Modern Warfare 2 Map pack 15 dollars, two of the five maps from MW1


To be honest, at this point after they’ve done so much wrong, I’m not a fan of Activision. Continue reading “Modern Warfare 2 Map pack 15 dollars, two of the five maps from MW1”

ActiBlizz – The New EA of the Game Industry?

kotick

Remember back when EA was the reason for everything bad in the game industry? They swallowed up every developer they laid their sights on and left no series untouched. That was then, this is now. Continue reading “ActiBlizz – The New EA of the Game Industry?”

No Brütal Legend at E3 2008

Weird guy from Brütal Legend

Brütal Legend, the game prophesied for raw awesomeness, will not be appearing at this year’s E3, according to MTV Multiplayer.

They were sent a mail from Lord Awesome Tim Schafer himself, who informed them that the game will not be appearing at E3 and that there’s nothing to worry about: the game is in fine order. “We’re not going to be showing at E3, but soon after that we hope,” he said. As for when this “soon” comes, he says “As soon as the dust settles from this whole [Activision Blizzard] merger thing we should be able to talk about the game a lot more.”

For those not in the know, this is because the game was originally supposed to be published by Vivendi, which now becomes a subsidiary of Activision along with Blizzard, by the clauses of the Great Activision Blizzard merger.

Brütal Legend will see Jack Black playing the roadie protagonist as he travels across a surreal heavy metal-inspired landscape. The game will feature music and cameos from several Metal Gods, such as Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy Kilmister, Rob Halford, Black Sabbath, Wolfmother and many more. It is going to be one hell of a game! Check out our earlier coverage on it! You’ll love it!

Court Denies Preliminary Injunction Relating to Activision – Vivendi Games Combination

Activision, Inc. today announced that the Delaware Court of Chancery has denied the Wayne County Employees’ Retirement System’s request for a preliminary injunction relating to Activision’s proposed combination with Vivendi Games, Inc., the interactive entertainment business of Vivendi S.A.

A special meeting of stockholders of Activision, Inc. will be held on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, to consider and vote on proposals to approve the transaction and related matters. If Activision’s stockholders approve the transaction and the other matters to be considered at the special meeting, Activision anticipates closing the business combination on or about July 9, 2008.

The meeting will be at 11:00 a.m., local time, at The Peninsula Hotel located at 9882 South Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $2.9 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2008.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.

Call of Duty 5, Guitar Hero IV, and what we know about them

Activision’s 2007 Batch of Games

We have no doubt that you know of the random Activision-Blizzard merger, which happened yesterday to give birth to Activision Blizzard. A fact sheet for the merger has leaked detail that there are several sequels and games coming from Activision worth knowing about. The two biggest stars here are Activision’s current favourite money-milking franchises – Call of Duty and Guitar Hero, as well as another Tony Hawk game.

As for originals (which are not quite so original), we have a James Bond game to tie up with the next James Bond movie, some games for Marvel comics and then some for Dreamworks movies like Madascar 2 and Kung-Fu Panda. There’s also a racing game from Bizarre Creations (the makers of Project Gotham Raving), which Activision bought earlier this year. You can view the entire fact sheet here.

Decided to do some research on the Call of Duty and Guitar Hero sequels, and found some interesting stuff. Call of Duty 5 was talked about waay back, when in early 2007 a rumour said that Infinity Ward will not handle CoD 5. The reason is that Activision wants a new CoD game every year (much like EA’s sport games and their general be a lousy corporation strategy). Infinity Ward stated that this does not match their interests.

This resulted in a compromise – Infinity Ward churns out a new CoD game every two years, while the middle year’s game is filled in by Treyarch, the guys responsible for CoD 3. So, if this rumour is right, Call of Duty 5 will be done by Treyarch, and Infinity Ward’s next will be Call of Duty 6. I’m not complaining about CoD 4’s quality or anything, but all of this just sounds filthy. 🙁

As for Guitar Hero IV, RedOctane had already announced this April that they will be churning out a Guitar Hero game every year. Not much of a surprise, then, that Call of Duty 5 and Guitar Hero IV will just be a “2008 Batch”. This saddens me in that instead of looking forward to create great games, or creating games for gaming’s sake – corporations have seized franchises to milk money from them, reducing the franchise’s name itself to shame. 🙁 This works only in sports games, Activision Blizzard.

Also, Aerosmith is involved in Guitar Hero IV and hence we should expect quite a few Aerosmith songs in it. If the guys of Aerosmith are right, they are a major theme in the game, and will have much influence over it. Wowie.

What do you think of this? Do you praise Activision Blizzard for the idea? Hate them? Think you smell? Discuss below!

Activision MERGES with Vivendi (and Blizzard)

An Activision logo

Right when you thought that all the attention of the gaming world has been turned to the Gerstmann controversy, Activision announces out of the blue (the one you see above) that they are merging with Vivendi, who owns Blizzard. As any good gamer will know, Vivendi is just a frail shell encompassing the massive development powerhouse that is Blizzard. This deal shows promise to our gaming eyes, because both sides of the merger here lie on the good side. Activision have published great games like the Call of Duty series and the Guitar Hero series, while Blizzard is known for their even more popular games like the WarCraft games, StarCraft, Diablo series and of course, World of WarCraft.

This flabbergasting deal is worth $18.9 billion, and the result has been titled Activision Blizzard, although I would have preffered something more catchy, like Actizzard, or Blactivision, or Blizzivision. Even though Blizzard gets to be in the company’s name, Vivendi is the one holding a 52% stock in the corporation.

Blizzard CEO, Mike Morhaime says, “Blizzard’s industry-leading PC games business…is an exceptional fit for Activision’s highly profitable console games business.” This probably hints that Blizzard may now be concentrating on the console crowd, which has now become ever simpler with Activision permanently involved. With the developing genius of Blizzard, and the publishing power of Activision, the new corporation is going to give the strongest competition of the Dark Evil Lord of gaming, EA.

Blizzard has posted a press release on their site, which is basically a FAQ with what is going to happen after the deal. Blizzard has explicitly stated that their operations, goals, beliefs and political ideals will not be affected with this deal. You can read the release here.

I don’t know about you, but I have a feeling Activision did this to compete with EA’s buying of BioWare and Pandemic. With those two devs in EA’s hands, they are an unstoppable force in the RPG market, leaving their fierce rivals Activision at a loss. In retaliation, Activision buys what must be the most successful developer in the past 5 years – Blizzard, and their sorry money-giving shell that is Vivendi.

Possible? Not? Comment.