According to MCVUK , industry giant Activision is rumored to eyeing up Take Two Studios to purchase in the very near future. Thats right, the owners of Rockstar Games. These rumors are circulating even at the highest level of industry professionals bringing a pinch of credability with it. We all know that Activision is not above buying the largest games in the industry (COD, WOW, etc) and spurn out yearly versions of said games. We also know they will not hesitate to kill off games that underperform such as Guitar Hero as of late. So how do you feel about GTA, Red Dead and L.A. Noire going to Activision? *image courtesy of colony of gamers

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Rumor: Activision Looking to Buy Take Two (Grand Theft Auto Publisher)

Yesterday was a sad, sad day for music game fans as Activision has confirmed that after several layoffs hit some of their studios… Guitar Hero and DJ Hero are no more . Smaller than usual revenues for their last two music games (that would be DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock) pushed Activision to shut down that division of their business so they can focus in what gives them the most profit: more Call of Duty, the next episode of Starcract 2 and giving us a special glow in the dark mount for World of Warcraft every three months. I LOVE Guitar Hero, ever since the first one was released on the PS2. I took an immediate liking to DJ Hero after trying out a demo unit at a Toys R Us a couple of months after it was released. I own two PS2 wired guitars along with GH 1-3 and Rocks the 80′s, own a full band kit from World Tour along with Guitar Hero 5, GH Metallica, Van Halen, Smash Hits and Aerosmith and I’ve got all the tracks from Band Hero as imported content (thanks sis!) on an SD card. All of these are for the Wii (yep, you CAN own more than one console. Go figure!) in case you were wondering. I’ll miss the franchise since I mostly play drums and the drumming in Rock Band is too much of a stretch for me since the floor tom will magically change into a ride cymbal, then into a crash cymbal and then into a cowbell. Sure, adding the “Pro” kit for Rock Band 3 would take it closer to a proper drum kit experience but that’s an add-on that wasn’t fully supported before. I DO own Rock Band 2 and Lego Rock Band but mainly because I got each for $10 and for that price I can survive some weird drumming here and there. I hope that Activision realizes that music games should be a “once every two years” deal and not a “hey, we’ll launch six in eight months!” Eureka moment. I liked the way that Warriors of Rock’s career mode was handled and the soundtrack in DJ Hero 2 is worth the price of admission by itself. Guess I’ll have to make do with the DLC they’ll release for the rest of Q1 and Q2 before they pull the plug. Should have seen this coming after Harmonix got sold a couple of months ago…

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Activision Cancels Guitar (and DJ) Hero… And I AM Sad

Quick, what was the biggest game launch this year? What was the biggest game launch ever, all time, all platforms? What PS3 game released this year with tons of bugs, lower resolution than the 360 version, bad frame rate issues (also not on the 360 version), and all-around ugliness? The answer to all these questions is “Call of Duty: Black Ops”. The fact is, Call of Duty: Black Ops runs much better on the 360 than on the PS3. On the 360 the game had some matchmaking and spawn issues that are being ironed out. The PS3 version, well, we’ve gone over that before, but I’ll do a quick recap. First, it is just plain lacking some features that are in the 360 version. Like dual PSN logins and boot-to-multiplayer. Second, it runs at a lower resolution than the 360 version. Third, the bazillions of bugs including frame rate issues and the bad matchmaking and spawns. This really really makes the PS3 look bad. The biggest game launch ever , and the PS3 version is crap compared to the competition. We know that the PS3 is capable of so much more. Just look at God of War or Uncharted 2 or Killzone 2. Heck, even MW2 runs better than Black Ops. Since Call of Duty is my number one game, I even considered buying a 360 just to play Black Ops. (I came back to my senses… eventually. But I did consider it.) Sony needs to work alongside developers like Activision for big titles that’ll be in the public eye. Sony can’t afford to have their system look so bad beside the competition, especially when it doesn’t have to. Sony needs to send developers to Activision and make sure that the next big title works just as well (or better) on the PS3 as on the 360. Frankly, it’s too late for Black Ops. That ship has sailed and there’s no fixing the fundamental problems. But Sony can make sure that the next title runs well, and they should do it. Sony needs to remove the egg from its face.

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Sony Needs Babysitting Service

Two months after it’s release Sony is reporting that sales of the PlayStation Move have reached over 4.1 million units worldwide. “The number not only shows clear success of the launch of the new motion sensing controller but also indicates positive momentum going in to the holiday season and to the year 2011.” states Sony. The 4.1 million figure does not include stand alone sales of the Navigation controller or the PlayStation Eye camera. GameIndustry .biz

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PlayStation Move Sales Pass 4 Million

Today, Activision announced the closing of two development companies today: Liverpool-based Bizzare Creations, of Blur , the 360’s Project Gotham Racing, the acclaimed downloadable game Geometry Wars , and the very recently released James Bond 007: Blood Stone fame, and Iowa-based Budcat Creations, known for making PS2 ports of Activision games, like Guitar Hero, Band Hero and a Wii and PS2 FPS,  Medal of Honor: Vanguard . Budcat is also famous for it’s development of Tim Schafer’s Psychonauts in 2005. Both Bizzare and Budcat were acquired by Activision Blizzard relatively recently, with Bizzare in being bought in 2007 and Budcat being bought in 2008. Activision is also closing it’s California-based Quality Assurance company. Bizzare will lose a total of 200 employees and/or staffers, Budcat is to lose it’s entire staff of 60 people, and the California QA cuts will number in the 20-30 range, putting Activisions layoffs today at approximately 300 people. Just in time for the holidays. Happy Holidays, Bizzare and Budcat employees! Instead of that Christmas bonus, you instead get unemployment checks. Today, which started out good with the release of potentially the best Need for Speed and Assassin’s Creed in both of their series’, has ended rather depressingly. Today is a sad day for the video game industry. No, I am not being melodramatic.

