Category: Treyarch
After losing out on “Game of the Year” crown, Activision doesn’t renew domains: gameoftheyear.com [More]
What happens when you don’t win Game of the Year at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards?
Well, in the case of Activision, which saw its best selling game in U.S. history, Call of Duty: Black Ops, lose to Red Dead Redemption— the company has decided not to renew several of its domain names surrounding “Game of the Year”.
The list of names includes: gameoftheyear.com, thegameoftheyear.com, computergameoftheyear.com, pcgameoftheyear.com, and game-of-the-year.com.
Gameoftheyear.com, which was originally registered in 1999, expired on February 2, 2011. Now the domain name appears over on the Pending Deletes List provided by Pool.com, an online service that offers its’ customers access to a list of thousands of daily deleting domains. If a person is lucky enough to find a name they want in the Pending Deletes List, the person can obtain the domain before it becomes available for public registration.
Thegameoftheyear.com, according to Whois records, expired on February 18, 2011 and is still registered to Activision, but the status of the domain is set to ”Redemption Period”. According to GoDaddy, RedemptionPeriod means the domain name expired, and the registry is waiting for 30 days as a precautionary measure before releasing it.
Computergameoftheyear.com, pcgameoftheyear.com, and game-of-the-year.com are all in a Redemption Period status.
No love at the Spike Video Game Awards for Activision
Though Activision didn’t win “Game of the Year” in 2010 announced this past December, it did win in the “Best Shooter” category. And the company has won the distinction of “Game of the Year” by other blogs, magazines, and gaming sites — just not necessarily by Spike, which holds one of the biggest events each year.
However, the company just hasn’t had much luck winning a coveted Spike Video Game Award.
In 2009, Activision’s, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 lost out to Sony’s Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. In 2008, Activision wasn’t even a contender for Game of the Year. Grand Theft Auto IV, another game published by Rockstar Games took the crown. 2007 went to Bioshock and 2006′s title went to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.
Going all the way back to 2003, Activision has won in a number of different sub-categories, just not for “Game of the Year”.
UPDATE: Activision’s social media guy, Dan Amrich, who tweets using @oneofswords, has posted an insightful follow-up to this story.
Dan writes, “Truth is, there is no link between the expiration of these URLs and the Spike VGAs. What’s more, there’s barely a connection between these URLs and Activision. These URLs were registered by Vivendi/Sierra, and were used to promote the Game Of The Year editions of Half-Life in 1999 and Half-Life 2 in 2005.”
As I mentioned yesterday on this site’s sister domain blog, “…while one has nothing to do with the other necessarily, had Activision won “Game of the Year”, renewing the domain probably wouldn’t have been overlooked.” Either way, it was good to see an Activision rep do some outreach and respond to clear things up.
And for the record, Call of Duty: Black Ops should’ve totally taken the “Game of the Year” title in my opinion.
Black Ops Zombies, Call of Duty franchise helped by ‘walking dead’ supporting cast
Creepy and addicting, Call of Duty has featured a strong supporting cast of zombies that begun with the 2008 release of Call of Duty: World at War.
Games like Call of Duty have become hugely popular, not just because of the realistic gameplay set in different war periods, but because of the zombie mode that players have come to love.
The fact is, the data doesn’t lie as provided by search popularity of zombies in Google’s search engine.
To give you an idea of just how popular zombies are in Black Ops, the exact phrase “black ops zombies” was searched globally over half a million times last month, according to Google Adwords, a search-based keyword tool that shows the number of actual queries made by people from around the globe. The phrase “black ops zombie” had nearly a quarter of a million exact searches, at 246,000 queries.
This week saw more excitement in the zombie-hunter community.
Zombie mode for Call of Duty Black Ops by Treyarch, got a healthy dose of fixes in Title Update 7 as reported by MTV’s gaming blog.
• Addressed an issue where the most recent match played in Zombies could overwrite the best match played on the leaderboard.
• Improved Zombies lobbies to prevent players from erroneously receiving the error “Unable to join game session” under certain circumstances.
• Addressed a number of community-discovered Zombies gameplay exploits.
Also, Treyarch, the developers behind Call of Duty: Black Ops, released a short trailer providing a different look at Ascension, one of five new maps in First Strike. As written on the Treyarch blog, “And, for those dying to begin the next chapter in the suspenseful co-op Zombies saga, Ascension offers the largest map yet, introducing new weapons, transports, perks, and enemies.”
You can watch the trailer below.
Readers, have a tip on Call of Duty Black Ops zombies? Let us know.
Call of Duty: Black Ops tops $1 billion in sales
The Press Association is reporting that global sales of Call of Duty: Black Ops have topped $1 billion.
To put things in perpsective, Adobe the publishing giant and software maker, reported record fourth quarter revenue of $1.008 billion. Not bad.
