In the past year or so, we’ve seen some big mergers and acquisitions in the gaming industry. Activision and Blizzard’s merger was the big news, but there have been others. Today, another newsworthy acquisition was announced.

ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks, has acquired id Software. This acquisition puts franchises like Fallout 3, Oblivion, Doom, Quake, and RAGE under one roof. The best news out of all of this is that all of the principals at id Software have signed long term contracts, meaning that id will continue to operate under the same management going forward.

In discussing the deal, id Technical Director and industry icon John Carmack said, “This puts id Software in a wonderful position going forward. We will now be able to grow and extend all of our franchises under one roof, leveraging our capabilities across multiple teams while enabling forward looking research to be done in the service of all of them. We will be bigger and stronger, as we recruit the best talent to help us build the landmark games of the future. As trite as it may be for me to say that I am extremely pleased and excited about this deal, I am.”

So, what sort of speculation can we make because of this deal? Bethesda games driven by id engines? That would seem to be a logical step, wouldn’t you think? What do you think this news means to the future of the two companies?

You can read the full text of the press release after the break.

Read the full article

Looks like we’re having a celebrity deathmatch in U.S. District Court in Seattle. This Tuesday, Valve filed suit against Activision Blizzard.

Apparently the complaint stems from a 2002 dispute over Sierra licensing Valve games without the consent of Valve. As we all know, Sierra was merged with Activision last year. Earlier this month, on April 6th, an arbitrator awarded Valve $2,391,932.

Valve said this was less compensation than they were seeking, but they agreed to be bound by the arbitration process.

As is usually the case, one of the parties wasn’t pleased. In this case, Activision challenged the award, saying that Valve was overpaid by $424,136 in the past. Valve responded saying that that Activision didn’t properly raise the issue in front of the arbitrator.

Activision reportedly cut Valve a check for $1,967,796 last week. That amount is the total awarded by the arbitrator less the disputed $424,136. Apparently, Activision has said that it would not pay the rest, and that if Valve went to court, Activision would countersue. Valve apparently ignored this warning, and has filed a suit in US District Court in Seattle.

Download the PDF of the complaint.

Thanks, GamePolitics

Activision Blizzard sure knows how to get the speculation ball rolling, and with this latest bit of teasers and confirmations from the company during yesterday’s Massive Inc. event (advertising summit really) what they had to say is really not much of a surprise.

This meeting basically showcases games that would be great vehicles for in-game advertising, and the biggest one mentioned was one called Guitar Hero 5 (working/speculative title at this point) which was revealed as a screenshot featuring a Burger Kings ad next to the scrolling notes.

ActiBliz also confirmed what we already knew about the upcoming Tony Hawk game slated for an October 2009 release when a spokesman stated: “You’re not going to be playing this game with a controller in your hands”. This, however is old news to gamers who have been in the know regarding a “skateboard type” peripheral which is supposed to come with the game.

Confirmed during the event was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for Fall 2009, and while no details were forthcoming on the upcoming Call of Duty title, ActiBliz did acknowledged Bizarre Creations’ “Bond Racing” (no tile was mentioned) style game which would be heading to stores sometime in September 2009. The good thing about this Bond game though, is that there is no movie tie-in associated with it and for fans of racing games, another one is in the works which is being hailed as a “Mario Kart meets Forza”.

So there ya have it. A few teasers, a few confirmations and the expectation that in-game advertising will be prevalent throughout each one of them. Hooray for greed and constantly being bombarded with advertising no matter where you look. Formally known as the American Way, it is now just the way of the world.

(MTV Multiplayer)

It looks as though U.K. fans are just as crazy about the Call of Duty franchise as those in the U.S. because according to the All Formats charts from Chart Track, the week one sales of Call of Duty: World at War are higher than sales for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare when it debuted. Outselling CoD4 by more than 2 to 1, World at War is expected to be the most popular game during the Holiday Shopping Extravaganza across the pond.

If you look at the rest of the chart, you will notice that games published by Activision Blizzard dominate the chart by having 25 percent of all sales for the one publisher. Of course, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is on the chart as well, taking spot number two while Guitar Hero: World Tour coming in at number six (full kits for this game were just released recently released).

Last week’s number one best-selling game was Epic’s Xbox 360 exclusive Gears of War 2, which dropped 64 percent and down to position number four.

To give you an idea what our British brethren are playing, here are the top selling games for week ending November 15:

1. Call of Duty: World at War
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
3. Football Manager 2009
4. Gears of War 2
5. FIFA 09
6. Guitar Hero: World Tour
7. Professor Layton and the Curious Village
8. Mario Kart Wii
9. Pro Evolution Soccer 2009
10. WWE Smackdown Vs RAW 2009

Thanks: GamesIndustry.biz

Gamers were outraged when they heard that StarCraft 2 would be coming in three different parts. Blizzard had claimed it wouldn’t let the merger between Activision and Blizzard parent company Vivendi impact the way it did business. But the move reeked of the type of thingthat would fit right in with Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s recent comments that the company want their games to be exploitable. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Blizzard COO Paul Sams vehemently denies that StarCraft 2 is being milked.

