Activision decides it's not making enough money off Call of Duty fans

In what I can only describe as a "stupid move", Activision has released details of the new Call of Duty: Elite system. Unhappy with only being able to squeeze ~$90 ($60 retail game disk, plus ~$30 in DLC maps) from it's audience per year, they've decided to roll out a premium social networking type service for Call of Duty.

Activision Blizzard Inc. plans to launch an online service called Call of Duty Elite this fall that will work with the next major edition of the game, "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3," and future installments of the hyper-realistic combat-simulation game. In a move industry executives describe as a first, Activision plans to charge a monthly subscription fee for the service, which will provide extra content that isn't offered on game discs sold in stores, including downloadable map packs that give players new "Call of Duty" levels to play.

Portions of the service will be free, including features inspired by Facebook Inc. that will let "Call of Duty" players meet for online gun battles with others who share various affiliations and interests.

Activision has not announced any sort of pricing for this service, but i'd expect at least $8-10 a month.

Various people within Activision have taken to twitter to defend this move, as well as to confirm there will be a free tier of service (how limited it will end up is anyone's guess).

At this rate I'm expecting COD to go the way of Guitar Hero shortly.

PlayStation Store to return "this week"

Well, so much for full PSN restoration by May 31st. Sony's PlayStation blog has shared the latest press release:

Tokyo, May 31, 2011 – Sony Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) announced today that Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI, the company) will fully restore all PlayStation®Network services in the Americas, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, excluding Japan, Hong Kong, and South Korea by the end of this week.

I really do hope this will be the last delay.

RUMOR TIME: Sony's NGP to be called "PS Vita"?

Well the rumors are flying regarding the NGP's official retail name. Seems some crafty people have been digging around some domain registrars and have uncovered the domain name www.psvita.com, not to mention some pictures of the hardware with this new name - PS Vita.

This could be a Photoshop job, or it may not - we'll undoubtedly know more in a little over a week.

PS Vita... I'm not feeling the name honestly. If given the choice, I'd have advised Sony to stick with NGP over PS Vita. For those curious - Vita is latin for life, as well as another name for the second letter in the Greek alphabet (Beta). Either one of these definitions make sense as I'm assuming Sony does want this portable to be a key part of your mobile life - as well as the fact it's the 2nd portable they've come up with.

At the end of the day, again, if this beast of a handheld has a retail price below $399 I will be shocked.

(Please take this post as rumor and speculation - more official information will undoubtedly come to light at E3)

VIDEO: Gears of War 3 (gameplay trailer!)

Nice use of War Pigs, eh? Gears of War 3 comes out in September, which I am pretty thankful for (as I review my backlog of games...).

VIDEO: "Link to the Future"

Here's a really rad little fan made film, mixing Zelda with Back to the Future...

...and remember - the CDi games don't count!



Happy Friday!

COOL: Mario Zombies!

Here's a fun picture to kick off the long weekend:

(Source)

VIDEO: Shinobi 3DS trailer!

Well, it's official, Shinobi is headed to the 3DS! Let's have a look:



While parts of this trailer look really good - the bulk of it doesn't really jump out and grab me. I'm going to hold off and read some reviews before i decide on this one.