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Employing Steam's built-in VAC anti-cheating system, Infinity Ward has dropped the ban hammer on its first round of Modern Warfare 2 cheaters – 2,500 PC gamers, more specifically. In responding to a question on Twitter last Friday, community man Robert Bowling said, "The Steam ban hammer is coming down on about 2,500 confirmed #MW2 cheaters on PC today."

We contacted Bowling to find out how frequently the bans will be taking place and have yet to hear back. We'll keep you updated when we have more info, but for now we're going to get back into these hacked private servers to do some superhuman jumping and grenade spamming. You know how much we love our grenade spamming.

[Via Big Download]

According to one AceyBongos -- think of him as Europe's Major Nelson -- this week's Xbox Live Arcade game will be none other than Call of Duty Classic. Those who picked up the Hardened or Prestige editions of Modern Warfare 2 have already had the joy of ignoring their packed-in copy of the game, and now the whole world can ignore it! If, by some bizarre chance, you're just not into all this newfangled, modern warfare, Call of Duty Classic will set you back 1200 ($15).

Again though, this message really only applies to the five people that aren't playing Modern Warfare 2.

[Thanks, DarkSynopsis]

Though we may not be steadfast watchers of Jimmy Fallon's late night talkshow, we have to give the man credit for once again bringing the world of gaming into his decidedly non-gaming television show. While Robin Williams guested on Fallon's show this week, he asked the hairy-handed comedian about his gaming habits – some of which we've covered in the past – and found out that not only does the man play his fair share of Call of Duty, but he also named his daughter "Zelda" after ... well, the Princess Zelda.

"My daughter is named after a video game ... Zelda, Princess Zelda. I don't call her Princess Zelda ... only occasionally ... but she's named after Zelda." So forget about your LaBeoufs and your Dushkus – Robin Williams is holding it down hardcore and old-school for all of Hollywood.

Activision announced this morning that, according to data garnered from the NPD, ChartTrack, GfK and internal estimates, the Call of Duty franchise has accumulated $3 billion-with-a-b in sales over its lifetime. As all but the densest among you have likely deduced, CoD was put over the top by the release of Modern Warfare 2, which moved $550 million in its first five days on sale.

For a bit of perspective, $3 billion is pretty darn close to the gross domestic product of the Kingdom of Swaziland, a comparison that's especially appropriate when you realize that 54 percent of Swazis have a Gamerscore over 20,000. ... Oh, wait, this doesn't say "a Gamerscore over 20,000," it says "access to clean water." Sorry, smudge on the page.

Now that Modern Warfare 2 has smashed launch records -- raking in serious cash in the process -- the way is paved for inevitable downloadable content. DLC will likely rake in serious cash of its own, according to Broadpoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter, who tells IndustryGamers that DLC could bring in an additional $100-140 million in revenue next year. The figure is based on the DLC attach rate for the previous Call of Duty title, World at War, which sold 0.625 downloadable map packs per copy, according to Schachter. At $10 each, that means every copy of World at War generated an additional $6.25 after the initial retail purchase.

Assuming there are 14-16 million copies of Modern Warfare 2 in players homes by the time DLC launches, Schachter says the content could generate up to $140 million, minus the portion Activision has to pay to platform holders that host the DLC. Schachter also believes DLC will go beyond map packs, theorizing that Infinity Ward could offer in-game items, new game modes and new missions (more co-op sniping, please). Of course, expanded DLC content could result in higher prices this time around.

Only time will tell how well Modern Warfare 2 does post launch but, regardless of what kind of content is on offer, we imagine it will probably do okay.

War Child International is a coalition of organizations that seeks to aid children affected by war. Activision UK and GAME have decided to pitch in and are joining up to host an online event next weekend in Modern Warfare 2, asking that UK citizens play a bit of the game on Xbox Live. The more people enlist for action online, the more Activision UK will donate to the charity.

If you're looking for more information on the event, there's a Facebook page and a Twitter account set up to help coordinate. If you've got a busy weekend ahead of you on December 4, try to make time for at least one online match. It's not every day you can make someone else's life better just by playing a video game.

