It's not so surprising, really, that Modern Warfare 2, arguably the world's most popular video game, would recruit such a staggering amount of bodies for its perpetual online war. But, there it is: 25 million unique players, as revealed in a tweet from Infinity Ward's community guy-at-large, Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling. We've contacted Infinity Ward for specific platform numbers, but in the meantime, Bowling offers a bit more to chew on: He confirms the majority of players are taking the fight to Xbox Live, but he says the PS3 comes in at "a close" second. That puts the PC space in third, though it's still enlisted "millions," according to Bowling. But, what about that boycott? Oh, right. Now, it should be noted that Modern Warfare 2's reported 25 million players aren't necessarily all on active duty. Surely, more than a few steadfast soldiers have taken up positions in DICE's Battlefield: Bad Company 2. No rest for the weary, eh?

A Microsoft job listing reveals that the company is looking for staff to design a new Xbox 360 motherboard. From the sound of it, the new "Motherboard Design Engineer" will be helping to design further revisions of the existing Xbox 360 architecture, rather than the hardware for a next-next-generation system. "The responsibilities of this position are focused on specifying, designing (schematic capture, PCB layout, BOM, cost analysis), implementing and verifying the mother-board and other various sub-system boards that make up the Xbox 360 product line," the job description reads. If you're a qualified electrical engineer and want to do work that may cast you as a hero in the eyes of many, many gamers, this is your chance. Please fix the Xbox 360 motherboard once and for all!

G4's The Feed, which has been in communication with a source at Infinity Ward, reports that organizational changes may be in effect at the FPS developer's offices. The source claims that a "bunch of 'bouncer-types' just showed up outside of the Infinity Ward offices unannounced. When approached by employees, the non-uniformed 'bouncers' were unwilling to disclose why they were there." In addition, The Feed notes that Infinity Ward's studio heads, Vince Zampella and Jason West, were not seen by fellow staff members after a meeting with Activision on Monday morning. A desk guard at Infinity Ward's offices was unable to confirm any of the events to Joystiq, and calls to community manager Robert Bowling went unanswered at the time of writing. Apparently, on Monday Activision filed a Form 10-K with the SEC, which is basically an overview of the company's financial condition, and includes any information that could possibly affect that condition. This filing states, "In November 2009, the Company released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, a game developed by one of the Company's wholly-owned studios, Infinity Ward. As noted above, Modern Warfare 2 was the best selling console title in the U.S. and Europe in 2009. Consistent with past practice, the Company intends to release a Call of Duty game in 2010 developed by another wholly-owned studio. The Company is concluding an internal human resources inquiry into breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward. This matter is expected to involve the departure of key personnel and litigation. At present, the Company does not expect this matter to have a material impact on the Company." Co-studio head Jason West has reportedly changed both his Facebook status and LinkedIn page to indicate that he is no longer employed. As soon as we get more news, we'll pass it along.

Walmart just announced an exclusive Wii bundle, containing both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, as well as the necessary MotionPlus attachment. It'll be available in stores today, and on Walmart.com this Sunday. There's no reason not to pick this one up instead of the normal Wii package: this new bundle sells for the same $199 price! According to Walmart, it'll only be available "while supplies last," which, given the history of the Wii platform, could be a surprisingly short time. Update: We were additionally informed by a Walmart representative that the bundle contains "[one] normal Wii console you would purchase -- comes with all the same components -- for $199, except that you're getting Wii Sports Resort (with the packaged Wii MotionPlus)." Still quite a deal!

Consumers in the UK poured out the pounds for PS3's Heavy Rain last week, according to Chart-Track's all-formats chart. The adventure game took the hill from Aliens vs. Predator, which slipped down one spot. Meanwhile, Just Dance kept doing its cha-cha of endurance and took third. Nintendo's Wii Fit Plus got a second wind (or a big shipment to the region) and overtook Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 after moving up five spots and into fourth. Finally, Napoleon: Total War marched in at #12 while White Knight Chronicles began its quest at #35.

According to a BBFC listing, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands may include a special bonus -- Prince of Persia Classic. Unfortunately, the listing isn't enough to discern whether the classic version would be the same game now available on Xbox Live and PSN, or if it's part of some kind of special edition package. When asked for comment, a Ubisoft representative told Joystiq it would not comment on rumors. Although our questions remain unanswered, at least we can look forward to the Sands of Time prince coming to the HD era and answering a few other questions.

By now, European Wii owners probably feel like they've been waiting for Castlevania: The Adventure Rebirth since the actual 16-bit generation. We're happy to report that, according to the Nintendo Channel, the WiiWare reimagining of the Game Boy's Castlevania: The Adventure will be released in Europe next Friday, February 26. As always, it's a rare treat to know ahead of time when a WiiWare game's coming out -- especially when it's a game someone out there may actually be interested in buying. Everyone, buy the Rebirth games so we can get a Parodius or Mystical Ninja Rebirth!

