Activision-Blizzard announced earlier today that the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise has surpassed 1 billion in sales worldwide. This is nearly a month faster than it took CoD: Modern Warfare 2 to hit 1 billion. It is now on track to set another milestone in the entertainment and video game industry. Before the games launch the expectations were set pretty high but now it seems that Wall Street’s expectations for the game weren’t high enough. Colin Sebastian of Lazard Capital Market has stated that they are “increasing the unit estimate for ‘Black Ops’ to 19 million from 17 million”. In its first five days on shelves, Black Ops pulled in $650 million. Just by looking at the numbers you can see that the game is going to break Modern Warfare 2′s record in everyday. Just recently it was released that Activision is already working on the games first DLC. Modern Warfare 2 had two downloadable map packs, the first of which pulled in 37.5 million in its first week. I am sure we can expect that the DLC for Black Ops will top that. According to Bobby Kotick: “people should expect to see more content made available for this game”, as well as why it’s doing so well: “The reason ‘Black Ops’ has done so well is it’s more accessible as a game,” says Kotick. “The folks who are making these games are really thoughtful about incorporating user feedback into the game. Each successive iteration makes it more broadly appealing.” Honestly at this point. it doesn’t matter how bad or flawed the game can be, as long as it has the Call of Duty stamp on it people will run out and get it. I also feel that the reason the game is so popular is because what Infinity Ward did with Modern Warfare 2. SOURCE [ CNBC ]

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CoD: Black Ops Surpasses 1 Billion In Sales

The studio that started the Call of Duty phenomenon fell to pieces earlier this year with the firing of its co-founders and the following mass exodus of pissed off Infinity Ward employees. With enough money, you can recover from that. And when you’re Activision Blizzard, you can put Infinity Ward back together again. You can get over it. Activision’s owner claims it has, according to the Financial Times . “We have reconstructed Infinity Ward,” said chairman and CEO Jean-Bernard Lvy of Vivendi, the majority owner of the mega-publisher. “We have been very happy with the way we have been able to reconstruct it.” Not that Vivendi and ActiBlizz need them! Lvy boasts that Black Ops developer Treyarch has outperformed the old Infinity Ward with its latest game. Activision did promise “ Ultimately, Infinity Ward will rise from the ashes ” not long after aggressively hiring new talent for the embattled studio. We’re sure they’ll be wrapping up Modern Warfare 3 any day now. Bobby Kotick is of course all about the money, he cares not for the games nor what goes into them, he only cares about the money he can extract….or “farm” from us players. But Infinity Ward has taken a huge loss this year due to lead developers quitting and founding new companies, it’s not just the developers leaving the company but other key players that develop games for us to enjoy as consumers. Personally I think this is a huge blow to Infinity ward, and it’s all Bobby Koticks fault, as I said he’s more concerned about making a quick buck, not so much concerned with the consumer….the PLAYERS….the people who buy ActiBlizz games. There is a movement on the official Playstation Forums to boycott Bobby Kotick/Actiblizz games, sadly the post has been buried and forgotten…..despite my attempts to keep the topic floated. Now-A-Days it seems that the main focus for the major developers is to develop a game that ‘nets’ the most immediate revenue and to subsequently “forget” about the game and move on. I don’t know about the rest of you but I miss the good-ol-days of gaming where it used to be about the games….not the companies that developed the games. For the gaming veterans out there like myself, do you remember the old days of the NES? Do you remember who made the game, or do you remember the game itself? Take Festers Quest for instance…a TERRIBLE game by today’s standards, but all in all you don’t remember that it was Sunsoft that dropped the ball on a developer standpoint, you just know that Fester’s Quest sucks some serious……well it just sucks. My point is that over the past 20-some-odd-years I think most of us gamers have lost focus on the big picture, and I think its the age of entitlement that has ruined gaming for us old farts. In closing, as I said I think that the modern age of “entitlement” has ruined modern gamers, as a gamer from the 80’s I have seen the industry grow in leaps and bounds, and it still fails to satiate the modern gamer because the modern gamer is spoiled beyond belief. In closing I think as gamers some of us have lost touch and become to greedy in our demands, and with our complaints have caused rifts in companies such as Infinity Ward. You may think that we have no influence in the goings-on of these companies, but in reality, customer feedback is the “word of god” But seriously, we only have ourselves to blame for this “reconstruction” and if the next installment of Call of Duty sucks….well its our fault because we complained and griped about the current development team and demanded new talent, and the new team who has no clue what we want as a community. So when the next COD sucks we only have ourselves to blame, because in the end these companies really do listen to us.