The release of Call of Duty: World at War Zombies on iPhone seems to prove the sales power of the Call of Duty brand. FingerGaming reports that the $10 app topped the iPhone sales chart this week, dethroning Bejeweled 2. Or perhaps it's the combined influence of the brand and making a gam3 with Z0MB1ES!!!1

We have to wonder, however, who is the audience for this game? Presumably It would appear from sales that everyone interested in playing Call of Duty was busy playing Modern Warfare 2 last week.

... Oh, no. You guys aren't playing this in the bathroom between Modern Warfare 2 missions, are you? Don't tell us.

In a statement to AU GameSpot, South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson said he plans to appeal Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's MA15+ rating in the region. If successful, the game will be banned in Australia and this would be Atkinson's first time intervening on a rating by the Classification Board. Atkinson explains, "I worry about any game that encourages gamers to perpetrate extreme violence and cruelty on screen, but this game allows players to be virtual terrorists and gain points by massacring civilians." Those points for killing civilians aren't the only ones Atkinson is missing.

The anti-game antics of Atkinson are coming dangerously close to reminding us of the United States' disgraced, former attorney Jack Thompson. The Age reports Atkinson was recently on Aussie national radio and expressed that the Classification Board in Australia "does everything" to "get games in under the radar, and film, generally." Later, he stated that he has "no trust" in the board to apply guidelines, thus drawing up guidelines for games to have an R18+ classification "would be to draw them up in sure and certain knowledge that they would be stretched and then broken." So, games aren't being rated properly, but he won't support an R18+ rating. Feel free to drop your "facepalm" reactions below in the comments.

Source -- Atkinson confirms MW2 appeal [AU GameSpot]
Source -- No confidence [The Age]

Activision has announced that, according to its internal estimates, Modern Warfare 2 has racked up $550 million in its first five days on the market. Considering that $310 million of that was in the game's first 24 hours, it means that it took another four days for the game to make another $240 million -- a great example of the big-bang starts enjoyed by many blockbuster games before their sales steadily decline. Still, Infinity Ward's latest managed to squeak by Grand Theft Auto 4's five-day record by $50 million.

If there were any tears to shed about that, Activision could dry them with some other impressive statistics, such as 5.2 million multiplayer hours logged and 11 million achievements unlocked on the game's first day. It could also presumably dry any tears with crisp bajillion dollar bills.

Western-developed games have rarely found success in Japan. However, Square Enix head Yoichi Wada doesn't believe it's because of inherent nationalism. "In the past, Japanese retailers have said that Japanese gamers have their own idiosyncrasies and tastes, and that that is the reason why the audience is not accepting of overseas titles," Wada told Ars Technica. "But I believe that is not the case, it was just a matter of poorly executed marketing."

Microsoft would probably take offense to that claim, considering it has poured considerable effort into the territory with arguably little return. Still, Capcom's success with the Grand Theft Auto franchise shows that Japanese gamers aren't entirely adverse to Western-style games. Square Enix believes it can follow suit with Modern Warfare 2, which launches in Japan in December, given the publisher's "extensive experience with the Japanese market."

We're not exactly sure what Square Enix is doing to increase Modern Warfare's appeal in Japan (the image above is not part of the campaign), but it seems to be working. Taketo Matsuo, a representative of Japanese retailer Tsutaya, has predicted Modern Warfare 2 to be one of Japan's top 10 games this holiday. Considering the rest of the list is made up of new Final Fantasy, Mario and Zelda games, that would be quite an accomplishment.

Okay, so headshot might be too strong a word here, but Modern Warfare 2 has certainly wounded Xbox Live Arcade activity, as GamerBytes reports that top Arcade titles have seen a massive reduction in leaderboard activity since the release of Infinity Ward's latest blockbuster. Specifically, Trials HD -- long the reigning XBLA champion -- saw its leaderboard numbers drop from 14,890 players on the week of November 2 to 8,942 the week of November 9, about a 40 percent loss. Meanwhile, other titles including South Park, Zombie Apocalypse and Tower Bloxx Deluxe saw their leaderboards almost halved. Castle Crashers, curiously, only saw its numbers drop from 8,395 players to 6,034, a reduction of only 28 percent.

