Today Activision held a conference call to discuss its quarterly earnings and announced several games that will be coming out this year. I sat in on the call and my eyes glazed over on all the fiscal discussion, but I woke up when they started talking about new games. So, I’m only posting about the stuff that I think really matters. Accepting that the call was going to say “we turned a profit” and “MW2 is crazy popular” no matter what, let’s dig into some of the juicier bits and what I personally took away from them:
What Was Said: A new Call of Duty game will be released late in 2010.
My Take: Surprise! But still, this is one of those weird things where Activision had not yet actually announced that a new COD game would be coming out in 2010. You, me, and everybody else on the internet assumed it would happen because there’s a historical pattern…but it’s not actually official until Activision says “it’s official.” So, it’s official.
What Was Said: Activision will release only two music games this year: a new Guitar Hero title, and a sequel to DJ Hero.
My Take: Thank goodness. Like a lot of people, I felt overwhelmed by the number of Hero titles last year. That doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy playing them, but I prefer it when a new Hero game is more of an event. So as a fan of “less is more” in this case, I’m glad that’s exactly what we get this year, one GH game and a sequel to DJ Hero. I just started playing DJ Hero myself (check my gamercard for my progress) and it’s humbling to go from playing GH on Expert to DJ on Medium. But I’m enjoying it, and I’m eager to hear what they build on for the next game.
What Was Said: A Spider-Man game is on the way this year.
My Take: Several people have been wondering how Marvel’s new relationship with Disney would affect Activision’s games. So at least this confirms that a) Activision and Marvel are still working together and b) it’s Spidey in the spotlight this year. I’ve seen a few screenshots of what they’re working on for this game…I liked what I saw and I’m both intrigued and a bit surprised. (And just because I’ve heard some confusion, Iron Man 2′s game will be published by Sega. Agent M over at Marvel.com has the scoop.)
What Was Said: A James Bond game is coming out this year, too.
My take: Twitter’s @MitchyD noted that this Bond game announcement comes even though there is no Bond movie this year. That’s correct. So that begs a question: what do you expect from a Bond game that isn’t based on a movie? Chime in below.
What Was Said: Shrek Forever After will ship in May, followed by Transformers: War for Cybertron and Singularity.
My Take: Mmm…not quite. Shrek is good to go for May, but Singularity is actually shipping in June. The statement on the call was a list of upcoming games starting with a May release, so I understand how it could sound like all those games were coming in May, and that’s what some outlets are reporting. But I just checked, and Singularity is slated for June. Just FYI — as I’ve said, clarity is my goal here.
What Was Said: The Tony Hawk Ride board took longer to develop than expected, which left less time to work on the software. A new TH Ride title is planned for this year.
My Take: Everything didn’t come together on Ride as planned, and the reviews made that much clear. But as someone who has the skateboard controller in his living room, I’m glad to hear that the part that is feature-complete is the physically larger and potentially more expensive part. Software is much easier to improve; I’m glad to hear I won’t have to upgrade the board for the next game. And I am curious to see what lessons were learned from last year. As an old arcade rat who played Top Skater and Air Trix, I like the idea of a physical board controller, and I just want the execution to live up to it.
UPDATE 2/11:
What Was Said: True Crime is gonna be a biggie.
My Take: To make up for leaving it out of the main infolanche, I tackled this in its own follow-up post.
Thoughts?
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