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Call of Duty Creators Infinity Ward Have Been ‘Reconstructed’

Yes,  Call of Duty: Black Ops now holds the biggest launch in entertainment history, surpassing its predecessor,  Modern Warfare 2 . That’s for the first 24 hours. What about the next four days? As you might expect, they went on to sell more. According to the latest Gfk Chart-track, the latest CoD topped the softwares sales chart comfortably in the UK. According to Activision, the game grossed US$ 650 million in its first five days of sale. Modern Warfare 2 had US$ 550 million. A very pleased Bobby Kotick pointed out that, “ Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment.” Activision isn’t the only one benefitting from the release. Microsoft reportedly had 2.6 million  Black Ops players on Xbox Live at launch day, logging in a total of 5.9 million hours of online play. The game has been patched earlier, so you might want to check the patch notes, too. [via  Joystiq ]

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Racks up US$ 650 Million in Five Days

“Maintain noise discipline”, a phrase uttered throughout Medal of Honor is a common one used in military dialect and perhaps EA should have followed suit. The controversy surrounding the last minute change of the Taliban’s name in multiplayer has caused plenty of drama but it’s never been anything like Modern Warfare 2’s ‘No Russian’ debacle, In fact there are no civilians present at all throughout MoH, just American soldiers, the Taliban/”Opposing Forces”. As you’d expect this is an incredibly patriotic game best summed up by the cover star Dusty wearing a FDNY cap, there’s no doubt you’re doing this for America with no coalition soldiers of other nationality in sight unlike MW2’s SAS sections but then this makes sense considering the Medal of Honor is only bestowed upon US soldiers. Enough of the politics though (always inescapable when it comes to war, eh?) does Medal of Honor dethrone Call of Duty or even Battlefield 2: Bad Company to become the top dog of war? Medal of Honor aims to be the more realistic title than its competitors by setting the game in Afghanistan and basing it on real operations against a very current opposing force. This is where the realism ends though and MoH moves to the video game stereotype emulating a blockbuster movie, it’s not at the level of CoD’s Michael Bay zaniness but rather Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down without the Hans Zimmer soundtrack… and with more Linkin Park. Luckily the ridiculous elements never go too far and it all operates within a realm of respectability. The gameplay is sold with weapons providing good kickback, headshots are satisfying and quad bikes are decent even if they do suffer from that age old vehicle in FPS syndrome where they have no acceleration or deceleration (I blame Half Life 2 for this). The flow of MoH is perfect switching between the different characters you control sometimes without even leaving the scene for example a sniper saves you at the end of a mission and you’re controlling that sniper in the next. The pace of the story heats up as you get further in too encouraging you to play on as you become more engrossed in the story. This does bring the campaign mode’s short length to your attention however there is re-playability in the form of a Tier 1 mode where you have to beat levels within a certain par time with no checkpoints to test the hardcore out there. There are plenty little touches to add realism with Russian tank corpses in the desert along with references to check weapons as the “dust is like glue”, you’ll frequently find yourself marking targets for air support too and in one particularly engaging encounter you are laying down the covering fire so your squad-mates can mark a target, it works brilliantly as you see a fight from the other side and are not the one expected to charge head on at the enemy for once. The general chatter between soldiers with military lingo feels very authentic really drawing you into the operation you’re carrying out as opposed to MW’s dramatic lines or BF:BC2’s (unfunny) jokes. The best example of this is during the mission as a gunner aboard an Apache helicopter and hearing all the chatter about what to aim for etc. The aesthetics of MoH have been well thought out to immerse you into the war in Afghanistan with sprawling snow capped mountains to the water barren valleys there is always a good view. Dust clouds obscuring your view especially after large explosions you can be completely without sight from dust and smoke as the sun gazes through, it’s a spectacular and haunting 9/11-esque effect. The sound is equally good as gun shots echo throughout the valley, explosions boom with violent bass and your squad mates constant updating of the situation really helps. This results in