Tag Archives: call of duty

Activision Blizzard has released its full-year 2011 and Q4 financials, and has said to expect Diablo III during Q2 this year, which would place it somewhere between March and June, and a new entry in the Call of Duty franchise with “meaningful innovation” is expected this year.

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Activision has announced Overwatch as the next content drop for Modern Warfare 3 and it will be made available first to Elite Premium Members on the Xbox Live February 21. After the exclusivity period on 360 ends, it will be released for PC and PS3. Overwatch takes place in a construction site atop a New York City skyscraper, and includes two levels “in a near symmetrical layout,” with the central bridge and side routes open to attack from multiple angles. This is the third content drop for the game, and the next two will be released in March and will include Black Box and two brand new Special Ops Missions, Black Ice and Negotiator. New screens are posted below and the content calendar can be found here.

Meanwhile, Beachhead has posted a preview of Elite’s Clan Operations through here, and stated its release is “getting closer every day.”

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Activision has outlined the remaining 18 content drops of a promised 20 for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

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According to a report by US-based financial analyst Baird Equity Research, two upcoming titles – Grand Theft Auto V and the next Call of Duty – will account for almost a quarter of all video game sales in the coming fiscal year.

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ERA’s 2011 UK Entertainment reports shows that between its release on November 8 through the end of  2011, Modern Warfare 3 moved 2,814,609 units in the region, a number which falls 451,789 copies short of its predecessor, Black Ops for the same period in 2010, when it moved 3,266,298 copies. The Call of Duty series wasn’t the only franchise to note a slump compared to a previous release, as EA’s FIFA 12 sold 196,929 copies less than FIFA 11, which moved 2,193,302 units for the same period in 2010.  The numbers reflect the downward trend of UK game sales, which were down 13% in 2011 year-over-year. Thanks MCV.

Call of Duty’s status as the UK’s biggest entertainment property is no more.

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Activision has released a set of screenshots for the first of 20 Content Drops coming to Modern Warfare 3 starting January 24 with Liberation and Piazza. The multiplayer maps, which are also playable in Survival Mode, will toss players into locations such as Central Park and an Italian seaside village. Liberation is a “vast, militarized landscape, ripe for long-range sniper and LMG fire, with mounted turrets on either end”, while Piazza contains “tight corners and branching pathways” which pose “great risk at every turn” and is dominated by close combat. The maps, as with all MW3 DLC, will be released first on Xbox Live for Elite before hitting PC and PS3 due to an exclusivity agreement with Microsoft.

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Fusible reports the domain registration companied used by Activision Blizzard has acquire blackops2.com, the only missing entry from a spate of registrations right up to Modern Warfare 6 and Black Ops 6. Regardless of whether Treyarch has a sequel in the works for the 2010 smash hit Call of Duty: Black Ops, it makes sense for Activision to keep hold of the domains to protect its brands, so don’t get too excited – yet.

Thanks, gamesradar.

One juggernaut dominated Xbox Live during 2011 – and it’s exactly what you expected.

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“The idea of giving people constant incremental playable content and making it so you’re never more than a few weeks away from the next new experience within the Call of Duty universe is part of what we’re experimenting with. This franchise doesn’t really behave like most franchises. It’s become something of a year-round activity for a large percentage of our player population. One of the things that was most appealing when we were researching these ideas with consumers is the idea of breaking up the DLC so that it comes more often and more regularly. We want to provide DLC to people more often and also experiment with more of a variety in the forms of playable content. The nature of this kind of service requires constant iteration. There are things [in development] that consumers don’t yet know they want… because they can’t imagine it.” – Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg to Wired.

California Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle has dismissed EA’s request to dispel Activision’s $400-million contract-interference claim that the company underhandedly appropriated Infinity Ward heads Jason West and Vince Zampella while still under contract with the publisher.

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Automated video game and DVD rental service Redbox has announced that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the number one most rented game in all of 2011. Which is an impressive feat considering it’s only been out for a month.

The company made the announcement as they released the full Top 10 list of their most popular rentals. The list, though topped by the obvious winner in MW3 (Xbox 360, the PS3 version was #5 as well), is full of surprises. Notably, the Xbox 360 dominates the list while PS3 only appears once. Check out the full list after the break, and you can view offerings available through the service on its official website.

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Apparently, Modern Warfare 3 was the eighth most popular topic on Facebook this year. It was the only game in the top 10, and the death of Steve Jobs hit at number five. The rest of the chart dealt with politics, sports, the wedding between a posh British lady and a Prince, and Charlie Sheen’s crazy ass. You can view the chart through here, but note that December’s popularity hasn’t been gauged just yet. The more you know, etcetera.

Inevitably, Activision already has a new Call of Duty game on the cards – and Sledgehammer is on board.

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Activision has announced proceeds from the sale of all Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 avatars on Xbox Live between now and December 16 will be donated to the Call of Duty Endowment. There are over 30 items for MW3 available, and two additional avatars, the American Special Forces and Special Ops Juggernaut have been added for the incentive. Go have a look through here. It’s for a good cause. Shots of my Avatar in the newest gear are posted below.

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Activision has announced Call of Duty: Black Ops Zombies for iOS will be released tomorrow, December 1 for $6.99. It will basically be the same zombies mode found in the console version of the game, only scaled down for your iPad and iPhone screen’s needs. The title will launch with the Kino der Toten map and the mini-game Dead Ops Arcade. It also contains multiplayer support for up to four players and has voice chat capabilities. Thanks, Joystiq.

Just a quick reminder to all that today is the last day to become a “Founder” of Act vision’s Call of Duty Elite service. Those who choose the Founder option will be handed an exclusive title, weapon camouflage, and emblem for Modern Warfare 3. Those who opt-in will also have access to a private discussion group, and will receive 500 XP for your clan, as well as “exclusive competitions and prizes that only Founders can enter.”

Founder status is permanent whether you renew next year or not, and will run you $50 annually. Those who purchase the Hardened Edition of Modern Warfare 3 and have yet to enter the attached voucher granting Founder can still do so, despite today’s deadline. Thanks, Shack.

This new trailer highlights some of the ways Call of Duty: Elite can make your gaming life better, while mysteriously failing to mention how not screaming abuse into the mic would definitely help.

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Former senior vice president and head of publishing at Activision Dusty Welch has formed a new studio called U4iA Games, and plans to usurp Call of Duty’s genre-leading position.

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Activision publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg feels that while “video games are fictitious popular culture” in the same vein as films, the content included in each are received in a very different manner.

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