Oh the irony. For years, players of games like Medal of Honor, Halo, and Call of Duty have made fun of MMORPG players because of the recurring subscription requirement. If analyst predictions are correct, however, they may soon be eating their words. → Read More
One hundred million dollars. That’s quite a lot of money. If you factor in advertising, you’re looking at what is perhaps the most expensive game ever made. It’s not a chump bet, though: the insane popularity of StarCraft means that they can expect a huge return on their investment, to be paid back over what will certainly be a long, long shelf life for this game. Activision may be expecting as much as a billion dollars in revenue to come out of this particular item. I believe it. [via 1up] → Read More
Bad news for Activision fans that were hoping to use the Move or Kinect; the publisher is convinced that the high prices for the new peripherals are going to prevent people from adopting the new technology. So don’t expect to see Call of Duty or Guitar Hero using Move or Kinect any time soon. → Read More
Infinity Ward will, indeed, create another Call of Duty game. Activision confirmed this during the company’s first-quarter conference call. I guess we can all sleep easy tonight. → Read More
Surely by now you’ve seen the first teaser trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops. What do you think? → Read More
The next Call of Duty game will not be about saving Infinity Ward employees from Activision. I’m a little disappointed. → Read More
Infinity Ward? What’s that? Activision just snagged Bungie, of Halo fame, to a ten-year deal. Silver lining: the Sun will run out of hydrogen in about 5 billion years. → Read More
Simply amazing. Just totally, out-of-this-world amazing. Activision is said to be working on no less than three new Call of Duty games, to be released before 2012. That’s three games in less than two years. You’d think that Activision learned its lesson with Guitar Hero. Remember when Guitar Hero was white-hot in 2007? The game was everywhere! Now? Is there anybody left on the planet who has any interest in the game, or the genre as a whole? → Read More
If Activision were a pro-wrestler, it would be the greatest heel of all time. Better than Ted DiBiase, better than Hollywood Hogan—it would even be better than Anderson Silva and his fantastic manager, Ed Soares. (Not that UFC is pro-wrestling, but some of the same dynamics are at work there.) The amount of heat this company generates over the most insignificant, throwaway comments—it’s simply unreal. Nuclear, if you will. Take this latest remark: “We haven’t yet announced the content of [Sledgehammer, a new developer it swallowed]‘s game, but it’s going to be an innovative take that will further broaden the audience for Call of Duty.” Yes, because a game that makes you one billion dollars isn’t “broad” enough. → Read More
You’ll recall that the two bigwigs at Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, left the studio a few months back under, well, insane circumstances. It’s basically he said, she said, only involving lawsuits, hired goons, and Activision, the least popular video game publisher according to a recent GameFaqs poll. Yes, I just cited a GameFaqs poll. West and Zampella didn’t like the way Activision were treating them, and Activision alleges that the two were looking to leave Infinity Ward and perhaps start up a new studio under the watchful eye (and with the gigantic bank account) of EA. Funnily enough, West and Zampella have done just that, forming a new development studio called Respawn Entertainment. Wonder how Dice, makers of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, feels about all of this? → Read More
So what to make of this latest Call of Duty rumor? The seventh game in the series will be named Call of Duty: Black Ops, and will take place between the end of World War II and the present day. It won’t necessarily “be” a Vietnam War game, but will have missions that take place all over the world. Remember: it’s being developed by Treyarch (i.e. not Infinity Ward), the same dudes who developed Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War. → Read More
I’m sorry, but I’m absolutely loving this Infinity Ward-Activision brouhaha. Here you have one of the most respected developers out there at odds with a publisher that must seriously have no idea what it’s doing. If Activision thinks it can slap the Call of Duty name on any ol’ game, made by any ol’ developer, ha! People are dumb, but they’re not that dumb? Would you rather play Call of Duty 4, developed by Infinity Ward, or Call of Duty 3, developed by Treyarch? Exactly. (Nothing against Treyarch, of course, but a better game is a better game.) → Read More
Let’s go back to the year 2005. That autumn, RedOctane released a game called Guitar Hero. It was pretty successful, so it spawned a sequel, Guitar Hero II. That came out on the fall of 2006. One year later, Rock Band first popped up. Then, in the span of around two years, video game publishers lost their minds, and published approximaely 800 music rhythm games. Now you have a situation where not even The Beatles can make Rock Band big again. The lesson: don’t saturate the market with same-y games too suddenly. With that in mind, laugh: Activision has created a “dedicated [Call of Duty] business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world.” “Brand initiatives,” folks. Get ready for, like, 900 new Call of Duty games in the next few years! → Read More
Hot damn, you guys. Hot damn. Good Old Games — GOG.com — is now selling old Activision games for six bucks a pop. And you know what Activision owns? All the old Sierra games. → Read More
The rumor: Activision is looking to bring DJ Hero to mobile devices. You can assume the iPhone would be among the platforms supported. The facts: DJ Hero didn’t do too well, but Activision put a hell of a lot of money into it, so it wants to make as much of that back as possible. → Read More
There will be a DJ Hero 2. Yes, I realize that saying that—Activision will make a sequel to one of its games—is akin to saying earthquakes are bad, or that candy is delicious, but there you have it. The sequel was confirmed as part of a contest. → Read More
<img src="http://www.crunchgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/umabanana.jpg"Spore was the most pirated game of 2008, but that needs to be viewed through the lens of EA wrapping the legitimate, retail copy of the game with all sorts of DRM nonsense that made it unplayable under certain situations. You know, like putting the disc in your drive and expecting it to work. It was easier to pirate it than play the copy you bought at the store. Insane, yes. Modern Warfare 2 was the most pirated game of 2009, also known as “this year,” primarily because it was backed by a zillion dollar marketing campaign. That, and people like shooting at each other, virtually. → Read More
Thank you, PC Gamer How’s that Modern Warfare 2 boycott going? Well, judging by this screenshot, it seems that many of y’all were either bluffing, or simply couldn’t resist the temptation to, as Rock Paper Scissor put it the other day, Put The Cursor Over the Man’s Face. Boycotts only work when, you know, you follow through with your threats… → Read More
Activision’s Modern Warfare 2 racked up $310 million in sales across the U.S. and UK during the first 24 hours of availability. That makes it the biggest video game launch ever. Hooray for war simulators! → Read More
Hope you peeped that youtube video when we told you about it earlier, because Activition has fired off a cease and desist order on the video of the aimbot and wallhack being used. They claim it’s a copyright infringement, but there’s a whole lot more video out there that they are just ignoring. Sounds like someone is trying to hide their dirty laundry. → Read More
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