geekosystem

I saw a propaganda video released by North Korea the other day, and did the obvious thing -- I made fun of its terrible production value. It was really bad. The highlight of the video from purely a graphics standpoint came when the video showed an American city burning. Why'd it look so good? Because North Korea stole the footage from Modern Warfare 3. The video has been removed from YouTube thanks to a complaint by Activision, the publishers of the game.

Sure, Blizzard's notorious for running late with products. Okay, maybe Activision is willing to gouge players to the absolute breaking point. Still, there's a reason folks have come back to franchises like Diablo, Warcraft, and StarCraft time and time again. Even if that relationship should sour over time, let it not be said that the people at Blizzard weren't capable of wonders when it came to cinematic sequences. Case in point, the opening cinematic for StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm dropped today, and it's just about as beautiful as anyone could hope.

Today is the day. A vast number of gamers will be excitedly mashing buttons on controllers thanks to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 hitting shelves. Many keyboards may be suspiciously silent, however, thanks to a little problem with the PC version's second disc. Following traditional installation instructions, the game asks for Disc 2 in order to complete its setup. Unfortunately, it looks like some of these discs are actually copies of Mass Effect 2 instead. Oops.

This past weekend, one of the popular multiplayer maps for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 disappeared from the regular rotation. Favela, as the map is called, was taken down by developer Infinity Ward, and by extension publisher Activision, because Muslim gamers had found and complained about a bit of offensive imagery present in the level. See, one of the decorative frames in a bathroom found in the level contains a quote from the Prophet Muhammad -- which is a big no-no in the Islamic faith.

It's hard to say what's worse: Closing a developer not long after they've put out a new game or significantly reducing their staff to the point where they only serve to help with projects headed by other studios. Either way, Radical Entertainment -- the folks behind the Prototype franchise -- will no longer have work on games of their own. As of yesterday, they are effectively shuttered by their parent company Activision and another one bites the dust.

Activision has announced today that their next Call of Duty game -- rumored to be Black Ops related -- will be revealed on May 1st during the NBA playoffs on TNT so you know what that means: Let the viral marketing begin. The first piece, in what is sure to be an onslaught, is a special episode of the YouTube series FPS Russia featuring a military quadrotor with a machine gun. It may be fake, but that doesn't make it any less fun to watch.

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.