New 'Modern Warfare 2' content announced

The sales juggernaut that is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 keeps on trucking as the second of two anticipated downloadable content packages has been announced, now due for release on June 3.

Called Resurgence, it contains three brand new maps for the game's online multiplayer mode and two from 2007's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

The new maps are Trailer Park, Carnival, and Fuel, taking place within a tight-knit trailer park, an abandoned amusement park, and a spacious oil refinery respectively. The two updated maps are Vacant and Strike.

Though a price point has not yet been confirmed, the content is expected to sell on the Xbox Live Marketplace's online service for the same amount as the previous Stimulus Package set of maps, 1200 Microsoft Points, which translates to $15, €14, £10, Y1,800 or $19.8 AUD.

Despite the high price being usually reserved for full games such as Battlefield 1943, Shadow Complex, Braid, Toy Soldiers, Trials HD and Zeno Clash, that doesn't seem to have put off Modern Warfare 2 devotees, judging by sales of March's Stimulus Package. That first bundle of extra maps broke records after being bought and downloaded over 2.5 million times during its first week on sale.

The release of the Resurgence map pack leaves a question mark over the future of Infinity Ward, the game development studio who were behind the more successful Call of Duty games.

After Activision fired Infinity Ward's two bosses in March, a dispute over creative control and royalty payments became well publicized and between a third and half of the studio's staff left. Many of those key personnel then signed up to work for their ex-bosses' new company, Respawn Entertainment.

Though Activision insist that Infinity Ward are continuing to work on the Call of Duty franchise, they have also brought in a new company, Sledgehammer Games, to come up with an 'action-adventure' entry to the franchise, broadening its appeal, and have contracted blockbuster studio Bungie - makers of the Halo series - to a 10 year publishing deal.

The next Call of Duty game, Black Ops, is due out on November 9, 2010, after genre competitors in September's Brink, October's Medal of Honor, as well as the undated Crysis 2, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier and Aliens: Colonial Marines which are expected at around the same time.