Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, a weekly piece that talks about industry stories that may or may not be related to co-op gaming.
The stories for this week:
- Current and Former Infinity Ward Employees Sue Activision
- Activision and Bungie Announce 10-Year Partnership on New IP
- Activision Announces Next Call of Duty, Black Ops, Out Nov. 9th
- Alan Wake to Include First DLC For Free With New Purchase
- Iron Man 2 Only Notable Release
Current and Former Infinity Ward Employees Sue Activision
It’s been both a good and bad week for Activision and they’ve certainly took center stage since they occupy most of the news I’m bringing to you this week. The worst salvo this week was that 38 current and former Infinity Ward employees have decided to sue Activision over bonus money not paid. What is interesting about this is that several of the plaintiffs still work at Infinity Ward and I’m not sure how that will be taken unless they’re close to resigning. They’re looking for money they think is still owed to them as well as punitive money. Should be interesting if any of these suits go to court or if they’ll be settled out of court. Rumor also has been going around that once the new MW2 map pack is out that IW may cease to be.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Activision and Bungie Announce 10-Year Partnership on New IP
In a surprise announcement, Bungie and Activision announced a 10-year partnership on a new IP from Bungie. Bungie will own the IP, but Activision will help with the production and distribution of the game. This game will not be a Halo game since Microsoft and 343 Industries control that IP. I would expect there to be more information around E3 or possibly even before. In the meantime, Activision had another game to unveil…
Source: Colony of Gamers
Activision Announces Next Call of Duty, Black Ops, Out Nov. 9th
While Infinity Ward is in apparent upheaval, Treyarch moves ahead with its next entry into the Call of Duty universe. It was officially unveiled as Call of Duty: Black Ops and a teaser was shown on GameTrailers TV. After watching it, the game looks like it may take place at several places between World War II and present day. It was believed this would be a Vietnam game and some pieces of the teaser look like it could be that time period, but then there was the quick shot of what looked like a ship in space, something certainly not in the Vietnam era. This game is set to release on November 9th.
Source: Colony of Gamers
Alan Wake to Include First DLC For Free With New Purchase
As an incentive to get people to buy Alan Wake (check out Co-Optimus’ preview of the game) Microsoft has announced that anyone that purchases a new copy will get free download of the first DLC coming out at some point undetermined later this year. Everything I’ve heard so far about this game has been really good and I can’t wait to get my hands on it next month!
Source: Colony of Gamers
Iron Man 2 Only Notable Release
With the movie coming out over here on Friday, Sega’s game comes out this week. Outside of that it’s a pretty quiet week, so maybe Iron Man 2 will garner some purchases.
Source: me