Speaking to a group of investment analysts today, Activision CEO (and soon to be Activision Blizzard president and CEO) Bobby Kotick said the company is considering turning its Call of Duty franchise into a massively multiplayer online game.

Kotick briefly touched on the idea in answer to a question at the 2008 Morgan Stanley Technology Conference about how merging Activision with Vivendi Games might open up new opportunities for both companies.
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In response to GamePro's article, Microsoft's global marketing director, Albert Penello, offered the following response:

"We have to disagree with your conclusion that the trend of Xbox 360 versions of games being best is changing, especially when you look at the entire catalog of multiplatform titles available. We also feel there were some key features of Xbox 360 games that deserved a little more play in your reviews. For multiplatform console owners, Achievements and Gamerscore have to be listed as an influencing factor to purchase the Xbox 360 version; their success and popularity is undeniable. The fact that other consoles have not implemented anything like this across every game should not be a reason to leave these features out of consideration. Plus, with Xbox 360 the capability for controller rumble comes standard, not as a future option and you get all the benefits of Xbox LIVE and its community of more than 10 million members.

'The cold, hard truth' is that Xbox 360 has the best games - and industry reviewers and consumers agree. Xbox 360 has more games with an aggregate review score of 90 or higher than the competition combined and multiplatform titles regularly sell better on Xbox 360. The majority of games are still lead developed for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE simply makes games better. The competition between platforms is great for gamers and in 2008 we are going to continue to work with developers to push the boundaries of our platform and the LIVE service to make sure the best game experiences continue to be on Xbox 360."
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"With Call of Duty 4 being the smash hit that it is, it's no surprise to hear that new multiplayer maps are in the works..."
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. Here are the top 3 for each charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles:
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III

Top Arcade Titles:
1. N+
2. Triggerheart Exelica
3. Worms

Original Xbox Top Live Titles:
1. Halo 2
2. Battlefield 2: Modern Combat
3. Counter-Strike
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Robert Bowling has sent news that Infinity Ward are looking into the massive problems players have had with lag since the recent game update.
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Drew Crecente of Kotaku writes: When I first read the words "Q Awards" I auto-magically thought of the late, great actor Desmond Llewelyn but was apparently way off track. These are Gamefly's version of the Oscars sans the cheesy dance routines.

Winners are determined by GameFly members, who according to the GameFly press release are the "... most discerning community of online video game renters." Unfortunately I'm not terribly discerning as I can be easily distracted by bright colors and flashing lights.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare took the Q awards triumvirate, winning "Game of the Year," "Xbox 360 Game of the Year," and "PlayStation 3 Game of the Year."
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It's been talked about for months, rumored for weeks, and now it's finally here. The Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty 4 has now been officially patched. The title update will be available the next time you load up the game (as long as you're connected to Live). Airstrike the link to get the full details on what this patch features.
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Infinity Ward's Robert Bowling has updated his IAMfourzerotwo blog with new information that suggests the new Call of Duty 4 content could be available by this coming weekend
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Fourzerotwo, (IW community relations), has stated on his website that the patch is "very very close." He thinks it should be out by this weekend.
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. Here are the top 3 for each charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles:
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III

Top Arcade Titles:
1. N+
2. UNO
3. Rez HD

Original Xbox Top Live Titles:
1. Halo 2
2. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
3. Counter-Strike
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Halo 3 hasn't been top of the pops on Major Nelson's Xbox Live activity charts for a little while now, but Bungie plans to fight back.

"We have a lot of awesome new content coming up. We're not walking away from Halo 3," Bungie's community lead Brian Jarrard told Eurogamer last week at GDC.

"We have a group of people at the studio that are just focused on keeping the game going strong for the foreseeable future, so I think we'll continue to evolve and I expect there to be a back-and-forth [between us and COD4] for a while."
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GameFly today (2008-02-25) announced the winners of their Fifth Annual Q Awards. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Activision) was selected by GameFly subscribers as "Game of the Year" and also won individual honors for "Xbox 360 Game of the Year" and "PlayStation 3 Game of the Year."

