When you think of piracy lately, Spore comes to mind more so than anything else, and according to a post over on Actiontrip– Electronic Arts and Will Wright’s huge hit Spore is the biggest pirated game of 2008. I wonder if it has anything to do with the hoopla caused by the DRM restrictions EA imposed upon the title?

Whatever gamers reasoning for pirating these titles is, they are all listed in the order of most to least with the release date of the game next to the title. While looking this over, some of you may recall all of the money that Ubisoft claims they lost when Assassin’s Creed for the PC was pirated. The main reason that Assassin’s Creed was so highly pirated according to a lawsuit brought against OEM by Ubisoft, was because an employee took home a copy of Assassin’s Creed and uploaded it onto the internet six weeks before the game shipped in April 2008. Ubisoft claims that this led to over 700,000 pirated downloads of the title. Well, now that number is up to 1,070,000. Wow, just wow.

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As of yesterday, gamers who own the Limited Collector’s Edition of Call of Duty: World at War can start earning double experience points when playing multiplayer until December 12.

To earn these extra points, you must have access to the “Double XP Officer’s Club” playlists on Xbox 360, as well as the general playlists if you are a PC user.

If you need more information on how to activate this, just check out the Call of Duty website.

Activision Blizzard sure knows how to get the speculation ball rolling, and with this latest bit of teasers and confirmations from the company during yesterday’s Massive Inc. event (advertising summit really) what they had to say is really not much of a surprise.

This meeting basically showcases games that would be great vehicles for in-game advertising, and the biggest one mentioned was one called Guitar Hero 5 (working/speculative title at this point) which was revealed as a screenshot featuring a Burger Kings ad next to the scrolling notes.

ActiBliz also confirmed what we already knew about the upcoming Tony Hawk game slated for an October 2009 release when a spokesman stated: “You’re not going to be playing this game with a controller in your hands”. This, however is old news to gamers who have been in the know regarding a “skateboard type” peripheral which is supposed to come with the game.

Confirmed during the event was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for Fall 2009, and while no details were forthcoming on the upcoming Call of Duty title, ActiBliz did acknowledged Bizarre Creations’ “Bond Racing” (no tile was mentioned) style game which would be heading to stores sometime in September 2009. The good thing about this Bond game though, is that there is no movie tie-in associated with it and for fans of racing games, another one is in the works which is being hailed as a “Mario Kart meets Forza”.

So there ya have it. A few teasers, a few confirmations and the expectation that in-game advertising will be prevalent throughout each one of them. Hooray for greed and constantly being bombarded with advertising no matter where you look. Formally known as the American Way, it is now just the way of the world.

(MTV Multiplayer)

Starting at 12 noon (PST) on Friday, December 5, Limited Collector’s Edition owners of Call of Duty: World at War on PC and 360 will be able to earn double experience points when playing multiplayer.

Access to the Double XP “Officer’s Club” playlists will require Xbox 360 Limited Collector’s Edition owners to have successfully activated their copies of Call of Duty: World at War. Owners will see the “Officer’s Club” show up in the player match playlists screen. For PC Limited Collector’s Edition owners, they can simply join any server during the Double XP week and be rewarded with twice the experience.

The Double XP week will end on 11:59 a.m PST. on Friday, December 12. For all the gory details and an FAQ, check out the official Call of Duty Headquarters here.

Here are just some gaming related stories floating around on the web from yesterday and today:

• Want to know how to obtain the M1A1 Carbine from Call of Duty: World at War without ranking to level 65? Well fret not, because thanks to a pal of theirs at Treyarch, the folks over at MonsterVine have all the answers (thanks William Saw!).

• According to GamesIndustry.biz, GameStop expects there to be more Wii shortages at Christmas this year. Is that really surprising? Maybe it is time I pulled mine out of the closet and put it up on eBay. With the outrageous prices people are asking for the console, I think if I went $100 less I could make a sale and put it towards finally getting a PS3 (wakes up from her daydream).

