Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- BAFTA Games Awards: All the Winners from 2003 to Today
- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books to Get a New Look for Richard Moss’s “Age of Empires”
- GDC Awards: All the Winners from 1996 to Today
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Wins “Game of the Year” at 2025-2026 GDC Awards
Warp Zoned Presents
- Video Game Research Library
- We Pitched a Museum a 1993 Game Hint Line (And They Actually Said Yes) – Yarn Spinner (2026)
- The History Of The Word “Metroidvania” And How It Spread – A Critical Hit (2025)
- Creator of Hit Game Shovel Knight Is at a ‘Make or Break’ Moment – Bloomberg (2025)
- Shadow of the Colossus: An oral history – Design Room (2025)
- In 2005, games started rewiring our brains – The AV Club (2025)
Author: John Scalzo
Call of Duty 2017 is going “back to its roots” and CoD: Infinite Warfare is officially a retail disappointment
It’s official… Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare has been a disappointment for Activision. During a quarterly financial presentation yesterday, executives from the publisher confirmed that sales of the sequel “underperformed our expectations.”
COO Thomas Tippl speculated that the sci-fi trappings of Infinite Warfare’s plot might have been responsible for the sales downturn, saying, “It’s clear that for a portion of our audience, the space setting just didn’t resonate.”
However, Activision’s senior staff are very excited for Call of Duty 2017, which is currently in development at Sledgehammer Games. Tippl confirmed the game will launch this Fall, and said it’ll feature “traditional combat” that takes the franchise “back to its roots”:
In 2017, Activision will take Call of Duty back to its roots, and traditional combat will once again take center stage. This is what our dedicated community of Call of Duty players and Sledgehammer Games, who has been developing this year’s title, are the most excited about.
During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg added that Call of Duty 2017, which is known as “Lethal Combat” internally, will offer a better balance of traditional elements and new innovations than Infinite Warfare did:
I’ve said many times before, with any longstanding franchise like Call of Duty, there’s a balancing act we need to strike between staying true to the things that people love about the franchise and also the need to never become complacent and to keep pushing for innovations to keep the franchise fresh and vital.
Last year I don’t think we got that balance right. Infinite Warfare had a ton of great gameplay innovations that many of our fans appreciated and loved, but it also had a setting that didn’t appeal to all of our fans. The good news is, is that I’m excited to say that in 2017 we think we have this balance in perfect harmony with a game that our teams are incredibly passionate about, with a lot of great innovations, but that also has the traditional combat that we know our fans are going to love.
Barring some catastrophic change in Activision’s operational style, Call of Duty 2017 will likely be released this November.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Xbox One
Tagged Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, Call of Duty: WWII
Xbox Store Today: Crypt of the NecroDancer, Uncanny Valley, Spheroids
Three retro-styled games are now available to download as part of today’s Xbox Games Store update…
First up is Crypt of the NecroDancer, a roguelike rhythm game for the Xbox One from Brace Yourself Games. Players will delve deep into a monster-filled dungeon and hopefully hit their musical cues to “deliver beatdowns to the beat.”
Also available to download for the Xbox One today is Uncanny Valley, a side-scrolling survival horror game where there’s an abandoned factory to explore and puzzles to solve.
Finally today, Spheroids is a side-scrolling platformer for the Xbox One where “a jumpy Canadian boy” named Lucas has to save the world from interdimensional aliens.
More information on all three games can be found after the break. (more…)
The Video Game Canon – Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
Dig deeper into the Video Game Canon with a look at the unique advertising Nintendo employed for Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island. Here’s a teaser…
I’m just guessing here, but I’d imagine that many Mario fans have no idea a sequel to Super Mario World even exists. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island was released for the Super NES in 1995 and starred the titular dinosaur in his first solo adventure. Most fans refer to the game as just “Yoshi’s Island,” because it’s such a departure from the rest of the franchise to that point, and because the “Super Mario World 2” print on the game’s box is almost invisible.
Serving as a prequel to the entire Super Mario franchise, Yoshi’s Island introduced Baby Mario to the world and tasked Yoshi with protecting the infant from Baby Bowser. While it’s Fall 1995 release was overshadowed by the launch of the Sega Saturn and the Sony PlayStation, a dedicated cult following has built up around the game over the years.
