Information leaked during this years Toy Fair points towards a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game from Activision. The previous rumour stated that Batman Arkham City developer Rocksteady were behind the video game reboot, but it turns out it will be Activision who have their hands on the lucrative franchise. The publisher has yet to confirm the game, as well as the platforms it will be appearing on.
Unsurprisingly Activision has confirmed that there will be a brand new Call of Duty game released later this year, and have declared that the game is looking “fantastic”. Activision also mentioned that the next instalment of the immensely popular Call of Duty will feature ”meaningful innovations.” The publisher has yet to announce what platforms that game is appearing on, but hopefully we can expect Wii U, Wii and 3DS versions.
“This year we expect to further expand our presence with the launch of an all-new epic first-person shooter title under the Call of Duty brand. From what we’ve seen to date, the game already looks fantastic and will bring meaningful innovations to the franchise.”
- Activision Spokesperson
Activision has announced at Toy Fair that it’s preparing a sequel to the immensely popular Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure which is titled Skylanders Giants. The next chapter in the Skylanders franchise will introduce more than 20 New Figures Including Super-Sized Giants and Characters Featuring Light Technology. Every character from Skylanders Spyro’s Adventure is 100% compatible with Skylanders Giants and have leveled-up stats and customizations intact.
Activision, the publisher behind the immensely popular Call of Duty franchise has just purchased the domain name www.blackops2.com, suggesting that the company is hard at work developing a sequel to Treyarch’s well received Call of Duty: Black Ops. Expect to see plenty of footage of the game at this years E3 event in June.
Activision and Infinity Ward have released the official Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launch trailer. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 arrives November 8th, which is the same day as the game launches on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Eric Hirshberg, the chief executive of Activision Publishing has told Industry Gamers that he believes the controversial second Circle Pad attachment for the Nintendo 3DS is a good idea claiming that it opens up the platform to different styles of games.
“Your thinking is very similar to mine. It does make the hardware more relevant and compatible to the style of games we make,” Hirshberg responded. “I don’t have anything to announce in relation to that, but I think it was a great move and it opens up that platform to more styles of games.”
EA has taken rather an aggressive stance when it comes to promoting their games these days with EA corporate communications man Jeff Brown really taking the fight to Activision. Brown firmly believes that Activision’s immensely popular Call of Duty franchise will be dead in two to three years time, which presumably means Battlefield will roam free.
”Welcome to the big leagues Eric — I know you’re new in the job but someone should have told you this is a competitive industry.
“You’ve got every reason to be nervous. Last year Activision had a 90 share in the shooter category. This year, Battlefield 3 is going to take you down to 60 or 70. At that rate, you’ll be out of the category in 2-3 years. If you don’t believe me, go to the store and try to buy a copy of Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk.”
We already know that Activision are extremely positive about the Wii U’s potential, but what does Bobby Kotick head of Activison think? Well, he seems slightly apprehensive of the system, but he has stated that he is “very interested” by what he has seen so far. The power of the console is certainly something that Activision are very excited about. What Activision related games would you like to see on Wii U?
“For the kinds of games we create, it was becoming very difficult for us to support the Wii with the expectations that our gamers have … from a development perspective, having a Nintendo device that is on parity with the other hardware from a graphics perspective was really necessary.” As you might expect, Activision is apparently “very enthusiastic about it.”
If Activision’s domain name registrations are correct then it appears as though the development team behind the well received GoldenEye 007 are currently planning a brand new GoldenEye title. There’s no more information such as platforms, or if the game is a direct sequel to GoldenEye 007, but as soon as I hear anything I’ll make sure to let everyone know.
Activision Publishing chief Eric Hirshberg believes that Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii U console is most certainly going to appeal to the hardcore gamer.
We already know that Nintendo are doing their utmost to appeal to a broader demographic with this console, but it’s reassuring to hear this from such a large developer and publisher as Activison. Let’s just hope they don’t litter the Wii U with simple ports, and instead look at different ways to utilise the console’s unique controller.
“It looks like this is a platform that’s going to be even more relevant to the kinds of games we make.”
“They’re committing to HD, greater processing power, digital infrastructure, connected universe at the back end… Those are all the things we need to make a state of the art experience for a lot of games.
“So we were thrilled to hear their plans and I think that anyone that bets against Nintendo does so at their peril. They’re a pretty great company.”
“I was very excited about some of the things that I saw in the Wii U because I thought it was an innovative take on the next gen controller and the next gen console. I was really excited to see Nintendo taking their console into something that I think is going to be friendlier to core games.”
- Eric Hirshberg, Activison