• VG247 has posted a link to a video called Immersion that The New York Times has a posted by photographer Robbie Cooper which shows the vacant and sometimes scary looks on kids faces as they play videogames–and most likely ones they should not be playing in the first place from what I could hear. If you watch the video though, you may come away with the impression that a lot of these were staged–especially that one kid who keeps saying “Let me kill you”. Then again, maybe he is just a dork.

• Ubisoft will release downloadable content for Far Cry 2 sometime before the end of the month. “The Fortune’s Pack” will will include multiplayer maps, some new weapons and vehicles. You can expect it to hit the PSN and XBL for around $10.

• In case you haven’t heard, The Killers, Yngwie Malmsteen, Soundgarden, Lamb of God will hit Rock Band on November 25.

• Shacknews has a lovely list of upcoming game releases posted on their site. The list is for releases during the week of November 23-29. Looks like no PS3 titles though, and the only ones worth noting are Sonic Unleashed for the Xbox 360 and Age of Empires: Mythologies for the Nintendo DS. You think I am joking? Then hit the link and see for yourself.

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World of Warcraft players certainly don’t mind that 7-Eleven has been dabbling in the field of selling videogames. Thanks to the apparent disregard for street dates, WoW players were able to secure early copies (albeit not early access) of Wrath of the Lich King. The retail chain has announced that its recent sales of games like WoW, Halo, and Madden isn’t a temporary holiday cash-in — they’re planning on permanently adding videogames to their inventory (via Joystiq).

“This is not just a holiday promotion for us,” explained 7-Eleven category manager for gaming and electronics, “but a brand new product line-up that will be available year-round. We may not be a total entertainment destination … yet, but we’re hoping to expand our selection beyond the high-dollar, hot-selling games to include options for all budgets, like value-priced video games as well as DVD movies. For consumers wanting convenient one-stop shopping for at-home entertainment along with groceries and gas or who just want to avoid big-store shopping inconveniences, their local 7-Eleven store is open and ready.”

In addition to Wrath of the Lich King, 7-Eleven is planning on selling the Guitar Hero World Tour band kit, Fallout 3, Quantum of Solace, Gears of War 2, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2009, and Call of Duty: World at War. They’ll also begin selling subscription cards for around 20 games and services ranging from Xbox Live to City of Heroes to Runescape.

Picking up a game at 7-Eleven seems to be more of a convenience rather than an alternative, at least at this point. Unless you’ve got one closer to home than any other retailer, will gamers really opt to go there instead of GameStop, Best Buy, or Walmart? But if they decided to throw in a free Slurpee with the purchase of any full-priced game, that might just give them the edge that makes it the premiere destination for picking up big-name games. It would for me, at least.

Call of Duty: World at War was just released for the PC on Wednesday, but already Treyarch has released a new toolset wich will allow modders and mappers everything they needed to create mods and levels for Singleplayer and Multiplayer modes in the game.

So, all you modders out there, get to downloading the 1.1GB file here from FileFront or by hitting the badge below.

Aside from it’s unique brand of humor, you have to admire South Park for at least one thing: their timeliness. Where most movies and TV shows would have made up some Doom-looking game that no one would actually play (*cough* Simpsons *cough*), this show keeps up-to-date with the current video gaming world. Last night’s episode for example had the boys playing Call of Duty: World At War, a game that’s been out for just over a week — and just over two days on PC. This being a game that focuses a lot on Americans fighting the Japanese in World War II, you can probably imagine what Cartmen’s thoughts on the whole thing are.

Call of Duty: World at War has been out for a week on the PS3 and Xbox 360, while PC gamers have sat patiently by waiting for their turn to give the latest installment in the series a spin. Well that wait is finally over, as the game has now been released for the PC and can even be downloaded directly through Steam for $49.99. This new chapter in the franchise was developed by Treyarch, who became somewhat notorious for their work on the sub-par Call of Duty 3. Thankfully though, they seem to have corrected their past mistakes with this one and done what they should’ve done in the first place: copy Infinity Ward as much as possible.