However, Call of Duty hit $1 billion in less than six weeks since the first video game went up for sale.
Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops tops GFK Chart-Track for fourth week
Activision’s first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Black Ops, developed by Treyarch, has topped the GFK Chart-Track for “All Formats” ranging from the PC to the PS3 for the fourth week.
Here’s a look at the Top 40 entertainment software (All Prices) for the week ending Dec. 11.
| Rank | Title | Developer | Label | Publisher |
| 1 | CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS | TREYARCH | ACTIVISION | ACTIVISION BLIZZARD |
| 2 | FIFA 11 | EA CANADA | EA SPORTS | ELECTRONIC ARTS |
| 3 | WORLD OF WARCRAFT: CATACLYSM | BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT | BLIZZARD | ACTIVISION BLIZZARD |
| 4 | ASSASSIN’S CREED: BROTHERHOOD | UBISOFT (MONTREAL) | UBISOFT | UBISOFT |
| 5 | GRAN TURISMO 5 | POLYPHONY DIGITAL | SONY COMPUTER ENT. | SONY COMPUTER ENT. |
| 6 | JUST DANCE 2 | UBISOFT (FRANCE) | UBISOFT | UBISOFT |
| 7 | NEED FOR SPEED: HOT PURSUIT | CRITERION GAMES | EA GAMES | ELECTRONIC ARTS |
| 8 | DONKEY KONG COUNTRY RETURNS | RETRO STUDIOS | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 9 | PROFESSOR LAYTON AND THE LOST FUTURE | LEVEL 5 | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 10 | WII FIT PLUS | NINTENDO | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 11 | MICHAEL JACKSON: THE EXPERIENCE | UBISOFT (FRANCE) | UBISOFT | UBISOFT |
| 12 | WII PARTY | ND CUBE | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 13 | MEDAL OF HONOR | DANGER CLOSE/DICE | EA GAMES | ELECTRONIC ARTS |
| 14 | MARIO KART WII | NINTENDO | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 15 | THE SIMS 3 | THE SIMS STUDIO / EDGE OF REALITY | EA GAMES | ELECTRONIC ARTS |
| 16 | RED DEAD REDEMPTION: UNDEAD NIGHTMARE | ROCKSTAR SAN DIEGO | ROCKSTAR | TAKE 2 |
| 17 | KINECT SPORTS | RARE | MICROSOFT | MICROSOFT |
| 18 | FALLOUT: NEW VEGAS | OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT | BETHESDA SOFTWORKS | BETHESDA SOFTWORKS |
| 19 | SONIC COLOURS | SONIC TEAM | SEGA | SEGA |
| 20 | TOY STORY 3 | N-SPACE | DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS | DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS |
| 21 | ART ACADEMY | HEADSTRONG GAMES | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 22 | NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. | NINTENDO | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 23 | HARRY POTTER: THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 | EA BRIGHT LIGHT | EA GAMES | ELECTRONIC ARTS |
| 24 | JUST DANCE | UBISOFT (FRANCE) | UBISOFT | UBISOFT |
| 25 | NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII | NINTENDO | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 26 | HALO: REACH | BUNGIE | MICROSOFT | MICROSOFT |
| 27 | WWE SMACKDOWN VS RAW 2011 | YUKE’S | THQ | THQ |
| 28 | WII SPORTS RESORT | NINTENDO | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 29 | LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 | TRAVELLER’S TALES | WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE | WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE |
| 30 | FOOTBALL MANAGER 2011 | SPORTS INTERACTIVE | SEGA | SEGA |
| 31 | SUPER MARIO ALL-STARS 25TH ANNIVERSARY | NINTENDO | NINTENDO | NINTENDO |
| 32 | FABLE III | LIONHEAD STUDIOS | MICROSOFT | MICROSOFT |
| 33 | GOLDENEYE 007 | EUROCOM ENTERTAINMENT | ACTIVISION | ACTIVISION BLIZZARD |
| 34 | DANCE CENTRAL | HARMONIX | MICROSOFT | MICROSOFT |
| 35 | PRO EVOLUTION SOCCER 2011 | KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT | KONAMI | KONAMI |
| 36 | THE X FACTOR | HYDRAVISION | DEEP SILVER | KOCH MEDIA |
| 37 | DISNEY EPIC MICKEY | JUNCTION POINT STUDIOS | DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS | DISNEY INTERACTIVE STUDIOS |
| 38 | RED DEAD REDEMPTION | ROCKSTAR SAN DIEGO | ROCKSTAR | TAKE 2 |
| 39 | 007: BLOOD STONE | BIZARRE CREATIONS | ACTIVISION | ACTIVISION BLIZZARD |
| 40 | DEAD RISING 2 | BLUE CASTLE GAMES | CAPCOM | CAPCOM |
2010 Spike Video Game Awards Winners List, “Red Dead Redemption” Takes Home Game of the Year Honors
“Red Dead Redemption” was the big winner at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards, held on Saturday, Dec. 11. The game also won in the Best Original Score category and Best DLC (downloadable content) category.