Though they might not have known exactly which game it was promoting, I guarantee that everyone remembers the commercial Nintendo used to sell Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island in America.
Visit VideoGameCanon.com to continue reading this article and to explore the complete Top 1000.
Posted in 3DS, Retro, Top Story, Video Game Canon, Wii U
Tagged Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Activision: Fans are going to love Destiny 2, which will be released in Fall 2017
Bungie still isn’t ready to officially announce Destiny 2 just yet, but Activision executives continued to talk up its imminent release during a quarterly financial report yesterday.
Activision COO Thomas Tippl confirmed the game is still on track for a 2017 launch, and also said it’ll be followed by a “content season” of downloadable expansions:
Activision, along with their partners at Bungie, plan to answer the call with the release of a full Destiny sequel later this year, designed to thrill our existing loyal fan base and bring many new players into the fold. We plan to support the release of the sequel, with a great content plan post launch, setting the stage for growth with this year’s sequel and the content season that will follow.
Later in the same report, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg promised that Destiny fans are “going to love this game,” and narrowed down the release window to Fall 2017.
No new Skylanders game in 2017, but multiple “Adventure Packs” coming
As part of their quarterly financial report yesterday, Activision executives confirmed that a new game in the Skylanders franchise won’t be released in 2017. However, fans should still expect plenty of new content to appear this year.
First and foremost, Skylanders Imaginators will make its Nintendo Switch debut on March 3. The “toys-to-life” franchise has been one of the few third party bright spots on the Wii U, so it’s good to see Activision continuing the tradition on the Switch. And with Imaginators in the spotlight for another year, COO Thomas Tippl confirmed that Activision plans to launch “multiple Adventure Packs, new characters, and new in-game content” for it throughout the year.
Tippl revealed that Netflix’s Skylanders Academy has also been well-received by fans. A second season will premiere on the streaming service sometime this year, and a third is already in the works.
Finally, Activision is working on a new mobile game set in the Skylanders universe, but that’s all we know at this point.
Episode 3 from The Walking Dead: A New Frontier will be released in March; Season Pass Disc coming February 28
Telltale Games has announced that The Walking Dead: A New Frontier‘s third episode, Above the Law, will be available to download for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile devices beginning next month. According to the developer, they’ll unveil more details about the upcoming expansion to the story “in the coming weeks.”
In other Walking Dead: A New Frontier news, Telltale also confirmed that the Season Pass Disc will be available in stores on February 28. The Season Pass Disc will contain the season’s first two episodes, Ties That Bind Part I and Ties That Bind Part II, and include access to all subsequent episodes as they’re released.
A new trailer advertising The Walking Dead: A New Frontier’s Season Pass Disc has been embedded above.
Nintendo Download: Mario Vs Donkey Kong, Azure Striker Gunvolt: The Anime, more
Even though the Switch will be available in slightly more than three weeks, Nintendo continues to fill out the Virtual Console offerings on the Wii U. This week, Wii U owners will be able to download Mario Vs Donkey Kong, which was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. Like their first meeting, Mario Vs Donkey Kong is a puzzle platformer that pits the two mascots against one another in a battle of wits, this time involving locked doors and runaway Mini-Mario toys.
Gamers who enjoy the Azure Striker Gunvolt series will find a very interesting new offering over on the handheld side of Nintendo’s digital storefront. Azure Striker Gunvolt: The Anime is a standalone OVA created by LandQ Studios and Touhoku Shinkai. The Anime promises a deeper look into the world of Azure Striker Gunvolt, and includes two audio options for viewers… the original Japanese voice cast or a brand new English dub.
Several other new games have also made their way to the Nintendo eShop today, and more information about all of them can be found after the break. (more…)
Enroll in Switch 101 and learn the basics of the console with this new video from Nintendo
Is there someone in your life who wants to learn more about the Nintendo Switch? If so, then you should definitely direct them towards this new Hardware Overview video from Nintendo.
Even if you consider yourself a Switch expert, the video offers a nice refresher on exactly what the console’s capable of. Topics discussed include the console’s three output styles (TV Mode, Handheld Mode, and Tabletop Mode), as well as local multiplayer options, wi-fi connectivity, and the ins-and-outs of both Joy-Con controllers.
The Nintendo Switch will launch on March 3… which is just 22 days from today.