Monthly Archives: February 2015
Treyarch is Making 2015’s Call of Duty Game
Treyarch is developing 2015's Call of Duty game, Activision announced today.
During an investor call, Activision said this year's CoD title will be the first from Treyarch to have a three-year development cycle. The first Call of Duty game to receive three years of development time was last year's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Treyarch was the developer behind Call of Duty 3, World at War, Black Ops, Black Ops II, and other non-mainline Call of Duty games. Treyarch's studio head Mark Lamia recently shared at the Las Vegas DICE Summit that the series' beloved Zombies mode almost didn't exist.
Destiny’s House of Wolves Gets a Release Window
Destiny's next expansion, called The House of Wolves, is slated to launch in the second quarter of this year.
In the Bungie Weekly Update for February 5, the developer said the soft deadline for the second shared-world shooter expansion is sometime between April and June. That release window lines up with the leaked May 19 date found by a Reddit user earlier this week.
While Bungie didn't divulge any additional information about The House of Wolves, an alleged Destiny leak from last month possibly spilled the beans on a lot of the content in the expansion. It's expected, based on the leaked image, that The House of Wolves will include three new story missions, two additional strikes and a raid titled The Arena.
The Walking Dead’s Coolest Weapons
The Walking Dead returns to AMC this Sunday, February 8th, to finish out the back half of Season 5. And with Rick and the rest of the survivors reeling from their recent loss and back on the open road, they're going to need their trusty weapons more than ever!
Five years into the show now and walker whacking is a basic facet of life for these characters. But while such a grimy, grotesque task has become easier over the years, it still always helps to have that one perfect weapon/tool/instrument of destruction at your side. Especially now that you're just as likely to kill an evil human enemy as you are an undead one.
Whether you're shooting, stabbing, clubbing, or mauling, here are 8 of the coolest weapons on The Walking Dead:
Call of Duty Franchise Earns $11 Billion Worldwide
During Activision's most recent earnings report, CEO Bobby Kotick announced that the Call of Duty franchise has earned $11 Billion worldwide in sales since its launch in 2003.
According to Kotick, this is the sixth year in a row that Call of Duty has been the best-selling franchise in North America, following the releases of blockbusters such as Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare also met a milestone last year, as it was the top-selling console game in 2014.
New DLC for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare recently added an all new Exo Zombies mode and several new multiplayer maps, among other things. To learn more, read IGN's review of Advanced Warfare, or watch us try out the new Havoc DLC.
Is a Marvel/Star Wars Crossover Coming?
Today Marvel Comics sent out a mysterious teaser promising a "forceful" announcement concerning Secret Wars on The View tomorrow at 11 am EST.
With Marvel now publishing Star Wars comics, the term "forceful" certainly conjures up the idea of the Star Wars universe somehow playing a part in the upcoming Secret Wars event, which sees alternate universe Marvel characters colliding on Battleworld.
Marvel is no stranger to The View. Last year they utilized the talk show to announce that the new Thor would be a female character.
Of course, there are other Marvel properties that the "forceful" clue could be pointing to. There's X-Force, and Clay Wilson aka Force... but who are we kidding? It's probably going to be Star Wars.
Activision Blizzard Reports Strong Financial Numbers
Activision Blizzard announced strong earnings for the financial quarter ending December 31, 2014. With Non-GAAP revenues coming in at $2.2 billion USD, the quarter met the company's expectations announced in November of last year.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare was the company's, and the world's, best selling game for 2014, with lifetime sales of the franchise topping $11 billion. Destiny was also pointed to as driving revenue, with Activision saying it was the top-selling new IP for the year.
CEO Bobby Kotick cited user numbers for Destiny and World of Warcraft, saying the two franchises "attracted over 40 million registered players worldwide," and generated more than $850 million for Activison Blizzard.
The Hulk vs. Iron Man Statues of Your Dreams Are Coming
Kotobukiya is the latest collectible company to hop on the Avengers: Age of Ultron bandwagon, and their first two statues are something to behold. Today the company revealed (via Marvel.com) two new entries in their ARTFX+ line - Hulk and Hulkbuster Iron Man. The two statues will be sold separately, but they can be combined to form a very cool diorama scene.
Oddworld’s Move to Xbox ‘A Matter of Survival’
Lorne Lanning, creator of the Oddworld series, says the decision to move Oddworld from PlayStation to Xbox was a matter of survival.
In a panel discussion at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas called “A Conversation with Shu Yoshida”, Lanning discussed a few reasons behind the move -- a potentially touchy subject considering the presence of the president of Sony Worldwide Studios.
Lanning said it became unpredictable to plan and develop a game on the PlayStation 2 from a budgetary standpoint. And he said the cost of acquiring dev kits became prohibitive. When the original Xbox was announced as a machine built for developers, it made development costs more predictable. "We were trying to survive,” he said. “It was a way to actually land and survive."
Daily Deals: $110 Off an iPad Air 2, $350 PS4, Xbox Live for $40
$110 less than if you bought it right from Apple. It's the 16GB Wifi version.
NBC Renews The Blacklist, Grimm, More
NBC has announced it’s renewing dramas The Blacklist (for Season 3), Chicago Fire (for Season 4), Chicago PD (for Season 3), Grimm (for Season 5) and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (for Season 17!!!).
For the 2014-15 season to date, NBC ranks #1 among the Big 4 networks in adults 18-49 and all other key demographics.
“The creative vision of the executive producers who’ve guided these outstanding dramas has been nothing short of incredible,” said Jennifer Salke, President, NBC Entertainment. “We’re highly appreciative of the passion they bring to their shows at every step of the creative process and we’re thrilled to reward that dedication with these renewals.”