I was a nerdy kid in high school.  My three main activities were: debate, academic challenge, and gaming.  Debate I found incredibly challenging and intriguing.  Spinning facts, remaining purposefully vague, or completely lying  in order to gain a trophy at the end of a busy Saturday was always a blast.  Just like anything in politics or public relations, spin is king, and communicating a coherent vision for the future of your company (or political party) is paramount to your public image and the interest of your consumers.

In the past few months, there have been some major publishers who haven’t been able to communicate their plans for the future very eloquently, causing many WTF? moments among the gaming population.  From Activision’s Call of Duty Elite details, to Nintendo’s Wii-U, there have been plenty of missed opportunities by publishers to excite their core audiences and to announce a clear vision for the future.  The easiest way to solve this would be for these publishers to say what they mean.  Conversely, it would serve the gaming community well to not get caught up in the giant hype machine that these companies create.  Activision: you’re first on my list.

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Marvel and Activision have announced a new Spider-Man. After successfully launching Spider-Man: Shattered Demtions, they have decided to continue with Spider-Man: Edge of Time. In the press release, they brief on the story of this next adventure, stating: 

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Activision featured one of their upcoming games Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventures in the 2011 Toy Fair.

While at the Toy Fair I was able to see the game played and check out how it all works. Spryo’s world is in danger, so he and his friends have to go explore mysterious lands to battle evil creatures and, of course, save their world. Gameplay includes both puzzle solving and fighting; it predictably starts out quite simple and gets  progressively more complex.

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Bad news for all you Guitar Hero fans out there. Activision has announced that the popular game will not return.

This is also very bad news for about 500 of Activision’s employees, who lost their jobs today because of the decision.

Says Activison, “Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011.”  The company also stated that the high cost of licensing the music and producing the game contributed to the decision to end the franchise.

In a related note, Activision also announced they are discontinuing the development of True Crime: Hong Kong.

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Blizzard contacted Game Informer to “let them know” that Blizzard has not officially released a statement saying that they have set Diablo III as 2011 release.  In other words, it’s a no go, at least not this year.  Activision did announce in their fourth quarter conference call that they were not intending on releasing a game in 2011, but this pretty much confirms it.

Has Diablo III been too long in the making?

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EA’s CEO gave investors, and gamers, a little tease earlier today regarding a “very exciting” new first person shooter that will be released sometime by the end of this year.

The yet-unannounced FPS game is something EA is hoping will topple Activision’s lead on the genre.  Check out more after the jump!

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In an online post on his forums Ryan, the creator of this awesome MMO mod for Starcraft, explains what has been happening with the whole situation, from Blizzard lawyers all the way to Riot Games.

He went from “a nobody to a guy that half a million people want to design a mod.” Still, he is getting dozens of game designers, composers, organizer, and even just professionals looking for a “hobby project.”

Update 1: Blizzard has officially responded about the Mod.

Update 2: Ryan announces that the project will go on.

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Ryan, the creator of this awesome mod just informed us that Activision has taken action against his YouTube video, and while many people saw this coming,  this is just sad sad news.  All that hard work for no payoff?! HEY ACTIVISION?! Do you see how well Gabe Newell and Valve are doing? Do you understand WHY they are doing so well? The Fans. LISTEN TO THEM!

Ryan’s email to us:

James,

I’m not sure if my first message went through, it was pretty long, but Activision just took action against the video. Can you believe this man? They put out a tool to let us do anything and then shut us down when we get too good with it?

We’ll update this post as we get more information.

More updates past the break, plus another source of the video.  If you want a piece of fan modding history saved in your hard drive, download the YouTube flick past the break before it gets taken down. We will have a one-on-one chat with Ryan tomorrow to see if this is just a naming problem or something more.

Update - We have contacted Blizzard. We’ll let you know if we receive word on this story.

Update #2 – Ryan tried to email Blizzard. Riot Games wants him. More after the break.

Update #3 – Riot Games tossed him a ball. Blizzard has respond to Ryan directly. More after the break.

Update #4 – Ryan explains what happend.

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Activision has a half off sale until January 17, 2011. Fifty percent off the DLC is a great deal if this is what you are looking for.   For instance, each of the Call of Duty World at War Map Packs are 400 MSP. If you didn’t pick them up before, now is the time. Go past the break for the full sale listing.

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DJ Hero 2 is coming out on October 19th and there is still a lot that hasn’t been revealed yet from the game. Except for the the names of the artists that will be featured on the game. In the video past the break, you will see the different kinds of multiplayer modes that the game will come with.

After watching it, DJ Hero 1 does seem like an introduction of the game to the world.  Now DJ Hero 2 steps it up with some good competitive action. Now, lets just hope Activision steps it up with more Guitar/Turntable tracks.

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