RSS Feeds
|
US Edition
Babblebaby
|
Defamer
|
Gizmodo
|
Kotaku
|
Lifehacker
Just as the title says, this latest video from Activision talks about how the developers are translating the environments from the film to the game. Unfortunately, there isn't much to see here in terms of gameplay, but you do get to see a few new locations that you'll encounter. You can expect the game out about two weeks before the movie November 4th.
You may recall a story from last year regarding Blizzard and their legal case against MDY Industries, creators of the World of Warcraft Glider program that allowed players to pretty much put themselves on autopilot to help them escape the rigors of the easiest-to-level MMO in existence. Back in July, Blizzard won summary judgment against the add-on creator, and now we get a peek at just how much going up against the gaming giant has cost MDY. $6 million is the figure awarded to Blizzard, which considering how much money the company brings in on a monthly basis should be enough to buy snacks for the week. A high figure to be sure, which would have been much higher had MDY not successfully challenged some of Blizzard's claims. Blizzard still has time to appeal the judgment in order to seek the damages lost via dismissed claims, but considering the chances of MDY even having that much to pay out, it might be best to just mark it a victory and move on. The case will return to court at the beginning of the year to clear up any outstanding issues.
Blizzard wins Warcraft bot payout [BBC News]
Yesterday, Wall Street crashed. Took a lot of gaming industry money with it. Today, though, the market's rebounded, and whaddya know, that rebound took a lot of gaming industry money with it! Blactivision lost $2.26 (per share) yesterday, but clawed back $1.31 today. EA lost $3.63 yesterday, but at the sounding of the bell today, had won back $0.99. The gains weren't restricted to Wall Street, either; Ubisoft shares were up €7.25 having dropped €12.47 yesterday. Such chaos. Such unpredictability. Lucky we can't understand choose not to play the stock market!
Game stocks regain ground in market rally [GameSpot]
In-game advertising company IGA Worldwide continues its streak of signing major console manufacturers and publishers to their network, announcing that they've signed a multi-year agreement with Activision to supply dynamic advertisements for the company's PlayStation 3 titles, beginning with Guitar Hero: World Tour.
"Our partnership with IGA will allow us to deliver dynamic in-game advertising to the growing PlayStation Network community for the first time," said Dave Anderson, head of business development at Activision Publishing. "By incorporating dynamic in-game advertising in our titles where it is appropriate, we can increase the realism of our games by presenting consumers with authentic environments in genuine settings, while also expanding a key growth opportunity for the company."
See? It's all about realism. I hate it when video games make me thirsty for a beverage or excited about a masculine hygiene product that doesn't actually exist. Thank goodness for realistic advertising!
As was rumored, Chicago-based developer Robomodo recently signed a deal with Activision to work on a title that will be published on multiple platforms.
The 45-person studio was founded by four former Midway Games employees and a former EA Chicago employee.
"At Robomodo we are dedicated to 'doing it right', from the way we approach game design and art, to the methods we use to manage our projects," said Josh Tsui, Director of Robomodo. "Our culture is focused on enabling game designers and artists to innovate, while providing them with proper management oversight and technology support. Activision has embraced our vision and agreed to give us a shot with one of their IPs. We are fortunate to be working with the largest publisher worldwide, and we are looking forward to collaborating with their team on one of their upcoming games."
Of course we couldn't reasonably compare Guitar Hero: World Tour's PS3 graphics against the Wii version. However, you do have a choice of which version you pick up. For that very reason feel free to take a look at these new screenshots for both. Sorry Xbox 360 owners, we don't have any screens for you guys today, but we'll make it up to you later, I promise. Lots of screens in the galleries.
When it comes to breaking down the feature sets of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, Activision's title has long had an extra tick in the "for" column: its song creation utility. And not because you honestly think you can recreate your favourite songs in the included editor, but because, with the game allowing the online sharing of created songs, you're relying on someone more talented to do it for you. Well, turns out you won't be doing anything of the sort. Activision have told 1UP "If there's a licensed song and someone holds the copyright to it, we'll take it down regardless of whether or not someone complains". So if you want that note-perfect cover of Honey Bucket, you're going to have to roll your sleeves up and do it yourself.
Guitar Hero World Tour [1UP, via VG247]
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 3:40 PM on September 29, 2008
Just got back from spending the morning at Activision HQ in Sydney, getting some hands on time across a few upcoming titles. One of these was Guitar Hero: World Tour, which I've been very keen to get some time with. Once upon a time I played drums (though I wouldn't call myself a real 'drummer'), so I've been itching to get some time on the kits from both this and Rock Band for a long time. Consequently my initial impressions are weighted heavily toward the skins. I've had time on Rock Band with the Gamespot Australia crew in recent times, and today it was time to see how World Tour stacked up. The short of it? REAL nice. I wasn't chasing the kit across the room like I was with Rock Band's drums. Oh, and Purple Haze is an absolute showstopper! Long story after the jump.
We'll bet you never saw this one coming. A recent filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office shows that Activision has filed a mark for Dance Hero, claiming services such as "interactive video game programs" and "video game controllers." The filing comes soon after first details on DJ Hero were posted on Kotaku, a trademark Activision filed for in February.
While we imagine that Activision's theoretical take on the dancing game genre, if that's what the trademark is intended for, will require the rhythmic stepping on of various buttons and/or arrows. If we were in charge, Dance Hero would involve serious amounts of "serving" and a group of gold-hearted, brightly outfitted underdog street toughs who band together for a dance off to save their struggling community and maybe learn a lesson or two about diversity along the way.
Dance Hero [USPTO]
Last month saw an interesting bit of back and forth between Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. and Acitivsion boss Bobby Kotick which began with Edgar complaining that the music industry wasn't getting enough money from games like Activision's Guitar Hero and ended with Kotick firing back that delivering a not-so-subtle threat about which music they'll choose to include in the future. Now in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kotick takes the money argument full circle.
There's a misunderstanding of the value we bring to the catalog...When you look at the impact it can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant, so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse.
Goodness, Bobby's getting a bit vicious now, isn't he? He does have a point though. I'd say most of the money I've spent on music in the past two years has been for video game DLC. Poor, put-upon record labels.
The Future of Videogames, According to Activision CEO [Wall Street Journal via Edge]
