Xbox Community Network ci ha fornito una intervista a Infinity Ward per far luce sui dettagli dell'imminente contenuto scaricabile di Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, denominato "Stimulus Package". Ve la proponiamo di seguito, in inglese.

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1) The main question that's on everyone's lips is... can we have a release date?

The Stimulus Package for Modern Warfare 2 will be hitting Xbox Live worldwide exclusively first on March 30th!

2) Let's talk content. How many new maps are included? Can you tell us a bit about them?

Of course. This first DLC includes five new maps to Modern Warfare 2, consisting of two fan-favorites brought back from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Included in those 5 are Bailout, Storm, Salvage, Crash, and Overgrown. Each offer a unique style and gameplay to the multiplayer of Modern Warfare 2, starting with Bailout; an American apartment complex with lots of flanking routes through the interiors of the apartments and their lobbies as well as long sight lines across the many outdoor courtyards and parking lots of the apartment community.

Storm is set in an industrial park with plenty of large open warehouses, multi-story buildings, and scattered machinery that provides cover as you make your way from buildings to building out in the open. The booming of the approaching thunderstorm and the light rain pouring over the map gives it a great atmosphere unique to Modern Warfare 2’s existing multiplayer settings.

Salvage is a snowy junkyard with piles of crushed cars and debris that provide interesting cover and flanking routes around the area. With few interiors to hide in, this map is great for team games with lots of great areas for objective gametypes.

Crash is one of the most popular Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare maps, which makes a return based on popular demand. It’s one of those classic maps that works well on any gametype, and offers a great variety of gameplay through its close quarters routes through the interiors of the surrounding buildings, but also great open areas around the crashed helicopter centering the map and long sight lines for sniping from vantage points on top of the 3-story building and shops on either end of the alley way along the flank of the map.

Overgrown is the second fan favorite to return from the original Modern Warfare and one of our largest maps. Great for snipers due to its tall grass and overgrown foliage throughout the open fields and long streets of the village on either side of a dry creek bed that splits the area in two.

3) What about price? Can you tell us how much it will cost?

The Stimulus Package will retail for 1200 MSP.

4) We've heard there are some remakes of popular COD4 maps in the works. Is it true and if so, will there be any in this map pack, and which ones?

Yeah, we’re bringing back two of the most popular original Modern Warfare maps, Crash and Overgrown, which is great to play them in an all new way; using the new perks, killstreaks, and class loadouts of Modern Warfare 2, not to mention the new gametypes like Capture the Flag and Demolition that require you to come up with all new tactics on some of my personal favorite maps from the franchise.

5) Are there any other COD4 maps you'd consider remaking? What about maps from older Call of Duty titles? Any chance of seeing a non-Chinatown version of Carentan for instance? (We'd like that!)

Anything’s possible, and we consider every suggestion sent our way, including this one! We’re deeply connected to our community through social media like Twitter (follow @fourzerotwo and @infinityward), Facebook via www.facebook.com/modernwarfare2, and of course our official forums and websites at www.infinityward.com. So if you’ve got a great idea for a map, new or a remake, drop a message to me on Twitter or the site of your choice and it will get read!

6) Will the map packs add any weapons from the Modern Warfare 2 campaign – or from other Call of Duty titles – to the multiplayer?

The Stimulus Package, the first DLC pack for Modern Warfare 2, will only bring the five new maps outlined earlier. As far as future DLC goes, I can’t speculate as we’re just now focusing on our future content so nothing has been finalized.

7) What about multiplayer modes? Are you planning to release any more for the game, and if so is that something that will be included in this map pack?

Multiplayer playlists, which include new modes, are something we update independently of DLC and not something we charge for. Since launch we’ve added several new modes for free that the whole community can enjoy and plan to continue to update playlists based on user feedback and player data. When the Stimulus Package hits, we’ll be updating the playlist to include a Stimulus playlist which allow you to play all gametypes on the new maps exclusively, as well as Stimulus Hardcore. Stimulus Hardcore will allow our community to experience hardcore TDM, S&D, and HQ Pro on the new maps. We also plan to change up the map rotation a bit for Hardcore HQ adding Terminal, Skidrow, Highrise, and other Ranger maps.

8) It was mentioned last year that any map packs beyond the first two would be developed with community input. How do you imagine that process working? Is it looking likely that there will be more than two packs?

We’re always listening to player feedback, hearing what they want to see more of, suggestions for new maps or updates we can make either to the playlists or via patches and incorporating that into our design plans. At this time, we’re focused on the map pack at hand and can’t really speculate on what to expect after that just yet.

9) We loved Spec Ops, we've clocked up more hours in that than online or in the campaign! Is there any chance of future DLC with more Spec Ops missions?

Thanks! Regretfully though, we can’t speculate on what future DLC will hold, only what the current Stimulus Package contains.

11) This is a bit more out there, but what about the chances of a shorter, downloadable campaign expansion? If that isn't something you'd ever consider with MW2, how come – do you think it just doesn't work with relatively short, cinematic FPS games (as opposed to open worlds)?

Single Player Story Campaign extensions aren’t something we like to do in DLC, because our campaigns are completely designed around being a very high octane, intense, and focused experienced summed up in very specifically crafted acts, that tacking on a few missions for the sake of extended gameplay isn’t something that works well with our formula. That’s why we like to focus all the DLC efforts on our Multiplayer, where we have a lot more freedom to bring new experiences the millions of players on it every night.

12) Modern Warfare 2's huge popularity has meant that it's a magnet for modders and glitchers. How do you feel about those people? Do you resent that time spent preventing exploits and cheating that could be spent on creating new content?

It’s a regretful side effect of being the #1 most played game. With over 25 Million unique players on Modern Warfare 2, logging countless hours of playtime, there are bound to be some bad eggs. Luckily though, those “bad eggs” make up less than 1% of our community and the rest are vigilant at making sure they don’t last long. Something I pride myself and the team on is being completely accessible, so if you’re online and you notice someone doing something you deem fishy, you can drop me a line directly via a number of methods. Typically I’ll know about something happening in-game minutes after it being done, and the Multiplayer team will instantly be on the case and addressing. Sometimes as fast as getting a tweet about it on Friday night, and having an update out by Monday morning. As far as new content is concerned, depending on the glitch, typically our coders can be addressing something on the code side, while our MP designers and artists can stay focused on creating new content for DLC.

13) We don't suppose you feel like giving us a tiny, tiny hint about Infinity Ward's next project? You can say no comment if you want :)

That’s a big “No Comment.”