Still, it's pretty clear that Modern Warfare 2 has pulled a lot of gamers away from the more casual fare on XBLA. Either that, or lots of hardcore Call of Duty fans unceremoniously yanked the controllers from their more casually-oriented significant others.

In case you were wondering yet had no intention of finding out for yourself, Modern Warfare 2 was released specifically to offend you. "The Big Questions" takes on this exact subject in this week's episode, hosting a handful of religious leaders as well as a couple of knowledgeable game industry folks. Though we feel that the game's graphic scenes are somewhat on par with action movies like Heat or Ronin (and are nowhere near as offensive as something like, say, Hostel – or even the 30-year-old Texas Chainsaw Massacre), religious leaders guesting on this week's BBC program took approximately forty seconds before enacting Godwin's Law when speaking about the game, according to an MCV report.

"Joseph Goebbels said his entertainment did more for the German people, in terms of creating the psyche for war and hostility towards others, than the speeches of Adolf Hitler ... the idea this is entertainment is not justification whatsoever, " Fazan Mohammed of the British Muslim Forum told viewers. Thankfully, Future Publishing's James Binns kept a level head among knee-jerk claims (unlike that other gentleman). "We can make all entertainment for children, or we can take proper steps to try and protect children from adult entertainment."

So, whaddya say, folks? Modern Warfare 3 with major battles between adorable stuffed pandas and adorable stuffed kodiaks, and when they get shot (with hearts) they explode candy? Where do we sign up?!

The console version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has allegedly been recalled in Russia due to the controversial "No Russian" scene. Hellforge's translation of a Russian report claims that a censored console version will be released later this month in the region, and that an official patch removing the scene from PC and Steam versions is en route. It would seem that the choice of killing innocent Russian civilians in the scene isn't one that the government would like to leave up to players.

To make sure this report stays as "fair and balanced" as possible, we've contacted Activision and Infinity Ward for comment. Any Russia-based readers that can shed a little bit more light on the situation should feel free to contact us.

Update: Activision confirms

[Via Edge]

No doubt strategically timed between last week's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 launch and this week's Left 4 Dead 2 launch, Activision just announced Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies, a $9.99 iPhone game based on the zombie-themed multiplayer antics of the series' console counterpart. Since the only thing the publishers sent us by way of details was an 8GB iPod Touch and iTunes code for the game (Joyswag, ahoy!) we'll turn to the App Store description.

Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies supports up to four players over Wi-Fi, and two players over a local Bluetooth connection. You can use the iPhone's tilt sensors, or the always enjoyable virtual analog thumbsticks, to control the game. With Apple remaining hands-off in the space, the game supports "Achievements" and a "Leaderboard," but they're presumably isolated from other games. The description also promises that the game will "fully support future Downloadable Content, ensuring that the classic survival experience will live on with new maps." Thanks, in-game purchasing!

What's less clear is who is behind the development of Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies. The iTunes Store lists the game under "Vivendi Games Mobile," the presumably outdated name of Vivendi Games' mobile gaming arm, taken over during the 2007 merger. We've put a line into Activision. [Update: The press release just went out over the wires, and it states that Zombies was "developed by Ideaworks Game Studio" who have brought other high-profile cell phone games to market, including Metal Gear Solid Mobile, Project Gotham Racing, and Dirge of Cerberus Lost Episode Final Fantasy VII.]

Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies –

Though Modern Warfare 2 is rife with instantly accessible, beloved characters with fascinating names, we all know that one stands out as the franchise's most memorable protagonist: Ghost. You know, Ghost! He's got that skull mask, and there was that one scene where that guy's about to shoot you, and then Ghost shoots him right back. He's already risen to fame somewhat when he received a six-part comic series telling his story -- but if the actor who provides the spectral hero's voice is to be believed, he might just show up in his own video game as well.

Craig Fairbrass, who not only did the voice for Ghost in MW2, but also voiced the equally unfortunately named Gaz in the original Modern Warfare, mentioned, "I'm now voicing a guy called Ghost, who now just got a spin-off comic of his own and they're talking about another little game to go with it." Little game? Based on the number of Michael Bay-esque explosions in the first five minutes of Modern Warfare 2, we're not sure Infinity Ward is capable of making those.