Speaking with VideoGamer.com today before a midnight launch of Wrath of the Lich King in London today, he said:

The fact of the matter is, it’s absolutely, positively untrue about us trying to stretch it out and milk it. People think that it was a monetary driven decision. I can absolutely, positively tell you, with 100 per cent certainty, that that was not part of the conversation. I guarantee it. I give my word. There was never, ever a conversation where we said, ‘let’s do this because we’re going to make more money’. I guarantee it. As a matter of fact the sole reason we did it was because we thought it was going to be a better experience. Anybody that says otherwise is not correct. It is absolutely not what we did it for.

Sims’ denial is more passionate than the usual corporate line we get, so maybe it’ll be enough to convince fans that Blizzard truly is doing this to deliver the best game is possible.

But we doubt it.

Following the merger between Activision and Vivendi to form Activision Blizzard, it was announced that a number of games — including high profile titles like Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend — were being dropped. Disappointing as it was, it was a mind-boggling decision to many gamers, given that Activision decided to retain the rights to other Vivendi franchises like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. We’ve theorized that this was simply a matter of being able to milk those franchises more than you could the new Riddick, and sure enough, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick admitted as much during yesterday’s Activision Blizzard earnings call.

According to MTV Multiplayer, while answering a question on why some of Vivendi’s games were dropped, Kotick laid out the reality of the matter — albeit without referring to any specific games:

“[Those games] don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises. … I think, generally, our strategy has been to focus… on the products that have those attributes and characteristics, the products that we know [that] if we release them today, we’ll be working on them 10 years from now.”

It’s a fair point given that Activision is, after all, a business, but it’s easy to be upset with that sort of strategy. Luckily, Kotick did say original properties are important, but they need to be careful with which properties they pursue. Of the 15 properties Activision Blizzard is planning to release next year, “three, maybe four” of those will be “exciting new intellectual properties.”Too bad none of them will be Ghostbusters or Brutal Legend.

Analyst Doug Creutz of Cowan and Company have looked into their crystal ball and believe that Activison will include a skateboard peripheral with the next addition to the Tony Hawk series. Expected to be released sometime next year, Creutz feels that the addition of peripherals with games will boost sales for the franchise after a year’s absence from the market.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, in his latest letter to investors, Creutz stated:

“We believe that the extra year of development time and the opportunity for consumers to shake off franchise fatigue could contribute to better unit sales than the franchise has enjoyed in recent years.

“We also view it as highly likely that the game will include some sort of skateboard peripheral with all SKUs when it ships, given the massive success (and higher price points and profitability) of Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero franchise.”

This is pretty much a no-brainer considering how popular Wii Fit has been complete with the Wii Balance Board; plus, with Nintendo and other developers working on ways to integrate it into future IPs, the days of just owning a lone controller are becoming a thing of the past.

Also, if you factor in the how popular the music gaming genre and its peripherals are and third-party ones like light sabers and guns, you will see that gamers have no problem playing extra for something that will enhance their gameplay experience even more. Therefore, it is safe to say that Creutz and Co. are not far off in their predictions for the Tony Hawk franchise – even if this obvious assumption of theirs is something gamers have known for a long while now.

Rumblings around the internet are now indicating that 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is the latest game to get the axe as a result of Activision Blizzard’s purchase of Sierra. This was of course the sequel to the atrocious, yet successful 50 Cent: Bulletproof, which would have had ol’ Fiddy traveling to the Middle East for some hackneyed reason. The sequel actually looked like it was shaping up to be a very different affair from its predecessor, but Activision probably realized that the stench of the first game — which has been listed on numerous “Worst Games of All Time” lists — wouldn’t wash off easy. And still no word on the fate of the Ghostbusters game, which is probably the main project from Sierra that most people are curious about.

UPDATE: Aaaaaand, rumor squashed. Apparently the game is close to being finished and is still set to be released this winter. Damn you, internet rumor mill!

Via Kotaku

As you may have heard, Monolith and Warner Bros. finally decided to just go ahead buy the rights for the “F.E.A.R.” name from Activision Blizzard, meaning that their upcoming FPS will now be known by it’s true name of “F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin.” So of course there’s got to be a new trailer to go along with this announcement. This video may just be Monolith’s way of showing off the game’s new name, but that doesn’t mean it can’t give me the heebie jeebies in the process. If Alma was creepy when she was locked up in the first game, I’m guessing she’s going to be even more creepy now that she’s loose. This is already looking like the sort of game that will have me jumping in my seat a few times.

Here’s a little nugget of interesting info: for the period of July through September (Q3), 75% of games released on consoles will have been published by either EA or Activision-Blizzard. EA makes up the narrow majority of that percentage with 21 different releases — most of the which come from their Madden and Tiger Woods franchises — though Activision isn’t far behind with 19 releases. Q4 is also looking to be a strong month for the two companies who will collectively release 40% of all new titles during that time. The report on this information comes from Screen Digest’s Ed Barton, who also notes a rise in Q3 releases for the two companies in addition to a strong Christmas lineup.

To put this in more simpler terms: Activision and EA are freakin’ huge. God help us if they ever team up in a bid for world domination (artist’s representation of this scenario pictured right).

Via Gamasutra