The Q Awards were created to give GameFly members the ability to voice their opinion and to recognize publishers who create the best games.

In other categories, GameFly members recognized God of War II (SCEA) for "PlayStation 2 Game of the Year," Ratchet and Clank: Size Matters (SCEA) for "PSP Game of the Year," Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo) for "Wii Game of the Year," and The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (Nintendo) for "Nintendo DS Game of the Year."

The second- and third-place recipients of the GameFly Fifth Annual Q Awards for all categories are also named.
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CVG: Infinity community manager, Robert Bowling, has been caught red-handed talking about the highly anticipated Call of Duty 4 map pack. Unfortunately he didn't really reveal much. We're guessing Activision is saving all that up to make some big announcement soon.
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Infinity community manager, Robert Bowling, has been caught red-handed talking about the highly anticipated Call of Duty 4 map pack. Unfortunately he didn't really reveal much. We're guessing Activision is saving all that up to make some big announcement soon. Speaking to Destructoid, Bowling said, "People who want open maps are going to be happy with this map pack. People who want more indoor locales are going to be happy with this map pack. ... » Read More

PSU Writes:

"Bowling said that Infinity Ward is listening to the community. Everyday he's checking the Call of Duty 4 forums and his blog for suggestions and comments. Also, they check Youtube quite frequently to check for the latest glitches - the "Pipeline Glitch" is one example of something Infinity Ward is already looking at to be fixed.

"We are very proactive when it comes to negative comments on the community forums," Bowling said. "We want to provide the best online experience we can..."

Lastly before the interview was over, we talked about how the new "Features Patch" will enable Infinity Ward to dynamically change the playlist settings for the online modes. Bowling said that so far, they have only changed the playlists two or three times, where as when the new patch is released they will be able to switch it up, add additional modes to the playlist frequently."
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Theabovedomain.com has posted some interesting images which are rumoured to be the in-game multiplayer start-up loading screens for three brand new downloadable maps for Infinity Wards smash hit Call of Duty 4. Still no word as yet though on any release date for this first batch of much awaited DLC. Sadly no sign of a map to take advantage of those night-vision goggles fully either.
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These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. Here are the top 3 for each charts, see the source for the complete top 10 list.

Xbox 360 Top Live Titles
1. Call of Duty 4
2. Halo 3
3. Guitar Hero III

Top Arcade Titles
1. Poker Smash
2. Commanders: Attack
3. Rez HD

Original Xbox Top Live Titles
1. Halo 2
2. Ninja Gaiden Black
3. Star Wars: Battlefront 2
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VideoGamer's Wesley Yin-Poole writes: Speaking in the latest podcast with Microsoft's Xbox LIVE Director of Programming, Larry Hyrb, aka Major Nelson, Bungie's Frank O'Connor also described the ongoing battle between Halo 3 and superb military FPS Call of Duty 4 for the number one game on Xbox LIVE as a "ping pong match" and said "I'm sure we'll overtake them and maybe they'll overtake us again".

"One of the things people think is missing from Halo 3's suite of maps is smaller deathmatch type maps for competitive play. We'll definitely deliver there I think. As well as the other bigger more exciting objective maps."

Frankie also revealed his feelings on the Call of Duty 4 vs Halo 3 battle at the top of Xbox LIVE. Last time we checked, CoD4 had beat Halo 3 again after Halo 3 had briefly regained top spot. Frankie said he was looking forward to "more Call of Duty maps" and praised developer Infinity Ward for "making good stuff".
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Activision and Infinity Ward confirm that new downloadable multiplayer maps are on the way this spring. In development for both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the upcoming downloadable content will thrust gamers into new combat zones across a variety of intense multiplayer locales.
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TheStreets report: "Video-games publisher Activision remained firmly in the saddle as the leading video games publisher in January for the third consecutive month.

The video game publisher enjoyed solid sales from its monster hit, Call of Duty 4. Meanwhile Sony's hardware console PlayStation 3 moved ahead of the Xbox 360 and closed the gap against the Wii.

Activision and Sony's performance stood out in the overall video-games industry, which saw growth shrank last month compared with the same period a year ago".
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