Warp Zoned Presents
Video Game Canon- Clair Obscur Completes the Sweep by Winning “Best Game” at 2025-2026 BAFTA Games Awards
- Boss Fight Books Gets 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
- Silent Hill, Dragon Quest, Skyrim, and More Announced as Finalists for the World Video Game Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026
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
Activision goes “independent” as CEO Bobby Kotick buys company from Vivendi
Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest behemoths in all of gaming, so it’s easy to forget that the company is actually just a small piece of Vivendi, a French conglomerate that is five times as large. That was yesterday. Today, an investment group (lead by CEO Bobby Kotick and Co-Chairman Brian Kelly) has announced they’re going to purchase Activision Blizzard and that, going forward, the game publisher will operate as an independent company.
In addition to the 172 million shares (valued at $2.34 billion or $13.60 per share) purchased by Kotick and Kelly, Activision itself will purchase 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion. When taken together, these two transactions will make Activision a majority publicly-owned company. The sale should be completed by September and Vivendi will still own about 12% of the outstanding shares.
“These transactions together represent a tremendous opportunity for Activision Blizzard and all its shareholders, including Vivendi. We should emerge even stronger—an independent company with a best-in-class franchise portfolio and the focus and flexibility to drive long-term shareholder value and expand our leadership position as one of the world’s most important entertainment companies. The transactions announced today will allow us to take advantage of attractive financing markets while still retaining more than $3 billion cash on hand to preserve financial stability,” Kotick said.
As of 8:30 AM, pre-market trading saw Activision’s stock rise $2.74 (18%) to $17.92. Their shareholders must be very pleased.
Posted in News
Mortal Kombat 10 is in development and will be released alongside next film adaptation
Lance Sloane, a producer at Warner Bros., was working the Comic-Con show floor this year to promote the second season of Mortal Kombat: Legacy. GamerHub.TV talked with Sloane during the convention and the conversation eventually drifted to the next Mortal Kombat film adaptation and the heavily rumored Mortal Kombat 10. Sloane didn’t have any specific information about either project, but he was able to confirm that NetherRealm Studios is hard at work on the next game in the series and that Warner Bros. wants to release it alongside the third Mortal Kombat movie (emphasis mine):
GamerHub.TV: What is the current status when it comes to a Mortal Kombat movie?
Lance Sloane: Well, we’ve been in greenlight committee for a while at the studio. We’ve got a great script. And we’ve got a great director with Kevin Tancharoen. Who is on board. It’s just figuring out the business side of it and when we would do it and when we would launch it and how do we sync up with the launch of the game they’re working on now. It’s not 100% yet, but we’re getting closer every day.
A sequel to the Mortal Kombat reboot was a certainty after its very successful launch in 2011. Ed Boon even admitted as much at the time. So while Sloane’s statement doesn’t give us any new information, it’s nice to know that forward progress is being made on the next Mortal Kombat game.
Posted in Etcetera, News
Tagged Comic-Con 2013, Mortal Kombat X
Neil Gaiman will bring Wayward Manor to PC, tablets this Fall
Few names carry more cred in geek circles than Neil Gaiman (maybe Joss Whedon, as long as you ignore Season 6 of Buffy). Because of his reputation, there was much rejoicing in geek circles today as Gaiman announced that he plans to take his first step into the video game industry this Fall. The fantasy author has contributed the story to Wayward Manor, a PC/Mac/tablet game in development at The Odd Gentlemen (who also worked on The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom).
Wayward Manor, which shares a similar art style with the film adaptation of Gaiman’s Coraline, stars a ghost who just wants to enjoy his death in peace:
Set in a 1920s Victorian Gothic pastoral estate, Wayward Manor focuses on the plight of a ghost whose hope of a peaceful after-life is interrupted by a remarkable cast of intruders. Awoken from his post-mortem slumbers, our ghost must find ever-more inventive and brilliant ways to scare them away. As the ghost learns more about the living characters, he also learns more about his own death and after-life, and the danger they are all facing.
Players can pre-order the game, as well as a huge stash of Wayward Manor-stamped swag, at WhoHauntsNeil.com.
Call of Duty: Ghosts officially announced for Wii U… for real this time
In case you were worried, Activision has confirmed that Call of Duty: Ghosts will be released for the Wii U on November 5, the same day as the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 editions. I’m unsure why it took Activision so long to put out an official announcement (the Wii U boxart was leaked by retailers back in April), but Wii U owners can breathe a certified sigh of relief now.
