Activision has announced the next content drop for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which will be available for Call of Duty: Elite premium members on Xbox Live on the 21st February. Overwatch is the third Content Drop in Modern Warfare 3's Content Season, which will include more than 20 pieces of brand new content over the 9 month season.
GAME has just announced the shortlist for this year's BAFTA GAME Audience Award which is the only selection of titles voted on by the public for the upcoming ceremony. The shortlist was selected by a panel but now it rests with us. The winner will receive the award March 16th. Last year's prize went to Treyarch's Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Activision-Blizzard has released a financial report for both the calendar year 2011 as well as its fiscal fourth quarter. For the quarter ending on the 31st December, revenues were $1.41 billion, slightly down from the $1.43 billion made in the same period last year, while Activision-Blizzard made $4.76 billion in revenue for calendar 2011, compared with $4.45 billion in 2010.
Call of Duty: Elite has been wildly successful, despite early grumblings that Elite was an attempt to monetize online gameplay by Activision. Rather, Elite has turned out to be a glorified Season Pass for downloadable content, with a few more bonuses for subscribing. As it is, Elite has over 1.5M premium members.
While the online portal Call of Duty: Elite has been a big success for Activision, with 7M members, 1.5M of whom are premium users who paid $50 USD for a year's subscription. However, Activision still feels like it "bungled" the launch, making users warier of the service than they should have been.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is forcibly retired from the UK all format chart throne by 38 Studios' RPG contender, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The Darkness II entered 3rd. Metal Gear Solid HD Collection sneaks about 4th, and FIFA 12 came 5th. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 held 7th, and SEGA's Mario & Sonic London 2012 Olympic Games rocketed up 10th.
It seems Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was outed by Amazon France, which posted a product page for the unannounced sequel. Naturally, the page was immediately pulled, but the real drama came from the fallout afterward.
As much as Activision would like to hide the fact that a new Black Ops title is being released late last year, it's becoming increasingly obvious that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is coming. After Amazon France leaked Black Ops 2 on a product page, which was quickly pulled, now a LinkedIn resume as outed the game as well.
Activision has issued a statement that it doesn't blacklist journalists, but French gaming sites seem to disagree, as Activision France apparently went on a rampage threatening sites to remove stories that Amazon France had leaked Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 or face retribution in the form of snubs and advertising removal.
Infinity Ward has revealed that the developer is looking to release single player "story" DLC, but also reassured that it won't be a movement away from the usual multiplayer maps. In fact, the developer is promising larger, more expansive "sniper friendly" maps for multiplayer.
A few days ago, GameStop revealed that a new DLC pack, "Lost Archive", was being released for Assassin's Creed: Revelations on the 28th February. The Major Nelson blog has confirmed that UbiSoft's unannounced downloadable content will be coming to Marketplace on that date. Major Nelson also revealed that a FIFA Street demo will be hitting on the 28th as well.
Activision had considered, then canceled, a third Call of Duty spinoff, subtitled The Devil's Brigade. This was revealed by former Activision developer Jason VandenBerghe in an interview with The Verge. According to VandenBerghe, the game was a tactical third person shooter based on the real-life Devil's Brigade, a division comprised of the United States' most troublesome troops and Canada's most decorated, who were so brutal and efficient, they would inspire the formation of the Green Berets and the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command.
Infinity Ward and Treyarch both work the Call of Duty franchise but the two teams aren't at each other's throats, says Robert Bowling of Infinity - creator of the mega-huge IP. There'll "always be a lot of communication back and forth," and when one does something great the other listens. Feedback is now taken in "as a whole," and not just for their own.
Activision can't seem to stem the tide of leaks about their unannounced sequel Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, as another retailer, Spanish and Portuguese online shop FNAC, has accidentally advertised the game on its splash page for a short period before being pulled.
343 Industries has revealed Halo 4's multiplayer perks, which will be much like those found in Call of Duty and Battlefield, and it will be the first time that unlockables in a Halo game actually had a direct impact on gameplay. However, the developer states that Halo 4 isn't attempting to emulate those games.
Lionhead's Peter Molyneux has been speaking about the Kinect device for the Xbox 360, which many claim needs a core game behind it, but Molyneux suggests that it's the core that needs Kinect more than anyone else. During an interview with Eurogamer at GDC 2012, Molyneux said that core gamers need new experiences more than anyone else, and if the industry isn't careful it's going to bore core gamers to death.
The videogame market in the UK has not been a pretty sight, and the trend has continued in February 2012 where the market saw a 29% drop in sales in a year-to-year comparison with February 2011. 2.3M games were sold for £55m last month. Final Fantasy XIII-2 ruled the roost in the slow month, while Battlefield 3 finally overtook Modern Warfare 3 in chart position. Electronic Arts accounted for 3 of the top 10 sellers.
It seems the UK videogame market is not the only one experiences a depression in sales, as the NPD has announced that videogame sales in the US in February 2012, amounting to $1.06B, is down 20% in a year-to-year comparison with February 2011. Console sales are down 18% in year-to-year, while console game sales are down 23%. Videogame accessories are down 16%.
A California State Superior Court judge has thrown out of the two fraud claims aimed at Activision Blizzard by ex-Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vincent Zampella today. The claims are a part of a suit against the publisher by the duo over their 2010 firing. The claim the judge threw out was a fraudulent-inducement claim which accused Activision of making false promises during their 2008 contract negotiations, which allowed the pair to develop Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
Sony has announced their Spring Fever 2012 PlayStation Network update, which will highlight some new PSN titles, as well as special offers and discouints. PlayStation Network Plus members will get early access on games and up to 75% discounts on selected titles.