When Activision Blizzard buys a development studio, it generally asks one simple question: Which one of our franchises can these guys work on? The publisher's business model is based entirely on brands that it exploits (sequelizes and spins off) on a regular basis. Once in a while a studio gets to make a new property, like Raven is doing with Singularity, but most of the time, they're working on a franchise. Infinity Ward has Modern Warfare, Neversoft took ownership of Guitar Hero, Vicarious Visions does Wii versions of Guitar Hero, etc. So after Activision merged with Vivendi Games last summer and its management took control of the new entity, you know CEO Bobby Kotick and his executive team had only one thought as they perused Vivendi's development studios: Which ones fit a need for one of our franchises?
A transformers blog has stated that the game to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will feature multiplayer via Xbox Live & PSN.
The numbers in parentheses are shipments. ¿ Giren's Ambition: Threat of Axis (PSP Mobile Suit Gundam): ~60,000 ¿ L: The Prologue to Death Note (DS): ~6,000 ¿ Coded Soul (PSP): ~5,000 ¿ Major Wii (Wii): ~3,000 ¿ Transformers (PS3): ~1,000 ¿ Transformers (PS2): ~1,000 ¿ The Onee Chanbara Revolution (Wii): ~1,000 Source: Sinobi (Japanese)
US Games * Devil May Cry 4 * Devil May Cry Collector's Edition EU Games * NFL Tour * Turok * The Club * Devil May Cry 4 * Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition * Conflict: Denied Ops Asian Games * Transformers: The Game
Ahead of Activision's financial results next week, Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey has commended short-term revenue prospects, but commented that emerging competition for some of [Activision's] core franchises, including Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, may prove damaging for the company's long-term growth. Hickey stated for the short-term company prospects, We expect key fiscal Q208 and 2H08 game sales will come from Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, Transformers, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Call of Duty 4 and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. The Company's fiscal '08 game pipeline is exceedingly strong, and will likely generate record fiscal '08 operating performance.
Software and hardware sales in the US from VGchartz. Guitar Hero II takes the number one spot for software sales while the Nintendo DS was the best-seller for hardwares. Hardware: Console Weekly Total DS - 140,151 (-4%) 13,730,938 Wii - 95,171 (-3%) 3,974,505 PSP - 59,483 (-9%) 8,864,934 PS2 - 54,701 (-10%) 44,524,847 PS3 - 43,498 (-4%) 1,738,147 X360 - 34,174 (+5%) 6,607,403 GBA - 23,725 (-0%) 40,768,173 GC - 1,656 (-2%) 12,697,057 Xbox - 11 (-58%) 15,933,106 Total 452,570
The newest issue of the British magazine EDGE is in stores as of today and its always interesting to see which games were reviewed and what scores they got. This month some interesting titles have been reviewed, such as: Blue Dragon, Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Transformers and GRAW2 for the PS3. Apparently EDGE didn't really like Transformers and Hour of Victory as both games got 2/10 from EDGE. The British don't really like Blue Dragon and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 as well as both games 'only' got 6/10. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass did really well as it scored 9/10. Check out all of this months reviewscores below. Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (NDS, Nintendo): 9 Blue Dragon (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 6 Transformers (Xbox 360/PS3/Wii/PS2, Activision): 2 Odin Sphere (PS2, Atlus): 6 Ouendan 2 (NDS, Nintendo): 8 Monster Madness (Xbox 360, Southpeak): 5 Exit 2 (PSP, Taito): 7 Hour of Victory (Xbox 360, Midway): 2 Tenchu Z (Xbox 360, From Software): 6 Calling all cars (PS3, Sony): 6 Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (PS3, Ubisoft): 6 More Brain Training (NDS, Nintendo): 7 Anno 1701 (NDS, Disney): 8
Issue 5 of the free PlayStation 3 magazine has a preview of KillZone 2, plus an exclusive interview with the developer of Heavenly Sword and an E3 roundup report.
If you fancy getting your filthy mitts on a rather swanky Transformers toy ¿ and not just any old Transformer toy, mark you, but Hasbro's Limited Edition Supermetal Finish Robo-Vision Optimus Prime ¿ then GamerSquad and the BigBadToyStore have just what you're looking for. Read more...
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