Sun, Feb 19, 2012 | 22:40 GMT
Rumor: Amazon France and resume mention Black Ops 2
Amazon France has once again announced a game before the publisher gets a chance to, and this time it’s reportedly Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. Meanwhile, the title has also been listed on a resume belonging to an art studio employee contracted by Treyarch.
Amazon France and a couple blacklistings
According to Gameblog.fr, the French arm of online retailer Amazon had a product listing for Black Ops 2 yesterday, and it has since been removed.
When reaching out to Activision France on the matter, Gameblog said it was asked by the firm to remove the story. It refused, and the site claims it has now been blacklisted by the publisher. You can read an interview with the firm’s co-founder regarding the chain-of-events over on Kotaku.
Adding more fuel to the blacklisting fire, is a tweet Pat has received from Xboxygen, claiming it has been cut-off by Activision France as well. The site’s full statement can be read here.
Jeuxvideo also reported the listing yesterday, but has apparently removed the story (thanks, Gek).
Activision has denied Gameblog’s claims that it has been blacklisted.
“Activision doesn’t blacklist journalists. We believe this was a misunderstanding and are working towards a resolution,” the publisher said in a statement issued to Joystiq.
Black Ops 2 pops up on a resume
Amazon France’s retail listing isn’t the only mention of Black Ops 2 today, as a LinkedIn (via Joystiq) resume belonging to an employee at art studio Nerve Software, which does contract work, has the game listed as well.
According to the resume, the artist has worked on titles in the past such as : Beatles Rock Band, Anno 1404, Doom 4, Aliens: Colonial Marines for various firms such as Terminal Reality and Liquid Development.
The firm he works for currently, has performed contract work for Treyarch in the past on James Bond title Quantum of Solace and the first Black Ops.
Activision said during its call to investors earlier this month that a new entry in the Call of Duty franchise with “meaningful innovation” is expected this year, and since Infinity Ward and Treyarch trade off every other year – it’s safe to assume the new shooter will be developer by the later.
We’ve reached out to Activision for comment, but have yet to hear back as of press time.
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Posted in: Activision Blizzard, Rumour, Shooter
Tags: black ops 2, call of duty, treyarch
23 comments
#1
LOLshock94
17/02/12, 7:17 pm
Black ops was class so il probs buy this
#2
Monk
17/02/12, 7:22 pm
Rubbish !
#3
DSB
17/02/12, 7:25 pm
If they did ask them to remove the story, that’s a monumental fuck-up.
Literally the worst thing you can do if you want to keep something quiet, is martyr the people putting it out there. That’s amateur hour.
You could choose to blacklist them in silence, that’s one thing, but it’s hard to believe that a communications guy like Hirschberg would actually let his people do something that stupid.
That’s literally as dumb as you can get, if true.
Likewise, if Jeuxvideo took it down to please a publisher, that’s their credibility fucked.
#4
Stephany Nunneley
17/02/12, 7:27 pm
@3 Well, it was Activision France supposedly, and I am not familiar with the PR workings over there, but if true – it was Amazon’s screw up (the reason it has surfaced everywhere now) so technically they are the ones who should be in trouble over it and not the site which reported it – if BO2 is in fact a “real thing”.
#5
DSB
17/02/12, 7:31 pm
@4 Sure, but if Activision can’t get their ducks in a row with Amazon FR, that’s their problem, not the people telling it like it is.
It’s just an obvious no-go. If it’s out there, it’s out there. There’s nothing you can do about it without making yourself a stupid bully, and that’s really not a feather in Activisions already black cowboy hat.
Of course, there’s no confirmation, but if I was Hirshberg, and I heard about that, I would make sure there was at least one less guy working at Activision FR, and restore gameblogs access with an apology ASAP.
It’s obviously real enough for Activision to take action against. If it was only egg on Amazon’s face, why the hubbub, bub?
#6
Razor
17/02/12, 7:39 pm
So essentially, the site has been blacklisted by Acti because it reported that another CoD game is coming this year?
Acti may as well blacklist everyone; that it’s branded Black Ops, as opposed to Modern Warfare, makes little difference, really.
#7
Patrick Garratt
17/02/12, 7:39 pm
There’s more info going into this now.
#8
Phoenixblight
17/02/12, 7:40 pm
@4
Except Activision won’t be doing that if its anything like the states where they sell a majority of their games. It would be an example of biting the hand that feeds. It much easier to push the game sites and tell them to take it down while Amazon removes the listing.
#9
Razor
17/02/12, 7:51 pm
Hmm… you could say that this employee has, ahem, a nerve to put Black Ops 2 on his CV.
…
I’ll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen.
#10
Mike
17/02/12, 7:52 pm
Everybody put something up so Activision can black-list everyone.
What would they do then?
Remove the “rumour” – tell Acti to fucking do one.
#11
Erthazus
17/02/12, 8:09 pm
Can’t wait for more shitty explosives.
#12
Cee
17/02/12, 8:21 pm
For fucks sake
rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat, bunny hop, floor fuck, bunny hop floor fuck.
COD1 and COD:UO was where it was at…used to adore the franchise.
But enough’s enough now.
*Awaits a figure from some cunt on how many copies of MW3 have been sold to date
What a bag of fucking bollocks
#13
Erthazus
17/02/12, 8:39 pm
I still remember COD1 and United Offensive. Everything else after that is mediocracy at best with huge marketing campaign and 15$ DLC map packs. Nuff said.
#14
someguy2
17/02/12, 9:23 pm
So these guys found a retail listing and because they refused to delete the article about they got blacklisted whereas Kotaku posted plot details, screenshots and more about Modern Warfare 3 but didn’t get blacklisted?
#15
G1GAHURTZ
17/02/12, 10:04 pm
Black Ops 2 seems obvious, but I wonder if it’s still in the same era…
#16
Cee
17/02/12, 10:29 pm
@13. Best multiplayers of any FPS
Lost many of hours of my life on those two games…dare I say it no other game (nearly a decade later) has even come close in the Multiplayer department IMHO.
#17
Fin
17/02/12, 11:15 pm
@13
Bro, correct me if I’m wrong (please do), but didn’t you spend 500 hours on Black Ops? Long time to spend on something you call mediocre.
#18
DSB
17/02/12, 11:21 pm
The MW3 sale managed to sucker me in. So far, so good. I’m not gonna bite on the next Black Ops. It was a wasted opportunity. I’m a sucker for retro weapons and settings, but it’s really missing the smooth touch of Infinity Ward.
@17 I think that was MW2, but that was just a terrible nasty game that no one should play, ever.
So not exactly “bad”. I spent roughtly a fourth of that, and I loved it
#19
jdfoster00
17/02/12, 11:26 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOkUR5a8L0s&lc=JX-YRV-VQWq12VNgYUhVgkKf-5tHSFrTolJ5rPIV170&feature=inbox <— potentially real footage of menu. Shall wait and see if Activision files copyright then confirming it's BLOPS! (Like we never knew another cod would come up again lolol)
#20
Grosseben
17/02/12, 11:30 pm
Hey Guys ! The first french site to speak about Black Ops 2 was http://www.xboxgen.fr yesterday morning. The other french sites have Plagiarized them. That would have been good to mention them.
#21
reask
18/02/12, 11:59 am
I actually enjoyed bo sp.
#22
Stephany Nunneley
18/02/12, 7:03 pm
Update: An link to an interview with one of the co-founders of Gameblog.fr has been added.
#23
Brenna Hillier
19/02/12, 10:41 pm
Update: Activision has issued a statement denying the blacklisting.