Activision Blizzard, in a joint event with the in-game advertisement company Massive Inc., has announced:
- Guitar Hero 5
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
- A new Tony Hawk game that will utilize a new peripheral
- A James Bond racing game from Project Gotham developer Bizarre Creations
I'm not surprised by any of this, but it's kind of odd that Activision would announce these games at a Massive Inc. event and not their own press conference. It certainly tells you where their priorities are. I mean, they are a business and obviously care very much about their profits, but they could present it with a bit more subtly...
There weren't many details about the games, but according to MTV a screenshot of Guitar Hero 5 showed an advertisement for Burger King to the right of the note highway during gameplay.
It looks like Call of Duty 6 will be called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, which tells us that it'll occupy the same time period as CoD4, but it doesn't really confirm who will be developing the game. Smart money is on Infinity Ward (it's their turn), but I wouldn't be too sure.
The Bond racing game will not be tied to any specific movie and will be developed by the Project Gotham Racing vets at Bizarre Creations. That game is slated for a September 2009 release.
Finally, a new Tony Hawk game will take a new direction. “You’re not going to be playing this game with a controller in your hands,” said a representative of Activision Blizzard. This new title is set for an October 2009 release for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and DS.
No Blizzard games were discussed as part of this line-up. It seems that Blizzard has been able to maintain their autonomy after the merger. Activision doesn't really have anything to complain about there, though. As long as Blizzard keeps the monthly subscriptions for World of WarCraft coming in, they're probably okay doing their own thing.
