Modern Warfare 2 is no longer available in Russia for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners, it seems, despite the game hitting store shelves as scheduled early last week. Noticed by fan site Hellforge on Friday, Russian game site GotPS3 claims Russian officials had threatened to ban the game, prompting retailers to yank copies from store shelves and distributors to shut down the outflow of new stock.

VGChartz can exclusively reveal that according to our preliminary data, Modern Warfare 2 sold around 9.4 million copies in week one (5 days on sale) worldwide. This equates to over $600 million in revenue, beating the previous record holder Grand Theft Auto IV which sold 5.9 million units in the same timeframe last year and generated around $450 million in revenue (at a higher average selling price).

So much for IWNet curbing cheating. One of the main excuses that developer Infinity Ward used to explain the lack of dedicated server support for the PC release of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was that it would be able to curb the hacks and cheating with the new system. It would appear that although it was only released a couple of days ago, the first batch of hacks and cheats are already hitting the PC version of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.

Those people who pre-ordered a copy of Modern Warfare 2 through Steam, will be miffed that they will have to wait a few days.

Yep while the game hit the shops unofficially several days ago, Steam which should have been able to release it straight away still hasn't. Valve has delayed the availability of the online-bought Steam version until tomorrow despite the fact that the retail versions available yesterday.

As you may be aware, our very own PST*Joker has made assertions on BASH that the MP AC130 and several other MW2 features were influenced (without any recognition) by him and other PC modders. A few hours ago, I saw a Tweet go out from a community member suggesting that Joker issue a takedown notice of Infinity Ward's AC130 MP vid on YouTube.

This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Sam Babbitt.

Coming in the wake of the Great Dedicated Server Controversy of Ought-Nine, Infinity Ward has announced another bit of Modern Warfare 2 news that might rile devoted PC gamers. Whereas multiplayer sessions in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare allowed up to 32 players on the PC, Modern Warfare 2's player cap will be reduced to 18, with 9-vs-9 matches just like the console versions. Before you grab your pitchforks, Infinity Ward does have a reason for the decision: "The max number of players on all platforms are 1v1 through 9v9. This is the number of players we focused on when we were balancing map size, perks, classes, challenges, etc.," explained developer Mackey McCandlish in a Best Buy live chat session (via Kotaku).

Supporters of dedicated servers for FPS games claim that the current system is necessary to allow for a full gaming experience. Needless to say, the recent news that dedicated servers aren't being supported in the PC version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 hasn't exactly gone over well with a lot of the computer gaming community.

The massive hype machine behind Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 got a boost from some grassroots buzz today, courtesy of a leaked video. The nearly eight-minute YouTube clip shows what appears to be a multiplayer bout of the upcoming first-person shooter being played from a third-person perspective. (The clip has since been pulled due to "copyright restrictions.") The clip's authenticity appeared to be proven by its French-language menus, which match those seen in preview footage and a brief shot of the packaging, which bore the European PEGI rating label. But while Activision reps had not commented on the clip as of press time, Infinity Ward director of communications Robert Bowling quickly confirmed it as genuine. "Yes, there's a leaked video,"

Activision and Valve today announced that they've hammered out an agreement to get Valve's Steamworks suite of tools onto the PC version of Infinity Ward's Modern Warfare 2.

"All PC versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will be powered by Steamworks, providing gamers with auto-updating, anti-cheat technology, Steam Achievements, and the recently introduced Steam Cloud," reads the release.