The GameShadow Blog

Activision Blizzard has announced it expects to release the next edition in the popular first person shooter series, Wolfenstein, this summer.

An end of year date had been expected, but now it’s due to hit the PC, XBOX 360 and PS3 in the June to August period.

The game’s being developed by Raven Software and is one of the anticipated releases of 2009.

It looks that the Call of Duty: World at War map pack could be just round the corner. I saw this (above) when browsing through the Game Marketplace yesterday. Right now it’s quite confusing as the section it’s advertising doesn’t include any W@W stuff.

How long is Microsoft intending on it being this way? And what should we expect, for our hard-earned MS points?

Have Your Say, what kind of maps would you like?

Update - Activision has now announced 100 redundancies at Radical, as a result of the cancellation of Scarface 2. The Crash Bandicoot and Prototype teams are assumed largely untouched.

Biggest development upheaval in recent memory. Sierra, once the leading player in interactive entertainment, has gone through its most recent upheaval, and not come out unscathed.

Ever since the merger between Activision and Vivendi, Sierra (as a subsidiary of Vivendi) has had a future in doubt. Activision’s main motivation for the purchase was Blizzard, and the company was never coy about the ruthless approach it may take to the rest of Vivendi’s assets.

The cuts have finally happened. Here’s the fallout.

- Vivendi UK is to suffer significant staff cuts

- The only Sierra games to stay in place are Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age, Prototype, and one unannounced project

- No news is bad news on the futures of World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, and Wet

- Ghostbusters won’t live on as an Activision project, but work so far is being tendered to the highest bidder, so consider the game’s future up in the air (the same may apply to WiC and Wet)

- No mention of Tim Schaffer’s much anticipated Brutal Legend means Activision is dropping the title, but Schaffer himself has assured the industry development will not be halted

- The Bourne licence has been sold back to the Ludlum estate

- Major ’staff realignment’ is happening at Radical (Prototype) and High Moon (Bourne): expect redundancies

- Massive Entertainment (World in Conflict) and Swordfish (50 Cent) are most likely up for sale

That’s some big fallout right there.

The Lich King Beta seems to be fully in the swing of things, with the client available for download from the Lich King website.

Sadly, it’s still a limited affair, with participants randomly selected from those entering via the sign up page. It’s not too late to get involved, though, so hit the link to kick things off.

Since we’re already at Beta, it seems likely an open Beta may be just around the corner. Keep your eyes peeled.

…but I still remember just the way you taste.

Yes, I’ve been AWOL for the last month travelling around Central Asia, leaving the ever capable Paul to keep you up to date, but it’s back to business as usual now.

Seems I’ve missed a lot - the entirety of E3, for instance (check out the best of it here). Still, sounds as if the entire thing was a bit of a write off this year (images from E3 back in the day, and in 2008). All the same, there’s been a series of major reveals… Star Trek Online, FFXIII, confirmation of Bungie’s Halo game, Medal of Honor: Afghanistan, GTA IV for Windows… and plenty of quotable comments from the likes of Ken Levine and David Cage at Develop, Brighton, that I’ll drop into later. Plus QuakeCon and a heap of Doom 4 (it’s more Doom than Doom 3) and Quake Live details.

Meanwhile, the long dreaded cuts have kicked off at Vivendi, following Activision’s full acquisition of the publisher. Staff, studios and games are all coming under a very large knife, check the post for more.

The other major piece of news that’s caught my eye has been talk at Valve of the company’s acquisition. Big stuff afoot? I’ll keep you posted.

Infinity Ward - of Call of Duty fame - has announced on its blog that the company has completed talks with publisher / parent company Activision, and is set to embark on new projects.

“[The negotiation] has laid the ground work and kick started our future project, as well as the possibility of a unique new IP by Infinity Ward, that we’ll have complete control over. We’re excited to be working on our next project, but it’s going to be quite a while before I can share any details on exactly what that project is.”

I’ll be a monkey’s uncle if the ‘future project’ that’s definitely in motion isn’t CoD 6, but it’s the potential new IP that’s exciting (though obviously disappointing that Activision has only granted the developer the ‘possibility’). Since forming from ex-2015 Medal of Honor staff in 2002, CoD is the only franchise the team has worked on, so letting them loose on something fresh could see somthing genuinely special.

At least one of the projects is tipped to be sci-fi (CoD: Future Warfare anyone?), but time will tell.

Senior Activision Producer Noah Heller speaking to Eurogamer has completely blasted genre competitor Brothers in Arms.

“I watched the trailer and I’m was like ‘These guys aren’t even in the same league’. We don’t even think about them… We don’t want to look at someone who’s just making a crappy war game.”

