Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™ Ranks #1 Title in Units Worldwide for Calendar 2007
Game Sells in Excess of Seven Million Units According to The NPD Group, Chart Track and The GFK Group
SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) announced today that Call of Duty 4®: Modern Warfare™ was the #1 title in units worldwide for calendar 2007, according to The NPD Group, Chart Track and The GFK Group. Developed by Infinity Ward, Call of Duty 4®: Modern Warfare™ has sold in excess of seven million units worldwide since its launch in November.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has garnered critical acclaim, securing more than 18 perfect score reviews and over 40 combined Editors’ Choice and Game of the Year awards in the U.S. alone. The game has been nominated for 10 prestigious Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences awards, including Game of the Year. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare also currently is the #1 Xbox 360™ title on Xbox Live, based on unique users, according to www.majornelson.com.
“We’re very excited about this achievement especially given so many competitive titles this year,” said Will Kassoy, senior vice president, global brand management, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Consumer and critics agree that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best games ever created and further establishes Call of Duty as one of the premier brands in the industry. This ground-breaking game and franchise continue to establish new standards by which all other action games will be judged.”
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products. Founded in 1979, Activision posted net revenues of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2007.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's World Wide Web site, which is located at www.activision.com.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Activision’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Activision generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes”, “may”, “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements.
Factors that could cause Activision’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales of Activision’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Activision’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Activision’s products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, international economic and political conditions, integration of recent acquisitions and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities the timing and successful completion of the combination of Vivendi Games with Activision, the combined companies’ success in executing planned strategies and achieving assumed synergies and cost savings, and foreign exchange rate changes. Other such factors include additional risk factors identified in Activision’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Activision as of the date of this release, and Activision assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond our control and may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.
(c) 2007 Activision Publishing, Inc. Activision and Call of Duty are registered trademarks and Modern Warfare is a trademark of Activision Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Battlefield Bad Company. Extreme interview. whats in and whats out
full interview of whats in and whats out of the new game.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
LSU use's NCAA EA football video game to beat Ohio St.
LSU Players Use Video Games to Prepare
By RALPH D. RUSSO – 1 day ago
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When practice is over and film study is done, LSU quarterbacks, as most college kids do, play video games. The difference is Matt Flynn and Ryan Perrilloux are usually still working on the game plan for the BCS national championship game against Ohio State when they fire up the Xbox these days.
LSU offensive coordinator Gary Crowton has used a custom-made video game to help his quarterbacks learn to read defenses.
XOS Technologies, a company that specializes in gearing technology to the needs of coaches, worked with EA Sports to produce the PlayAction Simulator that LSU has used this season.
"What they've done is they put our plays into the video game and then they put in our opponents' defenses," said Crowton, the Tigers' first-year offensive coordinator.
The game looks and plays just like the popular Madden NFL and NCAA football games, though all the goofy stuff such as player celebrations, cheering crowds, mascots and bands have been removed.
LSU and Tennessee were the first schools to use it this season and it went well enough that XOS expects to make it available to all its clients this year. The company provides technology to most Division I schools.
"The video game is an excellent resource we have," Perrilloux said. "Whenever we hit a play, that play would automatically match up with the defense that we would see or blitz we would see.
"If you make the wrong decision it's an automatic interception or it's an automatic incompletion."
Crowton is able to customize each quarterback's video game playbook.
"You can make it faster and harder for my experienced guys; more experienced people running the offense and more experienced guys who know how to play the games," Crowton said.
So when Flynn, LSU's fifth-year senior starter, sits down to play, he's got an extensive selection of plays from which to choose, compared with Perrilloux, the No. 2 quarterback whom Crowton usually limits to about 10 plays per game.
When Flynn plays, the game forces him to make decisions faster than say, third-stringer Andrew Hatch, who's in his first season and not as adept at running the offense.
"It definitely helps you make the right reads and get to the right spot," Flynn said.
The game doesn't take the place of practice or film study, but it's probably a little more fun.
"It was cool," Perrilloux said. "It focuses on what you bring to the table during that game." And "it looks just like me."
The idea seems like a natural considering how popular video games are among all college kids, especially athletes.
Albert Tsai, vice president of advanced research and development for XOS, said the company started working on the idea about two years ago when some coaches suggested it.
Former Ravens coach Brian Billick was one of the first. Tsai recalled a trip to the University of Iowa when a coach pulled out a game control and said, "we need something that can work with this."
The 50-year-old Crowton is a bit of a tech-head. The former BYU head coach has been in the business for 25 years and has been using computers since way back before laptops were everywhere.
"When I started with technology I had a little Tandy computer from Radio Shack that helped me get a job at New Hampshire," he said.
While Crowton was ahead of his time back in the late 1980s, these days most coaches embrace technology as a teaching tool.
He's not much of a gamer, though.
"My thumbs aren't fast enough," he said. "I've always been a big computer guy, but when I was younger Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man was the game."
For now the PlayAction Simulator is geared solely toward quarterbacks and is played from their perspective. Crowton said he wouldn't be surprised if eventually players at other positions will be able to use it.
It already scores high with him.
"The thing is pretty realistic," he said. "It's in position right now where we can really take off with it through the winter, going into spring ball and for next year.
"It's still in its infant stages for us ... but it's been kind of fun for our guys."
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
Microsofts offers free arcade game, for horrible holiday service
Microsoft admits to having some trouble over the holidays with Xbox Live, the online service it offers for users of its Xbox 360 video game console. To make amends the company will offer Xbox Live users a free game from Xbox Live Arcade.
In a statement posted to the service, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said that the problems with Xbox Live downtime were caused by an influx of new users who had gotten an Xbox 360 over the holidays. It's been a record-setting season for Xbox Live.
"This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service," said Whitten.
Xbox Live enables Xbox 360 users to find each other and play against (or cooperatively) online, if they pay for a "Gold" membership. All Xbox 360 users are given a free "Silver" membership that enables them to log on, exchange e-mail with one another, view game statistics and download games and movies, demos, trailers and tv shows (though most of the content outside demos costs additional money to get).
Although the service was never completely offline, Whitten said that Microsoft was "disappointed" with Xbox Live's performance. He thanked users for their patience.
"At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service," he said. All Xbox Live users around the world will get access to a full Xbox Live Arcade game that will be available for download free of charge. Whitten stopped short of identifying the game or when, exactly, it would be available.
"In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you," said Whitten.
In a statement posted to the service, Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said that the problems with Xbox Live downtime were caused by an influx of new users who had gotten an Xbox 360 over the holidays. It's been a record-setting season for Xbox Live.
"This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service," said Whitten.
Xbox Live enables Xbox 360 users to find each other and play against (or cooperatively) online, if they pay for a "Gold" membership. All Xbox 360 users are given a free "Silver" membership that enables them to log on, exchange e-mail with one another, view game statistics and download games and movies, demos, trailers and tv shows (though most of the content outside demos costs additional money to get).
Although the service was never completely offline, Whitten said that Microsoft was "disappointed" with Xbox Live's performance. He thanked users for their patience.
"At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service," he said. All Xbox Live users around the world will get access to a full Xbox Live Arcade game that will be available for download free of charge. Whitten stopped short of identifying the game or when, exactly, it would be available.
"In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you," said Whitten.
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