Tag: "call of duty black ops"
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.
Five predictions for next Call of Duty game title in 2011
While Call of Duty: Black Ops continues to dominate video game sales, speculation continues to grow over Call of Duty’s next game title after rumors surfaced that one possibility could be a Modern Warfare prequel centered around the character Ghost who first appeared in Modern Warfare 2.
But that’s not the only possible title.
Domain name registrations made by Activision early last year, generated a lot of buzz over potential games. Based on the names registered, possibilities for titles include: Call of Duty Future Warfare, Call of Duty Advanced Warfare, Call of Duty Secret Warfare and Call of Duty Space Warfare.
As I wrote before, Chris Morris a writer with Gamasutra confirmed a “Future Warfare” or “Space Warfare” are likely more than just domain name registrations: “…industry sources say Sledgehammer’s Call of Duty will be set in the future and feature, for lack of a better term, space Marines, a very big step for a franchise that has historically based itself on realism.”
So my five predictions, in order of what I believe their likelihood to be are:
Call of Duty: Future Warfare
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
Call of Duty: Space Warfare
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Call of Duty: Secret Warfare
Do you have predictions for Call of Duty’s next blockbuster game title?
Please share them in the comments.
First Strike Map Pack for Call of Duty Black Ops available Feb. 1, 2011
Four original multiplayer maps and one zombie map are making their way to Call of Duty: Black Ops in 2011 and will be available for download on February 1. An article on IGN’s website has the details.
The pack is called “First Strike” and includes four original multiplayer maps and one zombie map for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15) on Feb. 1, 2011.
Here are a few details from Treyarch’s Dan Bunting:
Discovery - Antarctic German research station, abandoned from World War II.
Kowloon – Inspired from the single-player campaign based off of Kowloon city in China. It’s a rooftop map.
Stadium – Hockey rink in northeastern United States.
Berlin Wall – Takes place at Checkpoint Charlie. Is a battle between East and West Berlin.
Ascension – Zombie map.
Read more about the First Strike Map pack and listen to the podcast with Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb.
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.
Call of Duty Black Ops, favorite to win “Best Multi-Player” category at Spike Video Game Awards
The Spike Video Game Awards 2010 will be held this weekend and the crown of “Best Multi-player” video game in 2010 will be decided. If have a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops, you know all too well that the mult-player mode is highly addicting, even more so than the campaign mode.
With the VGAs right around the corner, I thought I’d weigh in on Military Gamer’s pick for best multi-player game.
This year’s nominees in the Best Multi-player category are Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Halo Reach, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, and Military Gamer’s favorite: Call of Duty Black Ops. At last year’s VGAs, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 won “Best Multi-Player Game” category. Our vote for best multi-player game in 2010, most certainly goes to Call of Duty: Black Ops.
But don’t take our word for it, read what Dean Takahashi a writer for VentureBeat has to say:
While social games on Facebook such as FarmVille command much higher user numbers, they don’t come anywhere close in terms of engagement, a key buzzword in social games that is defined as the amount of time players spend with a game. The comparative numbers show that, while casual social games are extremely popular, they have a long way to go before they can close in on the enthusiasm that users have for hardcore online games.
And the engagement numbers in this story also offer a fascinating look into just how much can be measured when a game is played online for enormous amounts of time by millions of people. The lesson of these numbers isn’t to simply make a game that yields similar metrics. These results can only be achieved when a game rises from being just a product to achieving status as a cultural phenomenon. The game spreads in a viral way because it’s cool, not nerdy, to be playing it. Activision Blizzard could probably charge subscription fees for Call of Duty multiplayer, but it has chosen not to do so, much to the chagrin of analysts such as Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities.
Read more about Call of Duty Black Ops multiplayer blowing away other video games on engagement.
Readers, which game is your choice for “Best Multi-player”? Share it in the comments.
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?
Spike Video Game Awards 2010: Who will win “Best Shooter”?
The Spike Video Game Awards 2010 are less than a week away, at which point the “Best Shooter” video game will be announced.
This year’s nominees in the Best Shooter category are Battlefield Bad Company 2, Bioshock 2, Halo: Reach, and Military Gamer’s favorite: Call of Duty Black Ops.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 took last year’s crown for Best Shooter and also took home the second most honors, winning the “Best Shooter” and “Best Multi-Player Game” categories.
Readers, which game is your choice for “Best Shooter”?