MoH being a polished game but could still do with the odd buff here and there, some of the edges can look rough as though there is no anti-analysing, and I also noticed enemies spawning in the distance which ruined the immersion somewhat. Before some of the major set pieces you character will also lower their gun disabling your ability to shoot, this definitely ruins the shock factor of a particular scene knowing you can’t do anything to stop it. Interestingly the single and multiplayer sides of the game use different engines with single player developed by Danger Close using the Unreal engine and the multi player develop by Dice using their superb Frostbite engine. The results in MoH feeling almost like 2 completely different games multiplayer using the best engine, it looks nicer, runs with a better frame rate and contains more destructible elements of scenery although not at the same scale as BF:BC2. Multiplayer, of course, offers you a chance to be the Taliban Opposing forces with each side presenting you with different weapons for example M16 if US to the AK 47’s of OP FOR and C4 against IEDs complete with mobile phone trigger. It makes playing on each side more than just a cosmetic. There are a variety of modes from Team assault (team deathmatch), Combat Mission (where you take over a series of objectives), Sector Control (domination/king of the hill) and Objective Raid (2 positions to defend/attack). All these modes are great fun but some of the small maps result in one team dominating the other thanks to poor spawn points allowing a team to be pinned into a corner and that is never fun. There are 3 classes available; Rifleman, Special Ops and Sniper and with no healing, repair or ammunition resupplys MoH’s multiplayer is fast paced and kept simple. The kill streak rewards come in offensive and defensive flavours such as mortars or UAV and are applied via a scope so you have to see the area you’re ordering an air strike on instead of cowering in a corner with a map. There are limited perks that amount to kit upgrades such as laser sights and open-tip ammunition which are all upgraded in the standard XP point system. It fills the middle ground between the fast arcade thrills of CoD and slower more tactical BF:BC2. It’s worth noting that I had no connection or host migration issues in any matches or problems with lag, outstanding. It’s also worth mentioning that the PS3 version contains the exclusive Medal of Honor Frontline a remastered PS2 title included on the disc running at 60fps with updated controls and trophies. It’s not quite the polished job of the God of War collection with some v-sync issues and low res textures but it is definitely worth revisiting this classic game which I have fond memories of. It’s also fun to see the large jaws and slightly comic animation with Nazis standing up to die. The gameplay still stands up well though and you can see just how far FPS games have come on consoles when you check out the old default control scheme – shoulder buttons to sidestep?! Medal of Honor has been touted as EA’s first step into the modern warfare market and it’s a great start, it’s decent in all areas if not a genre leader of any becoming a halfway house between MW2 and BF:BC2. It’s easy to pick up and play and does a good job of raising awareness for the soldiers who are serving in Afghanistan even if it’s not an entirely realistic portrayal. So while Medal of Honor may not be best shooter out it’s still an honorable effort that’s worth your attention. *A copy of Medal of Honor was provided by EA for reviewing purposes. Campaign mode was played to completion twice on normal and hard. All multiplayer modes & maps were tested over 5hours of playtime using all classes.

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Medal of Honor Review

Platform United States Japan Total Year Over Year Change PlayStation Portable 140,000 136,541 276,541 -7.32% Wii 254,000 62,852 316,852 -41.78% PlayStation 3 312,000 83,924 395,924 -41.41% Xbox 360 483,989 14,178 498,167 33.12% Nintendo DS 403,000 254,654 657,654 -20.17% Top Ten Game Sales in USA Title Publisher Platforms Halo: Reach Microsoft Xbox 360 New! Madden NFL 11 Electronic Arts Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii, PSP Dead Rising 2 Capcom Xbox 360, PS3, PC NHL 11 EA Xbox 360, PS3 FIFA Soccer 11 EA Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep Square Enix PSP Mafia II Take 2 Interactive Xbox 360, PS3, PC Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions Activision Blizzard PS3, 360, NDS, Wii Metroid: Other M Nintendo Wii Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Activision Blizzard Xbox 360, PS3, PC As everyone knows, NPD has cut back on the data that they allow to the public. Japan hardware sales are still available. PS3 US sales came through eventually. PSP USA figures are estimated.