Nintendo's march against the R4 mod cartridge for the DS rolls on this week, as the company has won a lawsuit against an Australian distributor of the now-illegal device, according to iTNews. RSJ IT Solutions, which sold the R4 through gadgetgear.com.au, was ordered to stop selling the device and fined $520,000 ($466,752 USD) in damages payable to Nintendo. Two other respondents named by Nintendo in the suit, Patrick Li and James Li, were also ordered to stop selling the R4 in Australia and fined $100,000 ($89,760 USD). Furthermore, the two are required to disclose the names of their R4 suppliers. This marks Nintendo's second major blow to piracy in Australia this month. Last week, Nintendo was successfully awarded $1.5 million ($1.3 million USD) in damages to be paid by a remorseful Australian man, who was found to be the first to upload New Super Mario Bros. Wii to the internet. Lest any potential pirates out there haven't figured it out yet -- especially those in Australia -- Nintendo isn't messing around.

It's been a while since we last saw images from Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5 -- at least ones that were capable of moving whilst being accompanied by high-octane trance music. Such moving pictures were released earlier today, likely in an attempt to remind us just how pretty the game really is. (Here's a refresher course: It's super pretty.) You can check out the trailer posted after the jump, but we suggest having some ninjas around when you watch it, because the music will totally make you want to fight some ninjas. More than usual.

What do Cerny Games' Mark Cerny, Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor, Microsoft's Corrinne Yu, and Obsidian's Feargus Urquhart have in common, besides being game developers? Absolutely nothing. Yet, Square Enix managed to sit them down for an hour long roundtable discussion to talk about one thing: how awesome Final Fantasy (and Final Fantasy VII, in particular) is. To say it was awkward is a tremendous understatement. Certainly, there's much cause for celebration. With the game first announced nearly four years ago, the impending release of Final Fantasy XIII feels like a much needed breath of relief. It was Square Enix's night to celebrate its work, and with a red carpet entrance for key producers and voice actors it carried an aura appropriate for the return of the long-awaited flagship franchise. With some glowing reviews, this launch party could have rested solely on the game's merits.

After a night of radio silence, Sony has finally spoken up about the game-crashing issues currently plaguing non-Slim PS3 models. A post on PlayStation Blog has confirmed that the problems are "being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system." The statement puts a loose timeframe on a fix for the issues, saying, "we hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours." Additionally, the PlayStation Blog post includes a word of warning to PS3 Phat owners: "if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained Trophies, and not being able to restore certain data." (Read Sony's full statement after the break.) We know you're curious to see what the console apocalypse looks like, but trust us -- it's just not worth it. We'll let you know when it's safe to turn your system back on.

2007's street-based cousin to DiRT is coming back around for another lap, with Codemasters revealing GRiD: Reloaded for PS3 -- a Platinum range bundle set for the PAL-region starting line on March 11. Download codes for both the Prestige and 8-Ball DLC packs will be included in the package, which will retail for £24.99 ($34). An Xbox 360 version is scheduled to arrive later this year. The 8-Ball DLC pack is currently available on Xbox Live and PSN, and adds two new multiplayer events and eight new cars into the mix. The Prestige pack is new and will be available added to PSN on March 11 for £7.99 ($10.80) -- it adds the Australian Bathurst circuit and ten additional cars. There's no word of when it'll be on Xbox Live. Codies also revealed that two different game compilation packs are in the works: an Xbox 360 bundle for £29.99 featuring the first DiRT and GRiD (sans DLC packs); and an even cheaper and more content-rich bundle for PC that features DiRT, GRiD and Fuel at £19.99. Both will release to Europe alongside Reloaded on March 11.

When we awarded Uncharted 2 our top spot in 2010, we simply thought we were aligning ourselves with other people with impeccable taste; however, after reading the results from last night's 13th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (i.e., the DICE awards) we've discovered that we've also aligned ourselves with the entire video game development community. While we only bestowed a single award on Naughty Dog's latest outing, the Academy dropped ten awards on ol' Nathan Drake and friends, including Outstanding Achievement in Game Play Engineering ... oh, and Game of the Year. (Pictured above: Some of the Naughty Dog team, visibly exhausted from climbing up to the stage ten times.) While Uncharted 2 was the hands-down "winner" last night, there were 17 other awards handed out (some of which we're sure Uncharted would have won, had it been eligible). Other familiar names on the list (which can be found in its entirety after the break) include: Batman: Arkham Asylum, with three awards; Scribblenauts, with three awards; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, with two awards; and Brütal Legend, with two awards. Congratulations to all the winners. Oh, and let's just give Naughty Dog all its awards at once from now on; it's tough to make award-winning games without any cartilage in your knees.