Beyond Co-Op - July 21st through July 27th, 2013

MechWarrior Cancer Fundraiser, Homeworld 3, Activision's Buyout and more

Wow, can it be any quieter in the gaming industry right now? We are digging for news about cooperative titles but everyone must be away on vacation or something. Seriously, what's up with that? We've dug up some other stories from this week about games, acquisitions, and a few videos to occupy your time.

-MechWarrior Online Honors Fallen Girl to Cancer
-Activision Becomes Independent Developer/Publisher
-Gearbox Developing Homeworld 3, Releasing 1&2 HD
-13 Minutes of Assassin's Creed 4 Footage
-28 Minutes of Ducktales Remastered Footage

MechWarrior online, a free to play online shooter, is selling a special Mech in the game to honor a young girl who lost her life to cancer recently. Sarah Parries, a fan of the game, used to play with her father but fell victim to cancer at a very young age. The developers are selling a version of the Jenner mech, calling it Sarah's Mech, sporting a very special paint job and stats. 100% of the proceeds will go to the Canadian Cancer society. The offer ends on August 20th and has already raised over $50,000 dollars.

Source: MechWarrior Online

Activision heard being indie is the cool thing to do, so it - uh - did it. Activision has purchased itself from parent company Vivideni Universal for $8.2 Billion. This includes over $5 billion in cash and $2.3 billion from a private group created by current CEO Bobby Kotick. What exactly it means for the company remains to be seen, but they no longer have to carry earnings and report to a higher authority which could potentially mean a paradigm shift in one of the world's largest videogame publishers.

Source: NY Times

One story we missed last week that came out of Comic-Con was that Gearbox Software had purchased the rights to the Homeworld franchise from what was left of THQ. The real time strategy space game was developed by Relic in 1999 and went on to be a critical and commercial hit. Famous for its opening using Adagio for Strings, Homeworld put players in a beautiful space environment that wasn't just black with the void, but filled with color and life. Gearbox plans to release the original games updated for modern computers and has opened up forums to talk about what to do for Homeworld 3. It's being spearheaded by Gearbox's Brian Martel. Gearbox purchased the rights for $1.35 million.

Source: Shacknews

Assassin's Creed 4 is all about pirates. That's cool. Here's a video showcasing some gameplay.

If you grew up in the 1990s, Ducktales was probably a staple of your cartoon viewing. Scrooge McDuck and his nephews adventures around the globe inspired us and it inspired a classic videogame on the Sega Genesis. Now Capcom is re-releasing the title completely rebuilt from the ground up. Enjoy - and enjoy having the theme song stuck in your head for the next few hours.

"Life is like a hurricane...here in...Duckberg."