“As we have said before, we’re committed to doing everything we can to support the Wii U, which is why we’re excited to be bringing some of the most popular entertainment franchises in the world to the platform this year,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing.
The Wii U version of Call of Duty: Ghosts is being developed by Treyarch and will include second-screen features on the Wii U GamePad and Wii Remote support, if you’re so inclined. Additional Wii U-exclusive features will be announced at a later date.
Posted in News, Wii U
Tagged Call of Duty: Ghosts
Precursor relaunches Shadow of the Eternals Kickstarter campaign with no episodic content
The first time Precursor Games tried to obtain funding for Shadow of the Eternals, their spiritual successor to Eternal Darkness, they had a tough time. When the campaign was suspended last month, backers had pledged only 10% of the requested $1.35 million total.
Today, the developers are back with a second shot at Kickstarter glory, but with some major changes to their pitch. The new Shadow of the Eternals will be no longer be released in an episodic fashion. Precursor is now stating that they will create a complete 8-10 hour game if their funding goal (which has been lowered to $750,000) is reached. David Hayter, the former voice of Solid Snake, has also been brought aboard as the voice of Detective Paul Becker, the game’s main character. Finally, Precursor will bring the game to the PS4 if they reach an unnamed stretch goal.
The rest of the pitch looks very similar to what we saw before, including a level that takes place in Csejthe Castle (home of Elizabeth Bathory, “The Blood Countess”), the Sanity Events, and an action-adventure look that is very reminiscent of Eternal Darkness. If all goes well, Precursor expects to release the game sometime in the Fall of 2014.
The Kickstarter campaign for Shadow of the Eternals will run through Friday, August 23. As of this writing, just a hair over $40,000 has been pledged towards the project.
Posted in News, PC, PS4, Wii U
Tagged Shadow of the Eternals
Nintendo Download: Kid Icarus, Picross E2, Chain Blaster, more
Welcome to another week of downloadable games for your Nintendo systems:
- The Virtual Console section of the Wii U eShop has received the NES classic Kid Icarus.
- The 3DS eShop has received a trio of new titles. There’s the crossword puzzle game Picross E2, the fishing sim Angler’s Club: Ultimate Bass Fishing 3D, and the overhead shooter Chain Blaster.
- Finally, the DSiWare Shop is now home to Cute Witch! Runner, an endless runless starring a cute witch.
More information on all of these titles can be found after the break. (more…)
Microsoft will allow indie developers to self-publish games on Xbox One
UPDATE: Major Nelson has confirmed that independent developers will be able to self-publish games on the Xbox One. He also promised that more details would be revealed at this year’s Gamescom event.
ORIGINAL STORY: It looks like another of Microsoft’s big Xbox One policy mistakes is going bye bye. According to a report on Game Informer, independent developers will have the ability to self-publish their games on Microsoft’s next-gen console.
This brings the Xbox One’s policy towards indie developers more in line with Sony’s PS4, which highlighted self-published games from Supergiant Games (Transistor), Klei Entertainment (Don’t Starve), Switchblade Monkeys (Secret Ponchos), and others at this year’s E3 Expo. Another indie title, Jonathan Blow’s The Witness, was at the center of the Sony’s PS4 press conference in February.
In addition to allowing developers to self-publish their titles, Microsoft is revamping the certification process for game updates. According to GI, the process will be similar to Apple’s iTunes policy and will strive to have a 14-day turnaround for an approvals.
I wonder what outspoken Microsoft critic Phil Fish (the creator of Fez) thinks of that.
Posted in News, Xbox One
Tagged Gamescom 2013
Saints Row IV Season Pass announced as game goes gold
After escaping THQ’s collapse relatively unscathed, Volition is proud to announce that development work on Saints Row IV is done. In industry terms, the game has “gone gold” (insert your own scatological joke here).
To celebrate, Volition has announced that gamers are now able to pre-order the (rather affordable) Season Pass that will be released with it. The Saints Row IV Season Pass will be sold for $9.99 and will entitle the owner to two downloadable expansions and an exclusive weapon, The Rectifier anal probe (again, insert your own scatological joke here).
The first expansion is scheduled to be the previously announced Director’s Cut of the “Enter the Dominatrix” scenario. It should be available sometime in the Fall and a second expansion will follow in “late 2013.” Saints Row IV will be released on August 20.
Posted in News, PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Tagged Saints Row IV