Red Dead Redemption beat out Call of Duty: Black Ops, God of War III, Halo: Reach, and Mass Effect 2 for the top award.
Here is a complete list of winners in the 2010 Spike VGAs.
GAME OF THE YEAR
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)
STUDIO OF THE YEAR
BioWare
BEST XBOX 360 GAME
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)
BEST PS3 GAME
God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)
BEST Wii GAME
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo / Nintendo)
BEST PC GAME
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (Blizzard Entertainment / Blizzard Entertainment)
BEST HANDHELD GAME
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Sony Computer Entertainment / Ready At Dawn Studios)
BEST SHOOTER
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision / Treyarch)
BEST ACTION ADVENTURE GAME
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal)
BEST RPG
Mass Effect 2 (Electronic Arts / BioWare)
BEST MULTI-PLAYER
Halo: Reach (Microsoft / Bungie Studios)
BEST INDIVIDUAL SPORTS GAME
Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 (Electronic Arts / EA Tiburon)
BEST TEAM SPORTS GAME
NBA 2K11 (2K Sports / Visual Concepts)
BEST DRIVING GAME
Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (Electronic Arts / Criterion Games)
BEST MUSIC GAME
Rock Band 3 (MTV Games / Harmonix)
BEST SOUNDTRACK
DJ Hero 2 (Activision / FreeStyleGames)
BEST SONG IN A GAME
Far Away by Jose Gonzalez (Red Dead Redemption)
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)
BEST GRAPHICS
God of War III (Sony Computer Entertainment / SCE Studios Santa Monica)
BEST ADAPTED VIDEO GAME
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game (Ubisoft / Ubisoft Montreal / Ubisoft Chengdu)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN MALE
Neil Patrick Harris as Peter Parker / Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions / Activision)
BEST PERFORMANCE BY A HUMAN FEMALE
Tricia Helfer as Sarah Kerrigan (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty / Blizzard Entertainment)
BEST DOWNLOADABLE GAME
Costume Quest (THQ / Double Fine Productions)
BEST DLC
Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare (Rockstar Games / Rockstar San Diego)
BEST INDEPENDENT GAME
Limbo (PlayDead)
MOST ANTICIPATED GAME
Portal 2 (Valve / Valve)
Ever wanted to get paid to play Call of Duty? Treyarch is hiring a Production QA Tester
Treyarch, the game development company behind the best-selling video game ever with Call of Duty Black Ops, is hiring.
If your dream job is to work in a game development studio and get paid to test out games, this might be your opportunity.
Based in Santa Monica, California, the company is looking for a Production QA Tester. Responsibilities include:
Perform day to day analysis and examination of entertainment media and associated material as assigned by the Management. Perform tests, report anomalies, and verify implemented fixes throughout the Project’s Development cycle.
Get the latest Call of Duty: Black Ops / Treyarch updates fast, follow @JD_2020 on Twitter
For the latest information, tips and updates on Call of Duty: Black Ops, follow Josh Olin @JD_2020 on Twitter, at http://www.twitter.com/JD_2020
Josh Olin who has over 100,000 followers on the micro-blogging service, is Treyarch’s community manager and runs the Black Ops forums on callofduty.com.
If you’re not on Twitter, you’re missing some of Josh’s best stuff. Get on Twitter, Josh writes:
For those of you not aware, Twitter is a great one-to-many communication tool which allows Community Managers to broadcast singular important bits of information to the entire community. That is why I, like many CM’s, utilize it extensively.
Some have asked “why use Twitter when we have the forums here on CallOfDuty.com?” A forum is a great tool for discussions – and if you want to spark discussions off of an update / announcement that’s fine. However, at the rate discussions take place on these boards, a single post doesn’t get nearly the amount of exposure as one might think. Usually a post gets pushed pages back within hours, or just overlooked entirely lost in the “sea of posts.”
Of course “Stickies” exist to prevent that, but also serve a different purpose entirely. If I made a sticky for each one-off bit of news I had to share, we’d have an entire page of stickies in a matter of days. Not to mention many users are used to scrolling right past the stickies (figuring they’ve already seen them), so again it’s not necessarily the best medium to use.
Instead, Twitter allows me to make the statement, collect the feedback (via @ replies), and branch discussions off with any number of followers – all the while, not disrupt the discussions taking place about CoD on the boards. Win-win, win.
Read more about why you should follow Josh Olin on Twitter (and why).
Gamers, are you on Twitter? Which gamers, game developers or game writers do you follow and why?
