Little News
April 2010 saw Microsoft close Xbox live support for the original xbox and its games. Despite this a small group of dedicated Halo 2 fans managed to continue on playing together online for almost a month after this date through refusing to disconnect or turn off their consoles. Slowly their numbers dwindled as consoles began to overheat and connection problems arose. APACHE N4SIR was the final user to play on the original Xbox’s Live Service before being forcefully disconnected on May 11th.
Despite the ongoing legal battle between Activision and the Call of Duty creators November 2010 saw Treyarch’s Call of Duty: Black Ops soared above Modern Warfare 2 in terms of launch sales, breaking the world record for the largest entertainment launch. 5.6 million copies were sold within 24 hours of the games release, topping the previous record by nearly 1 million copies.
2010 saw motion gaming span across the consoles with the release of the Xbox Kinect, formerly Project Natal, and the Playstation Move, both released late last year. Kinect sold 2.5 million units within the first 25 days of its release, while the Playstation Move released some 2 months earlier hit 4.1 million in sales at this time.
BIG NEWS
Almost 5 years after the release of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion many fans were beginning to believe they would never see a sequel. The end of 2010 saw these worries swept away as a teaser trailer was released announcing the fifth installation to the series and this time there are dragons. This game will guarantee that many people worldwide will be spending 11-11-11 in the comfort of their homes with a copy of the game sat snugly inside their respective consoles.
E3 2010 brought us high hopes for the coming year with many long awaited games being announced. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword was one such title. The sixteenth instalment to the Zelda series is set for a 2011 release on the Nintendo Wii, which will serve as a prequel to the Ocarina of Time. The game will make full use of the Wii MotionPlus accessory, every movement of Link’s sword matching the player’s motion with exact precision for more immersive gameplay.
2010 seemed to be the year of Motion Gaming, it looks as though 2011 will be the year of 3D. Set for release in March 2011 the 3DS, as its name suggests, will begin the era of 3D gaming. The handheld console has the impressive ability to display 3D graphics without the use of glasses, as 90 games announced by over 20 publishers, not including downloadable games to be released from its Virtual Console service.
The Crime Beat
It wasn’t just through game time and Cataclysm sales that Blizzard made its millions in the past year. Between multiple court cases the company sued anyone who dared to mess with the purity of their game, ranging from independent World of Warcraft servers, in which players did not need to pay a subscription to play on, to individuals selling Starcraft II hacks. In one case alone Blizzard received Over $88 million for damages.
A man killed three brothers in Louisiana, aged 20, 18 and 13, for allegedly stealing his Xbox 360 console from his girlfriend’s home. The man never reported the crime to the police and instead decided to take matters into his own hands by lying in wait outside the brothers’ home with a firearm. There was no evidence to suggest these three young men were involved in the crime they paid so dearly for. Their killer is being charged with three counts of first degree murder.
The ongoing legal battle between Activision and Infinity Ward began in March 2010 after Activision refused to pay royalties of over 54 million dollars to those who worked on Modern Warfare 2 in a bid to blackmail them into hastening the production of a third Modern Warfare title. The battle has seen much happen, from Infinity Ward studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella being fired, nearly half of Infinity Ward employees resigning in the following months to join them and most recently EA being pulled into the mess through hiring former Infinity Ward employees. The case appears to be far from over and is sure to remain in the headlines through 2011.
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