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September 2010 Sales

So chances are, you’ve played a violent video game or two. Maybe even killed an innocent civilian for no reason, without even giving it a second though. Or maybe perhaps when playing “No Russian” in Modern Warfare 2, you said to yourself, “Now this is just too much.” Well the website arstechina.com asked their readers what they felt. The results were mixed of course. Some readers used specific examples to back up their point, games such as Fallout 3, Manhunt 2, and Duke Nukem forever. Others were simply quoted as, “Um, nope. It’s a game.” So should there be a line drawn? Is there too much? In my opinion, every one is different. Sure, I’ve never been disgusted or repulsed by anything in a game, however others are horrified when I describe things to them. But there is no way to deny video games can effect us. They make us laugh, get us angry, even become sympathetic towards a fake person. So is it that big of a stretch to think that too much violence can affect us as well? “Nay,” says this gamer, but maybe I’m wrong. The rest is up for you to decide. Via arstechnica

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Video Game Violence, is there such a thing as too much?

God of War 3 and Heavy Rain take the top spots and with good reason. Both are great games. This poll idea was by Jay. Since I used his idea, he gets 200 points. As usual vote in the sidebar. If you have any ideas for polls please respond to this forum topic , so we can change it up more often. Our goal is to change it up every 2 weeks. Favorite PS3 game of 2010 so far God of War 3 – 63 Votes 43% of all votes Heavy Rain – 25 Votes 17% of all votes Final Fantasy XIII – 21 Votes 14% of all votes Modern Warfare 2 – 17 Votes 12% of all votes Just Cause 2 – 7 Votes 5% of all votes Uncharted 2 – 5 Votes 3% of all votes Bioshock 2 – 4 Votes 3% of all votes Battlefield: Bad Company 2 – 3 Votes 2% of all votes Yakuza 3 – 2 Votes 1% of all votes Total Votes: 147 Started: April 26, 2010

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Poll: Should Kevin Butler make an appearance at E3?

Not too surprising but big none-the-less, The two bosses of Infinity Ward that got Sacked by Activision have created a new company; Respawn Entertainment. Hmm I wonder what they could be referring to with that name? This news only helps to add further intrigue into the overdrawn lawsuit between the two developers and Activision after Zampella and West were accused of trying to sign with EA. Vince Zampella, General Manager of Respawn Entertainment said this in announcing the deal; “Respawn Entertainment marks a fresh start for Jason and me. For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise. We’re very proud of what we built – and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again — open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA.” They also added this little chestnut too; “Now that the team is in control of the games and brands, we can ensure that the fans are treated as well as they deserve.” A non too sly dig at the latest Stimulus Package for MW2? Hopefully this move can breathe some new life into the developers as a lot of people felt they were stagnating at Activision but I can’t help but feel a sense of overcrowding at EA now. When you factor in DICE making the Battlefield games and the online for the new Medal of Honor along with EA LA handling the single-player campaign. That’s a lot of different Modern Warfare studios making games for EA. Presuming of course that Respawn Entertainment’s next game is a Modern Warfare title. Oh and lets not forget Infinity Ward Left EA to go to Activision after making the early Medal of Honor games. Yahoo!: Jason West and Vince Zampella Form ‘Respawn Entertainment’

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Vince Zampella and Jason West from Infinity Ward ‘Respawn’ with EA