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Activision to Close Budcat Creations, Bizzare Creations

CoD2 was never released on the PS3, probably because it came out before the PS3 was launched. But CoD3 was released for the PS3, but without the split screen support and map packs that 360 users enjoyed. In MW2 split screen, we had to play against “Guest 2″ and “Guest 3″ while 360 users got to play against named opponents. (I assume this was the case in WaW and MW1 as well, I just don’t remember.) 360 users got map packs before PS3 users as well. Now, PS3 users are getting shafted by Activision one more time. Is it getting to the point where we have to just expect this and be content with our second-class status? What am I talking about? Split screen online support, where the second player gets to log in under their own Xbox Live account on the 360, while PS3 users do not get the equivalent PSN support. Just makes you kind of mad, doesn’t it? Is Microsoft’s wallet at play here? Or is Activision just lazy? Or do they really just like to baby their 360’s because they just like them so much more? Oh, and before you go saying that the PS3 doesn’t support this kind of dual login, just stop right there. It does. Resistance 2, released two years ago , supports this feature, and does a great job of it. It’s in the firmware, Activision. Use it!

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Activision Shafts PS3 Users (Again) (Black Ops)

Get a glimpse of the epic single player campaign of  Call of Duty: Black Ops as Activision and Treyarch shows off another explosive trailer of the hotly anticipated shooter sequel. Call of Duty: Black Ops releases on November 9 on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS and PC.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Gets Single Player Trailer

I tested out WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe and it converts videos a lot faster than I thought. First video I converted was a 720P .mkv Naruto anime with subtitles. Quality was great and it completed a 23 minute anime conversion in 9 minutes, so not shabby at all. Plus it keep the subtitles intact. On the PS3 Preset you can select 720P or 1080P or you can just select a .MP4 file (720×480 or 720×576). It has a lot of built in presets which is nice for example: Sony Device: PSP Video (*.mp4), PS3 Video (*.avi, *.mpeg, *.mp4, *.wmv), PS3 HD Video (*.avi, *.mpeg, *.mp4, *.wmv) General Video: AVI, DivX, XviD, MP4, FLV, AVC, MPEG, DVD, WMV, MOV, Youtube DVD: DVD Format VOB (*.vob), DVD Folder High Definition Video: HD AVI Video (*.avi), HDAVC Video (*.mp4), MPEG4 HD Video (*.mp4), MPEG-2 TS HD Video (*.ts), WMV HD Video (*.wmv), Quick Time HD Video (*.mov), Youtube HD Video (*.mp4) Apple Device: iPad (iPad Wi-Fi, iPad Wi-Fi+3G, iPad 16GB, iPad 32GB, iPad 64GB), iPod (iPod classic, iPod touch, iPod nano), iPhone (iPhone 3G S), Apple TV, Apple TV HD Microsoft Device: Xbox, Xbox 360, Zune, Zune HD Portable Device: General mobile phone, PDA, BlackBerry, Creative Zen I was given 20 copies of WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe to giveaway on PS3Blog.net! Normally this software costs $49.95 So if your interested, donate 150 points to the lottery account , max entry of 4 entries please. There will be plenty of winners so be sure to enter the lottery! I’ll pick a winner at random on October 19th at 9 PM Mountain Time (MT). – NOTE: This giveaway is only for Windows [Microsoft Windows 98, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows 7] I was only given windows license codes. But there is a Mac Version and it’s called MacX Video Converter Pro . WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe builds 160 video codec and 50 audio codec, a perfect multi-functional combination of HD Video Converter, DVD Burner and Website Video Downloader. Without any third-party codec, it can support Multi-track HD video M2TS, MKV, AVCHD, HDTV BDAV and MPEG-TS video movies. It also supports converting all the High Definition and HD-Camcorder videos, to both portable and console players, such as iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PS3, PSP, Xbox, Zune, PDA, Blackberry, Nokia, Android, Zen, etc,. Supporting Multi-CPU and Hyper Threading, WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe offers up to 15x real time video converting speed. Full details on what the software can do here . If you need support please contact them here .

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PS3 HD Video Converter Giveaway!

via PSU , talented actors Gary Oldman and Ed Harris have lended their voices to Call of Duty Black Ops. Gary Oldman will play the role of Viktor Reznov from World of War and Harris will be a main character of a CIA operative, Jason Hudson. Additionally David Goyer (writer of Batman) will be joining the team as a script consultant and story development support. …man..ever since The Rock with Sean Connery, Ed Harris has always been a military guy in my eyes.

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COD Black Ops Signs On Ed Harris and Gary Oldman to Lend their Voices (Bonus: David Goyer Helping With Story)

In case you still haven’t heard, a new James Bond game is in the works for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC. Scheduled to arrive this holiday, here’s a early sneak peek at James Bond 007: Blood Stone . For a first look I give it a 7.5 out of 10 , I’ve bought the previous James Bond video games and  this one might be one of Best. Who knows I could be wrong, we’ll get more details soon to make a better guess if this is a buy or rent . Your thoughts on the trailer?

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James Bond 007: Blood Stone debut trailer