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Activision: Call of Duty Boxed Copies Will Never Have Subscriptions
The Call of Duty experience you have now, the one that includes Modern Warfare 2, Black Ops and future Call of Duty boxed games, will never include a subscription fee, Activision tells Kotaku. “We will never charge for multiplayer for Call of Duty,” Eric Hirshberg, newly appointed CEO of Activision Publishing, told me as our…
By Brian Crecente Published November 24, 2010 -
Axl Rose Sues Guitar Hero Maker For Putting Slash In Its Game
Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has finally gotten around to being pissed off about 2007’s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. He’s suing publisher Activision for $20 million for including ex-GNR guitarist Slash in the game. According to a legal complaint obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Rose is pissed that Guns N’ Roses hit…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 23, 2010 -
Black Ops? More Like Black Oops!
Here we were, pointing out everything Call of Duty: Black Ops got wrong (and right!) with its use of history, when one of the more obvious flaws was staring us all right in the face. Black Ops’ cover, as you can see above, features a man holding two pistols. Seems innocent enough, but according to…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 23, 2010 -
The Music Game Is Dead (Long Live The Music Game?)
There once was a time when music games were the biggest – and in some cases best – thing to happen to the video game industry. Oh, how those times have changed. Gamasutra’s chart fiend Matt Matthews has got hold of the revenue generated by the sale of music games over the past three years,…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 20, 2010 -
Call of Duty Creators Infinity Ward Have Been ‘Reconstructed’
The studio that started the Call of Duty phenomenon fell to pieces earlier this year with the firing of its co-founders and the following mass exodus of pissed off Infinity Ward employees. With enough money, you can recover from that. And when you’re Activision Blizzard, you can put Infinity Ward back together again. You can…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 19, 2010 -
Activision Hasn’t Bailed On Tony Hawk: Shred Yet
As much as Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops is a success, the company’s other recent franchise release, Tony Hawk: Shred, is not. But Activision isn’t giving up on Shred, even in the face of pitiful sales. Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing tells Gamasutra, that things could turn around for the Tony Hawk franchise…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 19, 2010 -
Black Ops Is Making The Rolling Stones This Much Richer
That Call of Duty: Black Ops ad featuring Kobe Bryant and Jimmy Kimmel is selling more than just copies of Treyarch’s war game. It’s also bringing in cash for The Rolling Stones, thanks to the spot’s use of “Gimme Shelter.” Billboard runs the numbers of the Stones uptick in sales, noting that track sales of…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 19, 2010 -
You Could Play Bungie’s Next Game Before Anyone Else
Bungie wants you to shape its future. It’s putting out the call for hundreds of thousands of committed, Halo and Marathon-loving Bungie fans to be a part of its focus testing group, a group that could become beta testers for its unannounced game. Signing up to be a Bungie beta tester may be the easiest…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 18, 2010 -
Black Ops Multiplayer Works A Little Bit Better Today
Finding an online match in Call of Duty: Black Ops should be a little less of a chore today, as a full title update hits for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, addressing many of the game’s more pressing multiplayer problems. Treyarch has been steadily releasing small updates for Call of Duty: Black Ops since…
By Mike Fahey Published November 18, 2010 -
Sorting Fact From Fiction In Call Of Duty: Black Ops
For a game based on a historical period and littered with historical figures, the latest Call of Duty game sure does take a lot of liberties with, well, history. So let’s try and sort the fact from the fiction. Call of Duty: Black Ops takes place during the Cold War, a period of time in…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 17, 2010 -
Could Microsoft Give Project Gotham Devs A Lift?
Microsoft is shopping around for a new Project Gotham Racing developer. Activision is looking to offload original Project Gotham development studio Bizarre Creations. Could the timing be any better? the Project Gotham Racing franchise was a huge success for both Bizarre Creations and Microsoft, but that pairing came to an end in 2007 when Activision…
By Mike Fahey Published November 17, 2010 -
A Grenade To The Groin Makes This Call Of Duty Kill A Bit Different
At first this kill video from Call of Duty: Black Ops multiplayer seems unremarkable. But then they slow it down and zero in on a single grenade that lands in the most sensitive of places. Best First Blood Impact Kill EVER! [YouTube]
By Stephen Totilo Published November 17, 2010 -
Tony Hawk: Shred Sells Like Rancid Hotcakes
Perhaps you’ve seen the stack of Tony Hawk: Shred skateboard bundles sitting at your local video game store. You might want to get used to them, because the game’s first week sales number are very, very low. A word to publishers: Taking your franchise away from a developer two week’s before the release of the…
By Mike Fahey Published November 17, 2010 -
Ex LucasArts, Budcat Staffers To Also Have A Lousy Christmas [Update]
Bizarre Creations isn’t the only video game developer dealing with hard times right now. Two more developers appear to have been affected by holiday layoffs, including Star Wars game dev LucasArts and Guitar Hero studio Budcat Creations. Sources close to LucasArts say the studio has gone through another round of layoffs today, but numbers were…
By Michael McWhertor Published November 16, 2010 -
Bizarre Devs Took a Chance, May Get Closed
Three years after purchasing the developer behind Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars, Activision appears to be in the process of deciding how to ditch the studio. “Over the past three years since our purchase of Bizarre Creations,” an Activision spokesperson told Kotaku today, “the fundamentals of the racing genre have changed significantly. Although we…
By Mike Fahey Published November 16, 2010 -
Call Of Duty Looks More Fun When The Computer Does All The Shooting
Your AI buddies in Black Ops may not be able to shoot the hinges, but they can shoot hundreds of heavily-armed soldiers, and do it so well you can clear a level without firing a single shot. Those must be some hinges! And OK, so ONE shot is fired, but we can overlook a glorifed…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 16, 2010 -
Sam Worthington Nearly Ruined Black Ops For Me
I didn’t enjoy Black Ops as much as some others did, but it was still a pretty good shooter. Oh, except for the fact that a single casting decision nearly ruined the game for me. In the lead-up to the game’s release, publisher Activision was strangely quiet when it came to Black Ops’ roster of…
By Luke Plunkett Published November 15, 2010 -
GoldenEye Cheats Resurrect Big Head Mode [Updated]
An intrepid Kotaku reader found three working cheat codes for GoldenEye 007 on the Wii, but, so far, we only know what two of them do. Update: The third unlocks Big Head mode (pictured) in local multiplayer. WireX, the reader, dumped the data out of the main executable file and found three codes, which must…
By Owen Good Published November 14, 2010 -
How To Piss Off An Entire Nation With One Virtual Bullet
The biggest video game of the year isn’t making any fans in Cuba’s government. Here’s why… About 5.6 million people bought Call of Duty: Black Ops when it went on sale earlier this week. The first-person shooter had a bigger opening than any movie, any video game, any… book. But not everyone was delighted about…
By Brian Crecente Published November 13, 2010