announced that Call of Duty: World at War will be released in the US on 11th November for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and DS.
Call of Duty military advisor Hank Keirsey has defended the series' return to its World War II roots, claiming: "we're not going back; we didn't finish telling the story".
Call of Duty: World at War executive producer Daniel Suarez already knows what's on our minds, and he's come armed. "The first question I get asked, is why go back to World War II?" Well, quite. I ask myself a similar question sometimes, since I'm the one who always ends up reviewing WWII shooters. Treyarch's answer is probably the same: old habits die hard.
Treyarch has apologised for comments calling Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway "a crappy war game".
The very first trailer for Call of Duty 5 is now showing on Eurogamer TV.
The game is being developed by Treyarch and is subtitled World at War. It's said to offer a gritty, mature portrayal of events during the Second World War. Early teasers show a prisoner of war being tortured and having his throat cut, while your character looks on and waits his turn for the same treatment.
It'll be the first COD game to feature co-op action. Two players can team up on split-screen, while up to four can enjoy online co-op. Vehicles will play an important role and you can expect the return of squad-based multiplayer, plus the option to say real army phrases into your headset.
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It might be because I'm paranoid, it might be because I'm a cynic, or it might be because I'm horribly myopic. I'm convinced nevertheless that every time the Treyarch team heard the name 'COD4' during their recent demonstration of the fifth Call of Duty game, their eyes narrowed a little, their lips pursed and a distinctly frosty tone crept into their voices.
Activision has confirmed the newest instalment in the Call of Duty series will feature an online co-op mode for up to four players.
That goes for the Xbox 360, PS3 or PC versions, which will also offer two-player split-screen co-op. The Wii game will have its own "unique" two-player co-op mode.
According to the press release, the co-op campaign "allows players to rank up and unlock perks in competitive multiplayer by completing challenges and earning experience points".
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The first footage of the next instalment in the Call of Duty series will be shown exclusively on Xbox LIVE this weekend.
So you've read about the Guitar Hero IV controller information, the Microsoft Mii-style avatar system and the Forza 3 download scenarios, but that's not everything the dedicated NeoGAF kids managed to bust out of market research firm Intellisponse's website in the dead of the comedy night: there's also stuff on a new Silicon Knights game, Call of Duty 5 and a Microsoft SingStar pretender.
The next Call of Duty is subtitled World at War and developed by Treyarch.
It will feature co-op for the first time in the series and is heading to PC, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, according to the first details - spilled from the pages of GamesTM magazine and read by VG247.
The Nintendo version will be handled by a separate developer, we're told, but all will be built on the Call of Duty 4 engine.
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Activision has confirmed that a fifth instalment in the Call of Duty series is on the way - revealing that it'll be set in "a new military theatre".