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Rock Band, Guitar Hero Revenues Down 49%
The bubble had to burst sooner or later. Digging through some NPD numbers from the past few months, Gamasutra’s Matt Matthews has found that the amount of money made from copies of Rock Band and Guitar Hero is down 49%. That’s compared to the revenue collected from sales of retail copies of both titles at…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 22, 2009 -
Dead Space Devs Jump Ship To Activision
Activision are building a new studio in San Francisco. But need people to work there. So to get the ball rolling, they’ve nicked two of the senior staff at EA’s Visceral Games, the team behind Dead Space and Dante’s Inferno. Glen Schofield, who was general manager at Visceral, and Michael Condrey, who was chief operating…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 22, 2009 -
Guitar Hero 5 Adds Song Specific Challenges For Longer Lasting Flavor
In addition to a crystal clear look at the virtual crotch of guitarist Carlos Santana, Activision and Neversoft’s Guitar Hero 5 will be adding an extra layer of replayability for the hardcore gamer with song specific Challenges. According to a report from Destructoid, Guitar Hero 5 players won’t be simply seeking five star-rated performances, but…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 21, 2009 -
Activision, Twistory Unravel Time With Singularity Graphic Novel
The Comic-Con comic book news explosion continues, as Activision and Twistory announce plans for a graphic novel based on the upcoming time-twisting shooter Singularity. The Singularity graphic novel will tell the story of the mysterious events off of the Russian Peninsula that resulted in the unraveling of time, which is the main focus of the…
By Mike Fahey Published July 21, 2009 -
World At War Map Pack 3 Deploys In August
It’s another set of three normal maps and one zombie map in Call of Duty: World at War Map Pack 3, coming to consoles next month from the fine folks at Treyarch. Three screens accompanied today’s announcement, showing off the three regular multiplayer maps coming as part of World at War’s third dose of downloadable…
By Mike Fahey Published July 20, 2009 -
Virtual Carlos Santana Wails In Guitar Hero 5
Rock, salsa and jazz fusion spring to life in Guitar Hero 5, which will feature the guitar legend Santana in all his 3D-rendered glory. A live version of Santana’s “No One to Depend On” will be featured in the next version of Activision’s band game, and an eerily-lifelike Carlos Santana will be on hand to…
By Mike Fahey Published July 20, 2009 -
Philly Inquirer: MW2’s Night Vision an “Invitation to Mischief”?
The Inky’s video games blogger professes his love of “fake realism” but thinks the NVGs being offered with Modern Warfare 2’s “Prestige Edition” are akin to “giving away a free race car with Gran Turismo.” Rob Watson, the “Bare Knuckles” blogger for the Inquirer, doesn’t want to come off as someone railing on the evil…
By Owen Good Published July 17, 2009 -
Wolfenstein The Animated Graphic Novel Part Three
Activision returns to Castle Wolfenstein in the third chapter of their animated graphic novel….Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is yet another prequel to the original Wolfenstein 3D, because that’s what you have to do when your protagonists kills Hitler in the first act. U.S. Army Ranger William “B.J.” Blazkowicz is back, taking…
By Mike Fahey Published July 17, 2009 -
Prototype, UFC Beat Up The Competition In June
U.S. consumers liked what they saw in Activision’s Prototype making the open world action game June’s bestselling title by an impressive margin. Last month, its single-console sales doubled those of the game it was often compared to, Infamous. The same was true for THQ’s UFC 2009 Undisputed, which topped U.S. game sales in May. The…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 16, 2009 -
Taking Tony Hawk For Another Ride
I came. I saw. I fell off the skateboard. Once. Gently. Not being known to be exceptionally skilled at video games, I play them anyway. But having limited athletic skill and no ability to roller-skate, I’ve never tried to skateboard more than a foot. Who better to try out the new Tony Hawk game played…
By Stephen Totilo Published July 16, 2009 -
Guitar Hero 5 Gets New Drums, 22 New Tracks
Guitar Hero 5’s tracklist water torture continues today, with Activision announcing 22 more tracks for the game, along with shots of the game’s new drum kit. The drums themselves look a lot like the old drums except for one key feature: the cymbals, which now look normal, as opposed to something you’d find on an…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 16, 2009 -
Activision Teams Pros With GI Joes
Activision is teaming up with nonprofit troop support organization Pro vs. GI Joe for the Activision Showdown series, pitting pro-athletes against our troops overseas in games like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. Call of Duty seems like a rather odd choice of games to play with troops who regularly see live combat, which is…
By Mike Fahey Published July 15, 2009 -
Transformer DLC Brings Characters, Maps and More This Summer
A downloadable expansion pack is in the works for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which will include ten new characters, three new maps and a new difficulty mode, Activision announced this morning. The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 pack, which is being developed by Luxoflux, hasn’t yet been priced. Here’s the full break down: More…
By Brian Crecente Published July 15, 2009 -
Tony Hawk: Ride Creators Planning For Sequel, Obviously
Tony Hawk: Ride developer Robomodo clearly sees success in the skateboarding franchise’s reboot, as it’s already planning to start work on the sequel once the board-controller equipped game hits. Oh, I know. I was surprised too. Robomodo president Josh Tsui tells IndustryGamers that the developer, who took the reins of the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 14, 2009 -
Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition Comes With Prestige Price
Infinity Ward’s Robert Bowling revealed the contents of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2‘s “Hardened” and “Prestige” editions of the game last night. The top tier version comes with working night vision goggles and, as expected, a first class price. To get the super ultra deluxe limited version, which includes an art book, limited Steelbook…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 14, 2009 -
Wolfenstein Will Miss Its August 4 Due Date
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…
By Michael McWhertor Published July 14, 2009 -
Wolfenstein The Animated Graphic Novel Part Two
Now that Hitler is dead, it’s time to backtrack, stealing the Spear of Destiny back from the Nazi’s in part two of Activision’s Wolfenstein animated graphic novel series. I had almost forgotten that Spear of Destiny was a prequel to Wolfenstein 3D, but I suppose it makes sense. Once you kill Robo-Hitler you can pretty…
By Mike Fahey Published July 14, 2009 -
Meet Guitar Hero 5’s New Guitar
New Guitar Hero game, new Guitar Hero guitar. That’s the way the world works. With Guitar Hero 5 almost upon us, let’s take a look at it’s new guitar, see if it’s worth upgrading. The changes are minimal. Aside from a cosmetic facelift, the only major difference comes in a tweak to the slider, which…
By Luke Plunkett Published July 14, 2009 -
BioWare: Activision’s PS3 Comment Is “Silly”
After Activision CEO Bobby Kotick expressed his displeasure at Sony for not announcing a price cut, he came back a few weeks later threatening to “stop supporting” the console. Sony honcho Howard Stringer then retorted that a price cut would cause the company to lose money on every PlayStation 3 sold. Now BioWare co-founder Greg…
By Brian Ashcraft Published July 14, 2009 -
Activision Renames Modern Warfare 2 Again, Slaps Call of Duty On the Box
Modern Warfare 2 has once more been renamed, shifting back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 after ditching the franchise name for a few months. Why the back and forth? It’s not really clear. But this is what Activision has to say about the name game: “Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 is the direct…
By Brian Crecente Published July 9, 2009