Posts tagged Activision
The Past Week on Steam – 7/26 (Velvet Assassin)
Jul 26th
This week Activision brought five more games and Warfare, FUEL, Tropico Reloaded plus a few other games were released. Also some DLC was made available for RailWorks and Killing Floor.
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MW2 Boycott on the Horizon? (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2)
Jul 26th
TGN writes,"PC Gamers worldwide are gearing up for a potential boycott of Modern Warfare 2 after the announced price hike by Activision. At the time of this news posting, almost 68% of respondents say that they will not support the newer, higher price. Most say that Activision’s excuse about the weakness of world currency is not to blame, and they refuse to pay the higher price.
"According to a straw poll conducted here on the Total Gaming Network, it is clear that the majority of PC gamers will not support the price hike on Modern Warfare 2.
"Some, however, do agree with the decision and say the additional $10 or $15 will not deter them from purchasing the game, while others say that they will follow their standard purchasing pattern and buy the game when retailers sell it for a discount."
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Visceral execs defect to Activision
Jul 22nd
Sources say Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey have left the studio formerly known as EA Redwood Shores for positions at EA archrival’s new Bay Area studio.
Yesterday, job listings revealed that Activision is building an all-new games studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. Late today came a report that the megapublisher, one half of Activision Blizzard, has successfully wooed two senior developers away from its archrival, Bay Area-headquartered Electronic Arts.
According to sources close to Electronic Arts, this afternoon the staff of Visceral Games were informed that the internal studio, formerly known as EA Redwood Shores, was losing two of its senior members–general manager Glen Schofield and COO Michael Condrey. The pair then reportedly let it be known they were going to work at Activision’s new studio, which remains unnamed.
Schofield is best-known for being the driving force behind Dead Space, which was pitched internally to EA executives by a group of dedicated developers. Most recently, he has been promoting Visceral’s upcoming project, Dante’s Inferno.
As of press time, neither EA nor Activision corporate communications reps had responded to requests for comment. However, a source which wished to remain anonymous told GameSpot that today’s news capped several weeks of rumors of the pair’s departure. These were fueled by intense recruiting by Activision of many staffers at Visceral, which had just been rebranded as EA’s core gamer label earlier this year. “It’s not a very happy day here,” said the source.
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Modern Warfare 2 controller in works, World at War maps top 4M
Jul 22nd
Infinity Ward community manager twitters about custom controller for upcoming shooter; last year’s Call of Duty DLC goes quadruple platinum.
Last week, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 made headlines thanks to it being bundled with a pair of fully functional, Infinity Ward-branded night-vision goggles (pictured). Now, it appears another custom piece of hardware is being readied for the recently retitled game. Once again, the news came via the Twitter feed of Infinity Ward director of communications Robert Bowling.
“In a design meeting for a MW2 controller,” declared Bowling. “Need your advice–concave or convex grips for the Analog sticks? What’s your preference and why?” Though no specific platform was mentioned, the Xbox 360 controller has concave thumbsticks, while the PlayStation 3’s DualShock 3 has convex ones.
Bowling also did not confirm when–or if–a custom Modern Warfare 2 controller would be mass produced. However, it seems likely given Activision’s continued enthusiasm for making peripherals, as evidenced by the Tony Hawk: Ride skateboard and recently redesigned Guitar Hero 5 drum kit.
In other Call of Duty news, the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty: World at War hit another retail milestone this week. As part of an announcement that a third map pack will arrive in August, Activision revealed that the previous two map packs for the game had reached 4 million units.
World at War itself has sold over 11 million units to date, and may possibly be the last Call of Duty to take place during World War II. Earlier this year, rumors circulated that Treyarch was toying with a Cold War setting with Vietnam War-era music from Cuba, Africa, and the USSR.
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Wolfenstein won’t be compatible with Linux (Wolfenstein)
Jul 22nd
HardGame2.com writes: "John Carmack, the leader of id Software, has commented the status of various Linux ports of games that they have in development. First, Wolfenstein won’t have a Linux version, because it is being developed by Raven Software (id only supervise) and published by Activision.