Now, I’m all for a bit of handbags at dawn, but it seems to me he’s walked up to the biggest kid in the playground and told him his mum’s a slapper. Heller is currently working on Treyarch’s CoD: World at War, a game that, in a post-CoD4 environment, has everything to prove. What’s more, not only is Hell’s Highway probably the most anticipated WW2 shooter on the ground today, it’s also the latest in a series that dared to challenge the risk-averse FPS action of franchises like MoH and CoD.

All told, not a good move.

It’s important to note that developer Treyarch immediately distanced itself from the comments.

“Over the weekend, we learned that some disparaging comments were made by an Activision rep at a recent Call of Duty: World at War press event. We want to let everyone know that we found those remarks offensive, and they do not in any way represent the feelings of any developer at this studio or at Activision. We hold all of our peers in the development community in the highest regard. We have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Gearbox.”

Bad boy, Noah. Bad boy.

So, the big news is that Diablo III’s definitely on the way, and is a good way into its dev cycle. The surprising news is that Blizzard released a lot of details of the weekend.

You can grab a huge 20 min gameplay trailer right here, while there’s a flashier but less informative cinematic trailer here.

There’s info all over the place, so rather than completely rehash it here, I’ll point you to some of the best spots. Essentially, however…

- It’s definitely still Diablo

- It’s 3D, and sports a brand new engine, but is viewed from the same top down perspective

- In the context of today’s co-op infatuated climate, Blizzard is building on the hugely successful online modes of the previous games to make co-op the core experience

- It’s set 20 years after the last game, and story telling will be a stronger element

- It’s around the same length as Diablo II

- The same level of one-click approachability is promised

- Five classes will be present, both new and old, including the Barbarian and Witch Doctor

You can check a swift preview over at 1up, there’s a more in depth piece on the game design at Joystiq, and IGN has a decent interview with Rob Pardo.

“With Call of Duty: World at War, we’re re-defining what it means to play a WWII game,” says Treyarch boss Mark Lamia. “We’re excited to give players a host of new enemies that employ entirely new tactics, as well as new, groundbreaking tools – like co-op and the flamethrower – to succeed in the epic fight.”

Yes, Call of Duty 5, officially known as World at War, is now full steam ahead - scheduled for an Autumn 2008 release, don’t be surprised to see it arrive in time for Christmas, and ape the success is forbearer enjoyed in 2007.

Four player online co-op is the phrase of the day, with two player local play on consoles.

In a word, it’s CoD4 +1.

Yes, CoD5 will take the common sequel route of dishing out a souped up version of the last game, complete with all the features you wanted the first time around, developed by a different team.

The game will be developed by Treyarch - the team behind CoD3 - rather than series creator Infinity Ward, and will be set in the Pacific theatre. It will use the CoD4 engine, and arrive on PC, 360, PS3 and Wii (the latter being a stripped down version that supports the Zapper, but still recognisably the same game).

Essentially, the game is a check list of all the things the new generation of console gamers thinks it wants:

- Co-op

- Vehicle combat

- Squad-based multiplayer

- Gritter singleplayer

- Co-op (you can never have too much co-op, apparently)

Now, I love my co-op, and it’s still not used to good effect in enough games, but something tells me the reason it’s arriving in CoDland is more to do with the back of the box than anything else - and wasn’t Battlefield 1942 doing all these things better, five years ago?

Shacknews is reporting the early details of the next in Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise: multiple instruments and song creation.

Guitar Hero was a series originally developed by Harmonix which went on to revolutionise music and party gaming. When the developer fell out with publisher Activision, the team moved on to join forces with EA and MTV in producing Rock Band, a logical progression of the design which allows for drums and vocals in addition to bass and lead guitar. It’s coming out shortly and it’s really rather good.

Activision, on the other hand, has held on to the Guitar Hero brand, with the third installation plus a DS version developed by a new team. They’ve been well enough received, if not setting the world alight - and how could they in Rock Band’s shadow?

So, predictably enough, Guitar Hero IV will catch up with Rock Band in the multiple instrument stakes, while the amazing new feature mooted turns out to be a song creation tool. Which, incidentally, is something the free PC game Frets on Fire has offered for many years.

So, good on you Activision. Contender for the most Cynical Sequel of the Year Award?

Variety reports that Activision is to review all Sierra/Vivendi games due for release in 2009, with the future survival of all projects resting on the new owner’s appraisal of them.

With EA moving into a hostile position regarding its proposed purchase of Take Two, news regarding 2007’s merger between Activision and Vivendi - thereby creating the world’s largest video game publishing empire - has rather taken a back seat.

To recap, Activision bought the Vivendi games division (which often operates under the Sierra name), with Vivendi itself buying a controlling share in Activision. One of the company’s primary holdings is, of course, Blizzard Entertainment, and this is one of the key motivations in EA’s recent movements against Take Two, as well as the origin of the publisher’s new ‘Activision Bizzard’ moniker.

