Infinity Ward has announced that the first Map Pack will finally be available on March 30th for the Xbox 360 exclusively for one month and will then be available for the Playstation 3 as well as the PC a month from March 30th.  They have also created a new viral site and word to promote the first map pack.  The word is mapathy with a definition below and the site is mapathy.com where you can keep yourself updated on info on the DLC.  Right now the only thing we have is a date but more juice will be here soon.

Well where to begin, as there has been much news involving the Call of Duty franchise recently.  Activision has confirmed Jason West and Vince Zampella that were former presidents of Infinity Ward [Modern Warfare 2 & Call of Duty 4], have recently been laid off due to unspecific reasons.  With this news you might wonder where the direction of the Call of Duty franchise is heading.  Well in addition to that news Activision has also confirmed they have added another developer in the mix to make Call of Duty games.  Game Developer Sledgehammer will be making another Call of Duty game to be released in 2011.

This is Activision seeing how much potential money a Call of Duty game can make and now they are going to try to pump out as many Call of Duty games as quickly as possible.  It is almost inevitable that this will dry up the franchise after making a certain quota and leave the Call of Duty name in the dust.  This makes three different developers that are on Call of Duty games; Infinity Ward, Treyarch and Sledgehammer.  Here is a brief overview of what we will see released in the future of the world of Call of Duty:

• Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack 1 – March 30th, 2010
• Modern Warfare 2 Map Pack 2 – TBA 2010 Date
• Treyarch TBA Call of Duty Title – Fall 2010
• Sledgehammer TBA Call of Duty Title – 2011

The Treyarch game has been rumored to be bringing the Call of Duty franchise to Vietnam.

From TVGB:

A source we consider reliable has told TVGB that Activision is looking to licence music for “Call of Duty 7,” music that gives some serious hints as to the locations the game may take us. Mentioned were Vietnam War era tunes, as well as Cuban, African, and Soviet Union music. The source says Call of Duty: World at War’s senior producer Noah Heller is involved, so it looks like Treyarch is once again developing.

Credibility to the change from WWII is added by Heller himself who said last year they “are showing the final battles of the Pacific and the European Theatre and that lets us put a close to the war. I’m sure game companies will be making World War II games for years to come and World War II is a very classic war. But we’re happy that we put the war to bed.”

While Modern Warfare 2 is still six months from release, someone under Activision already working on a new Call of Duty game isn’t very hard to believe when considering the cold hard fact that there’s been a new release in the series every single year since 2005, and Modern Warfare 2 will continue that tradition this year with its November 10th release.

From Destructoid:
According to a mysterious survey making the rounds, Activision is considering creating an online service that would bring timed exclusive content, as well as premium extras, to the multiplayer side of the Call of Duty franchise.

The survey — of which we can’t verify its validity, but certainly felt interesting enough to pass on — specifically mentions that the supposed service would “enhance the multiplayer experience and provide exclusive access to a group of gameplay enhancements.” This includes early access to expansions and betas, and exclusive access to character skins, enhanced stat tracking, game modes and even “support for competitive play.”

The service may come with a monthly fee attached to it or may come bundled with a copy of Call of Duty for a flat rate. The monthly fee idea is especially interesting: in March, Activision’s Bobby Kotick hinted at the possibility of a Call of Duty MMO.

Map Pack 2 will contain 4 new maps, ‘Banzai‘, ‘Corrosion’, and the bombed out submarines of ‘Sub Pens’, the pack being completed with the Zombie Swamp ‘Shi No Numa’. The pack also contains a new weapon, the Wunderwaffe DG-2 and new flaming hounds and traps.
View Trailer
View Gameplay & Achievements/Trophies
New Characters in Zombie Map

Release date as of now is June 11th, 2009. Also see gameplay and new achievements for World at War HERE.

The Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 2 will include 4 new maps, 3 being mulitplayer and 1 being a new zombie map.  The new zombie map “Shi No Huma”, will take place in a swamp and have exploding hell hounds.  There will still be Perk-A-Cola machines and the addition of a new weapon, a zippline and more zombie traps.  Here is the list of Achievements/Trophies that will be added with the map pack this month:

Hammer Time
Repair 200 window boards in a single game. (Map Pack 2 only)
Its a Trap!
Kill at least one zombie with three different traps in a single round. (Map Pack 2 only)
Weapon of Minor Destruction
Kill no more than one zombie with a nuke. (Map Pack 2 only)
Perk-a-Holic
Have all four perks simultaneously active in a game of Nazi Zombies. (Map Pack 2 only)
Fertilizer Man
Kill 200 zombies in a single game. (Map Pack 2 only)
Deadhead
Get 150 zombie headshots in a single game. (Map Pack 2 only)
Big Baller
Earn 75,000 points in a single Nazi Zombies game. (Map Pack 2 only)
Big Brawler
Get 10 consecutive zombie melee kills before Insta-Kill expires. (Map Pack 2)
Soul Survivor
Reach round 15 in Nazi Zombies without getting revived. (Map Pack 2 only)
Dead Air Secret
It must have been a wrong number.