On future games with the idTech 5 engine (Rage and Doom 4), Carmack says: "There are no firm plans for linux ports of the idTech 5 titles, but it certainly isn’t off the table. I don’t think it will be very difficult to get them running on the binary nvidia drivers, but bringing them up to functionality and acceptable performance on other OpenGL drivers would probably be a more significant undertaking than we could afford."
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Shaba composing music game for Activision
Jul 21st
Spider-Man: Web of Shadows studio now hiring audio techs to make karaoke note tracks for unspecified title.
San Francisco-based Shaba Games is no stranger to following in other developers’ footsteps. The Activision subsidiary has spent the better part of the last decade working on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater ports and offshoots and made a splash last year with Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, GameSpot’s highest-rated console Spidey game to date.
For its next project, Shaba could be working on yet another of Activision’s well-established franchises. According to a job posting on Gamasutra, Shaba Games is working on a music game. The San Francisco-based developer, located a few miles from the nascent Activision Bay Area, is looking for a staffer “to create MIDI note data based on pre-recorded vocal tracks” and input song lyrics into the game.
The job listing doesn’t specify which game Shaba is working on, but Activision has plenty of rhythm titles to choose from. This year alone, the publisher has released Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, with Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen still to come, all of which include sing-along gameplay.
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Flashpoint Flanks Modern Warfare 2 (Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising)
Jul 18th
NowGamer: Codemasters invites us to ‘feel the fear of modern combat’ before the Call Of Duty spinoff hits shelves
Authentic soldier simulator Operation Flashpoint will be available a whole month before Activision’s Modern Warfare 2. Codemasters has confirmed that Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will street on October 6 and 9 in the US and UK respectively, while MW2 is set for a worldwide bow on November 10.
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Infinity Ward Talks Modern Warfare 2, 43 Stories Up (Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2)
Jul 17th
Stephen Totilo of Kotaku writes:
"Infinity Ward brought Modern Warfare 2 to New York City last night and educated us a bit about the game’s lengthy co-op, ever-changing name, suspiciously inexpensive night vision goggles and more.
The developers of Activision’s first-person-shooter fall juggernaut showed their game on the 43rd floor of a midtown Manhattan hotel, with drinks offered, a big screen to play the game, and thunderous surround sound. They played. We watched. We inquired. They answers… mostly."
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Wolfenstein delayed two weeks
Jul 15th
Raven Software’s supernatural shooter pushed back to week of August 17 for a simultaneous worldwide launch.
Wolfenstein fans have waited six years for a new installment in the supernatural World War II first-person shooter series. Now Activision has confirmed they’ll have to wait a couple weeks more.
“In order to facilitate a simultaneous global release window for id Software’s Wolfenstein, Activision has realigned the game’s release date for the week beginning August 17,” a representative with the publisher told GameSpot.
In May, the publisher announced an August 4 release date for the new Wolfenstein on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Developed by Raven Software (X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Singularity), Wolfenstein drops players into the army boots of B.J. Blazkowicz, who is once again sent behind enemy lines to thwart Hitler’s occult ambitions. For this go-around, players will be able to fight fire with fire, using the power of a sought-after artifact to combat Hitler’s own freakish army of evil.
For more on Wolfenstein, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage.
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Wolfenstein Will Miss Its August 4 Due Date (Wolfenstein)
Jul 15th
Raven and id Software’s Wolfenstein won’t be opening a portal to retail the first week of August, as previously planned. The latest game to be hit by a summer delay will now ship a few weeks later, Activision confirmed today.
Why? According to an Activision spokesperson, the delay was made "in order to facilitate a simultaneous global release window for id Software’s Wolfenstein."
Activision has therefore "realigned the game’s release date for the week beginning August 17th." Kotaku is sure that goals were realized to some degree of synergy.
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