Released this past Wednesday, Activision announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has set an all-time sales record with 6.5 million copies sold in the United States and United Kingdom, snagging over $400 million in sales. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick pointed out that other than Call of Duty, “there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row,” with Call of Duty: Black Ops setting the record at $360 million and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 setting it at $310 million.

As you may be aware, Kmart accidentally started selling some copies of the much awaited Modern Warfare 3 yesterday, ahead of its November 8th release date. The mistake was discovered pretty early on, and the sales were stopped, but there were still a number of copies that managed to make it out into the wild, and what happens when a commodity like this becomes available in a very limited quantity? eBay-ing, and lots of it.

Not yet confirmed to be a secret marketing move on Electronic Art’s part, but when visiting the URL http://www.modernwarfare3.com, what would otherwise obviously be the official URL of the next installment in the Call of Duty franchise, you will be redirected to the official site for rival game Battlefield 3. One really must wonder why Activision didn’t feel the need to reserve the most obvious URL for their next probable blockbuster title.

Funnily enough, if you try to visit http://www.battlefield3.com, it doesn’t actually link to the Battlefield 3 site that the Modern Warfare 3 URL does, but a different Battlefield 3 site.

The battle for video game genericness may not yet be decided, but someone — whether it be EA or some troll — just threw down the gauntlet.

(via GamesRadar)

For the first time, an authorized Time cover has been created to promote a commercial product, which just so happens to be Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. The cover, seen above, depicts a destroyed Wall Street with the headline “World Stands On The Brink,” which, funnily enough, is exactly how Roger Ebert, noted video game naysayer, felt when he tweeted out that the first-ever authorized fake Time cover used to promote a commercial product just so happened to go to a video game, claiming that Time “sold its honor for a video game promotion” and it is “sad, sad, sad.”

Earlier this month, Activision finally put Guitar Hero out of its misery, whether or not it was a misery caused by Activision themselves. The guys over at The Warp Zone decided to send the franchise off with a song parody farewell, seemingly tongue-in-cheek, and reminds us all that Rock Band was the better way to go. If you’re so inclined, The Warp Zone was generous enough to provide a free download of the song.

(The Warp Zone via Joystiq)

The developer that milks franchies more than Fat Tony milks rats, Activision, has decided the time has come to pull the plug on the Guitar Hero franchise. Considering the decline in rhythm game sales over the past couple years, this would come as no surprise, if one were to disregard the fact that Activision is notorious for milking franchises, at least.

Declared in Activision’s recent financial statement:

“Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011.”

Yes, the above quote does seem to state that Activision did have plans for yet another entry in the Guitar Hero franchise slated for this year. Who would’ve thought?

So, for now, Guitar Hero will go gentle into that digital night. We’ll always remember it for when it mattered, and though it was unavoidable, where it went wrong. Goodbye, Guitar Hero. May you score multipliers in Gaming Heaven.

(via Joystiq)

This week, we reported on a StarCraft II mod creator who faced copyright infringement charges by Activision-Blizzard, when the game maker took down a video of his mod after providing him the tools to create said mod. The StarCraft II community immediately cried foul, coming to the support of Ryan Winzen, a college student who used the official StarCraft Editor to create “World of StarCraft,” a mod that tried to emulate a StarCraft MMO. But now, not only has Blizzard withdrawn its complaint, it’s extended a congratulatory hand to Winzen and invited him to Blizzard headquarters to meet its own developers. How did things suddenly become so cool?

Yesterday, the gents over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun covered a StarCraft II mod which turned the game into an MMO, obviously named World of StarCraft. The mod was in very early stages, but a video showed it had a mocked-up character creation screen, as well as fighting and experience-gaining working for the Ghost class. The mod was made using StarCraft II’s Galaxy Editor, a powerful level creation tool that Blizzard encouraged modders to use, essentially challenging modders to create unique and complex things. Of course, now that a group of modders began work on a very unique and complex creation, a StarCraft MMO, Activision-Blizzard sent out some copyright infringements to YouTube in order to get the video of the mod taken down.

Not content to just let old feuds die, Axl Rose, singer of the famed rock band Guns N’ Roses, is now suing Activision for $20 million over licensing terms regarding a deal that supposedly granted Activision rights to use “Welcome to the Jungle” in Guitar Hero III only if former band member Slash didn’t appear in the game. Well, as everyone can plainly see from the game’s cover, Slash appeared pretty prominently in the game.

One more thing for California lawmakers to think about: severely regulating the video games industry will render it less likely to perform inspiring works of charity. Activision, the parent company behind the Call of Duty franchise, held a held an event related to the launch of the newest CoD installment that, other than hosting numerous celebrities, a Metallica concert, and a armed-services only tournament, raised seven figures for US veterans.

Said CEO Bobby Kotick:

“Call of Duty is one of the biggest of all entertainment franchises that uniquely pays tribute to the courage, dedication, and sacrifice of those who defend our nation and our freedom around the world,”

“It is especially popular among service members at home and abroad, which is why we are honored to have this event highlight the critical issue of veterans unemployment and make our own contributions to the cause.