If you’re a CoD 4-obsessed PS3 owner, like I am, then you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the Variety Map Pack. It was first announced a while back as coming to Xbox Live on April 3rd and to the PSN two weeks later, once Sony updated the PlayStation Store’s interface. However, the certification process took a bit longer than expected, so instead of releasing with the new store last Thursday, the map pack will be out this Thursday, April 24th. The four maps — Killhouse, Chinatown, Broadcast, and Creek — will sell for $9.99.

This news comes to us straight from the horse’s mouth, Mr. Robert “Fourzerotwo” Bowling himself (he’s Infinity Ward’s Community Manager). Originally, he said that the DLC would be on the North American PS Store on the 24th, while Europeans would have to wait an extra week until May 1st. But he announced today that, after some bureaucratic wrangling, Activision will launch the DLC in North America and Europe at the same time! Huzzah!

But there’s even more awesome news for PS3-owning CoD 4 players. It looks like Activision wants to equalize the experience for PS3 and 360 owners; they’re doing for us what they did for them three weeks ago. There was a Double XP / Play with the Devs weekend on Xbox Live, and there will be one this weekend on the PlayStation Network. Here’s hoping that none of the fun is interrupted by any network issues.

So from 12:01 AM GMT on Friday, April 25, to 7:59 AM GMT on Monday, April 28, players will be able to accrue double experience points for playing Call of Duty 4 on the PSN. In case you need help translating times, that’s 7:01 PM EDT on Thursday evening through 2:59 AM EDT on Monday morning. In addition, the Infinity Ward team will be playing on the PSN from 2 PM to 5 PM EDT and from 8 PM to 11 PM EDT on Friday. So how many of you will be fragging the game’s developers this Friday while getting twice the XP for doing so?

[Via fourzerotwo’s blog]