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THANK YOU! - To everyone who took the time to show your support and vote for the GAME Award of 2008. We just got back from BAFTAs last night, and have had a bit of time to re-coup from the whirlwind trip. While there, we were lucky enough to walk away with THREE BAFTAs (Best Gameplay, Best Story / Character, GAME Award of 2008). A feat that is absolutely humbling. Most importantly though, the GAME Award which is the only award voted on by the players really meant a lot because it meant all of YOU took the time out to show your support for what we’re trying to accomplish here at Infinity Ward.

At the end of the day, it’s all about how the players feel when they play the game. We make these games for all of you, so awards voted on by the people ALWAYS carry a lot of weight.

That said, the entire trip to London was fantastic. We met a lot of great people and was floored with how friendly EVERYONE I met was. We left with a fantastic impression of London and it’s people and can’t wait to return in the not too distant future. Be sure to check out the BAFTA’s official site for a complete list of everyone who won awards and check out some of the videos.

Thanks again to everyone who voted, and of course to the Academy for everything.

I’m back from Las Vegas and most importantly the Call of Duty 4 National Champsionships (for Xbox 360) that were held there this past weekend as part of the MLG National Finals. While I was there we met up with team FeaR (seen above) who took home the title as the best Call of Duty 4 players in the country. I watched over their shoulders as they shut out EnvyUs three games straight in some of the most impressive COD4 skills I’ve personally ever seen.

I caught up with (Robert) FeaR Assass1n, Kevin (FeaR Choppy), Joey (FeaR Moho), and John (FeaR PacMan) just after their win, before they scored their giant check, to congratulate them and talk about flying them out to the Infinity Ward studios at some point in the future.

While team FeaR came out as the best, 2nd place EnvyUs, 3rd place Head Trauma, and 4th place TBRE (seen below) were still some of the best Call of Duty 4 players I’ve witnessed. The fucking speed of some of these guys was incredible.

While sheer speed and skill will get you far, it definitely won’t get you the National Champion title which takes a lot more than just the ability to get quick head shots. The most impressive part of watching professional teams play is the level of communication they use (keeping the mics clear of useless information) and relaying the location of every enemy, what weapon they’re using, and any other useful information as they see it.

Overall the entire event was impressive, and a great debut for Call of Duty 4’s first live national championships. It was great to meet up with the MLG staff, and I have plans to meet up with them more formally once we get back to the studio and talk about how we can make Call of Duty 4 and it’s professional players a more prominent role in future seasons / tournaments.

Congrats again to FeaR on taking home the cash and title. Expect to hear from me once I get back to the studio.

In addition to those competing in the tournament, I met up with several of our community members to talk “shop” and discuss Call of Duty 4, Infinity Ward, and get some of their direct feedback on what we can continue to improve on in the future (in terms of game development and a CRM point of view). I had lunch with Chase (Th3 Wiz4rd) and Brett (Th3 VerDict) on Saturday as well met with DpG Witness (when he wasn’t coaching teams). It was great to meet you guys and learn the meaning of “Jugger-twatting”.

The latest episode of Family Guy features a very special Call of Duty 4 reference.

I knew there were a lot of us out there, but just how many? Well, I received the reports this week and it looks like our COD4 online community stands at over 10 million strong (Xbox 360 / PS3)! That’s all unique players too, so 10 million different people have logged on for online multiplayer since buying the game in November. Those stats don’t include people who have never logged into MP, only those apart of the Online Community.

That’s insane. With a little over a million players logging in everyday for multiplayer, I can’t say I’m too surprised. It’s awesome to think that we’re all part of building something so massive, and when I say we, I mean me, you, all of us. Everyone who logs on to play with their friends, reads the blog, contributes on the forums, took part in the beta. You guys shaped this game and what it is today. We have one massive, powerful, community and all of you should be proud because there is honestly no other game community I’d rather be a part of. So when I say this, know that I mean it… THANK YOU!!!

We have some new multiplayer playlists in the works to breath even more life into multiplayer, in addition to that I’m working on a few other things behind the scenes that I can’t talk about just yet (in case they don’t come to fruition).

This really makes me want to have another Community Party (anyone remember the COD2 all night?). If any Los Angeles locals are interested in having a COD4 Community Meet-up / Community Party, let me know and let’s put one together!!

Monday is here again, and hence our weekly Monday Morning Meeting here at Infinity Ward, which will from here on be referred to as M3 now that we’re all on the same page. For those not aware, the Monday meeting is the first thing we do every week. It’s a great way for the company as a whole to meet up and go over what’s happening internally.

We’ll give a status on our current projects, any new employees will come up and introduce themselves, talk about their favorite games and where they came from, and what they do at IW now. As well as any IW / Call of Duty related news, rumors, updates, etc. that we think should be shared among the company as a whole.

In the case of William, you have to introduce yourself twice. Will originally started in QA as a tester for Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare. Just like I talked about in my last video blog, it was all about being proactive and passionate. Once we ramped down the QA department at the end of the project, William has bigger plans and became an Art Intern and as of this morning, is now a Full-time artist here at Infinity Ward. Congrats!

In addition to Will’s promotion, these past few weeks has been busy for new-hires; Mario, Jordan, Simon, JT, Joe a bit ago. It looks like it’s well over-due for another Employee Spotlight feature. You can check out all the new additions and the full IW here (www.infinityward.com/team).

Other than that, we discussed future project stuff that I can’t go into detail here yet. In addition I snagged our Lead MP Designer Todd for a chat prior to the meeting to discuss the upcoming playlist updates we’re working on as I know you guys are dying for an update.

Essentially, there’s some things we want to do that go above and beyond what a playlist update allows us to. So we’re discussing the options available to us. We’re working on getting it all worked out as soon as we can and as always I’ll keep you in the loop. Trust me though, if we’re able to do what we’d like, the little bit of longer wait for it to happen would be worth it in my opinion. Regardless, if we can and it does cause a delay, I’ll see if we can go ahead and do the playlist update while we wait.