It’s taken time for the deal to rumble into effect, and the next few months will see gradual consolidation of the two company’s assets and offices throughout the world. What that means is that if Activision wants things to change, they’re going to change soon.

First on the list is a review of all 2009 titles currently planned by Sierra. Those due in 2008 are deemed safe because they’re already well into production. Essentially, everyone who already gone financing for their game from Sierra is going to have to pitch again to Activision.

It’s not great news for those developers, but you can’t blame Activision. After all, all they really wanted was World of Warcraft.

Industry analysts are suggesting the EA - Take Two takeover is likely to happen at some stage. When it does, EA/Take Two and Activision/Blizzard will be the two dominant publishers by a staggering distance. Do we need to be worried?

Short answer ‘yes’, long answer ‘no’.

There’s no denying that publisher acquisitions have, in the past, tended to gut talented developers, expend their natural talent, leaving them either disbanded, or producing endless cheap cash-ins. EA says that’s going to change this time, but they’re probably ‘mistaken’. The company has a reputation for pursuing publically safe bets, and somehow I’m not really sure GTA and Bully really slot into that image. So where’s the bright side?

The Odd One Out Publisher run development teams aren’t always the most innovative, and let’s be honest – that’s one of the major concerns – however, it’s far from a hard and fast rule. Think Spore, SSX, Prince of Persia, Alan Wake, Mario Galaxy, Okami… many of these series may have gone on to moo like cash cows, but the gems of ideas were still incubated from within publisher control.

Splinters The talent isn’t the studio, it’s the individual members of it. When a studio is purchased, what actually changes hands is physical assets, staff contracts, and intellectual property. The staff themselves can and usually do move on. In fact, many of the most exciting studios around today were only formed because the key players were fed up of their existing roles. Look at Realtime Worlds, Media Molecule, Platinum Games, all reborn from the ashes of publisher owned studios.

Spit and Polish Of course, there’s upsides to publisher run studios. The better security and financing, not to mention asset sharing means that – while originality may suffer – quality and polish can increase. Series like The Sims, Call of Duty or Medal of Honor may not do much that’s new, beyond a pretty game engine, but sometimes, don’t you just want a reliable, dumb experience that you can enjoy? Activision has clearly had positive effects on Infinity Ward’s CoD series, and that leads onto the final, and most important point…

Duality …which is that the massive empires of Activision and EA form an essential point of differentiation in the industry. Look at cinema, and it’s easy to point out that if you want something mass market, easy to watch, and visually impressive – you catch a Hollywood blockbuster. If you want something a little more interesting, unique or though provoking, you see something independent. The blockbusters make a ridiculous proportion of worldwide cinema revenues, but that’s not a problem. In the gaming environment of the last decade, the inventive, independent games have had to compete directly – in terms of budget, audience and required revenue – with the big boys, and as a result, lots of decent companies have gone under or been swallowed up. Once a stronger line is drawn between the blockbusters and the independents (and you won’t get a much bigger difference than we will once EA/Take Two and Activision Blizzard are running the show) the indies, the modders, the arty types will have room to breathe.

Artistic and innovative interactive entertainment will take on a new life, free of the weights imposed by competing with the big boys. Meanwhile, the two giants can go off and do their own thing. There’ll be casualties along the way, but there’s casualties in any war – it doesn’t mean we’re losing.

In an unexpected announcement over the weekend, Vivendi, the parent company of Blizzard, has bought a controlling stake in Activision. The combined business, to be called Activision Blizzard, will be the largest third-party publisher in the world, with revenues of $3.8 billion compared with EA’s $3.1 billion.

The deal is quite complicated. In the first phase, Vivendi Games will be merged into a subsidiary of Activision with a value of $8.1 billion. Vivendi will also buy shares in Activision valued at $1.7 billion, giving Vivendi 52% stake in the new Activision Blizzard. Then Activision Blizzard will undertake a share buyback, buying back up to $4 billion of its own shares, which will have the double effect of a) returning cash to existing Activision shareholders (presumably in a tax-efficient way) and b) reducing the total number of Activision Blizzard shares in the market. By this method, Vivendi will end up owning 68% of Activision Blizzard, and Activision Blizzard will continue to be listed on NASDAQ with a market value of approximately $19 billion (compared with $17.7 billion for Electronic Arts).

The deal will combine Activision’s strong publishing franchises (like Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk) with Vivendi’s games business, and particularly with World of Warcraft, which with over 9.3 million subscribers is (according to the press release anyway) the world’s #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise. It’s a huge deal, creating a real threat to Electronic Arts, particularly as EA does not yet have a category-killing MMO.

So despite comments to the contrary, the ongoing mergers and acquisitions in the games industry are far from over.  What’s next? How about Electronic Arts bidding for NCSoft to get hold of Lineage, Tabula Rasa and Guild Wars?