Activision Trudges On

In light of the current big news stories regarding Infinity Ward, Call of Duty and Activision I thought I'd do a little digging. I knew Activision came to rest in, under, around and through Vivendi. While I had an idea there was some trouble in Activision's past I found I really had no idea.

Apparently being legally and ethically sketchy is actually what Activision is all about. Starting off shortly after I was born they took part in a little copyright infringement which I'm sure resulted in some nice sized fines being slapped. Then in 86 they bought Infocom and thats when their wife beating behavior began. The studio head didn't like Infocom and didn't want that merger to happen so they basically closed the company offering only 11 of 26 employees amnesty. They went and started doing some things other than games for a while under the name Mediagenic. Some where down the line(07? they got bought, named back to Activision, re-incorporated in Delaware, which as I learned is a corporate haven for some reason, and subsequently has since bought and sold companies through the 90's and this decade. Which in short order brings us to the current big headlines. So you have to kind of wonder if Activision is as big a jerk to their other holdings as they are with Infinity Ward? Could this spark off a lot of movement from Blizzard who is part of Activision and about to embark on the great Starcraft 2 journey? The game industry is about as dramatic as a soap opera and it doesn't look like it's going to change any time soon. Sit back, grab a mojito and watch things unfold!

Modern Warfare 2 FAIL...I Told You So!

I'm not so delighted to admit that my original post from my old blog where I detail how Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 was going to fail in lord only knows how many ways is at the moment lost. My contract with my service provider was up and while I did make a backup the hard drive that backup was on was lost or stolen some where in my move to my new job. I will post my original article when I manage to recover it.

To my delight and surprise however Game Informer this month has an article about how Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 is a buggy problem ridden game. Despite the fact that Infinity Ward and Activision tried to convince every one that a beta won't be necessary and neither will independently run servers. That everything was under control. We all know what happens when the ship is deemed unsinkable. Thats right a bunch of crazies who would have otherwise spent their time making mods and admining their servers now spend their time poking holes in your(Activision and Infinity Wards) unsinkable ships digital hull. The funny part is that the article in Game Informer closes down its exposition with the statement "If Infinity Ward could deliver glitch-free action, balanced game play, a steady flow of new content, I for one would be more than willing to shell out a few dollars a month for an evolving standalone multiplayer experience." Hmmm the description sounds a lot like a description of Battlefield Bad Company 2 and it's long term content release plans.

Now the uber game is keeping some "Bad Company 2", yeah thats right I went there, and things aren't quite so rosy. It'll be fun to see how the Battlefield franchise fairs over all at the end of the year. For all those MW2 players jilted by Activision and Infinity Ward's inability to fix the problem I truly am sorry. I wish this was one I could blame on EA.