This Week Slow week in gaming this week. We’ve only had a total of 27 main articles and 3 QuickNews, so the lack of any big news this week definitely helped with that. What was most of the news about this week, though? Well, there are a couple opinion pieces, including one from Sakinah and another from Ace . Sony’s ad campaign character, Kevin Butler, has also made some news, seeing as he’s been credited for helping make big sales on the PS3. Along with that, Trev also let us know of the Share site’s poll asking whether he should host the E3 conference or not and his opinion on the matter. Ace also posted a video that shows most of the Kevin Butler ads . There’s also a bunch of trailers available to check out this week, most of which were posted by Ace, so be sure to go through those and see if there are any you’re interested in watching. Other announcements? here’s a limited edition PSP pack for MGS: Peace Walker, the next round of Uncharted 2 DLC has been revealed, and it’s been confirmed that there will be a SOCOM 4 beta . There are a few more morsels here and there, so be sure to go through the lists. I have also updated the Poll tab with this week’s current poll (though, the poll is still open, I got the results from the time of this writing, so the final results are still to be determined). And be sure to read up in the Community tab as well! Community News What do you think of that? Two new co-writers in 2 weeks? Last week, I hogged all the glory with the announcement of my promotion, but this week, we have Sakinah (formerly known as fleakitten)! That’s right, we have a female writer now (and, as some put it, some racial diversity as well). Congratulations Sakinah, it’s well deserved . Last week, we also announced the winners of the PS3Blog.net shirt giveaway, and this week, Tosh has gotten ahold of some coupons you can use to buy the shirts at Zazzle.com. If you’ve never been to the site before, it’s definitely worth checking out. With that said, if you were reading the news this week, Tosh let us know that there was going to be a new way to get the PAX giveaway items. Well, that new way was announced this morning , and it’s first come, first serve, and given the number of replies right now, you’ve got slim pickings. Here’s this week’s recognitions: Contributor of the Week Ace – 9 Entries QuickNews Contributor of the Week Jay – 2 Entries Most Liked Jay and Ace – Red Dead Redemption: First Multiplayer Trailer Revealed! and Miss Any Of Big KB Sony Ads? – 9 Likes Most Comments Ace – Will The CoD Franchise Ever Be The Same Again!? – 12 Comments Gaming News When Will The Fighting Genre Evolve? Sakinah – April 4th Mega64: Batman Arkham Asylum Trev – April 4th Ninja Theory: 3D gaming this gen will be ‘limited’ Ace – April 4th Star Wars: Dark Forces getting PSOne Classics re-release Ace – April 5th ‘It Only Does Everything’ Campaign Proves to be a Major Success Jay – April 5th PS3 Slim Portable! Eddie – April 6th Kevin Butler Should Host Sony’s E3 Press Conference Trev – April 6th Super Street Fighter 4 TV Spot Marc Macayan – April 6th Moviegoers Eager for 3D Darrin – April 6th Will The CoD Franchise Ever Be The Same Again!? Ace – April 6th Miss Any Of Big KB Sony Ads? Ace – April 6th MGS Peace Walker Crosses Paths With Monster Hunter Sakinah – April 7th Crysis 2 Trailer shown in Times Square Marc Macayan – April 7th Modern Warfare 2 – Everyone’s Doing It! Ace – April 8th Geohot enables “Other OS” feature on Firmware 3.21 Marc Macayan – April 8th Blu-ray earns US$ 331M from Q1 2010 sales Ace – April 8th Red Dead Redemption: First Multiplayer Trailer Revealed! Jay – April 8th “Big Boss” Pack for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker Jay – April 8th F.E.A.R. 3 Announced for PS3, Xbox 360, PC Ace – April 8th FirstPlay Launches Today Jay – April 8th Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package DLC May 5th Trev – April 8th Crytek: “Crysis 2 To Be Visually Unbeatable On PS3″ Sakinah – April 9th Gamer gets partial refund for PS3 after Other OS was removed Ace – April 9th Crysis 2 Extended Trailer Marc Macayan – April 9th The Activision/Infinity Ward Fiasco: Act 2 Jay – April 9th New Uncharted 2 Siege Expansion Revealed Sakinah – April 10th SOCOM 4 Beta confirmed Ace – April 10th QuickNews Sega Closes Sega Studios San Francisco Sakinah – April 6th Gran Turismo 5 May Support Move/3D Jay – April 6th Heavy Rain Tops 1 Million in Sales Jay – April 9th Play With Us Nothing currently planned Poll Results Remember, you may have to reload the frame to see the results! Thank You That’s all for this week! As you can see, I got a little more into the groove this week, so I’m proud of that . Still been pretty slow, though, and I apologize for that. I need to get things back in order haha. Anyway, be sure to keep coming back, seeing as there’s always something new in store! And a personal opinion, I like the poll idea with adding your own answer, but then again, it will only work on certain polls, but cool idea nonetheless. Thanks for reading everybody!

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The Weekly Recap (April 4th-10th)