The good people behind the upcoming Mechwarrior Online have released the first teaser trailer for the game. For you Mechwarrior veterans out there, take special note of the audio cues said by the onboard computer when the pilot is starting the 100-ton Atlas up!
Activision Publishing, Inc. revealed today that the Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 Content Collection #1 will release on Xbox LIVE on March 20, the first of four Content Collections available for purchase to all Call of Duty®: MW3 gamers. MW3 Collection #1 includes an unprecedented breadth and variety of content for Call of Duty® downloadable release – four brand new multiplayer maps Liberation, Piazza, Overwatch and Black Box along with new Special Ops Missions Black Ice and Negotiator, marking the first time Special Ops has been made downloadable online in franchise history.
In “Black Box,” players will battle beside a downed Air Force One amidst multi-level homes overlooking the luxurious Southern California neighborhood. Infiltrating a diamond mine aboard a snowmobile in the Special Ops mission “Black Ice,” your primary objective is to plant high-grade explosives in order to shut the mine down forever. In “Negotiator,” you head to India for high-stakes hostage extraction in which you’ll breach-and-clear rooms and navigate surface streets to ensure the safety of your VIPs.
Additionally for Call of Duty Elite Premium Members on Xbox LIVE, Call of Duty Elite Content Drops 4-6, featuring Black Box, Negotiator and Black Ice, will be available for download on March 13. Elite Content Drops 4-6 and MW3 Collection #1 will be made available on other platforms at a later date.
The Modern Warfare® 3 Content Season is published by Activision and co-developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. Coming first to Call of Duty Elite Premium Members on Xbox LIVE, all content will be available to Premium Members on other available platforms at a later date. The full calendar of content is outlined here – http://www.callofduty.com/
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence and Strong Language. For more information on the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 content drops, season of content, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Call of Duty Elite visit www.callofduty.com/mw3 and www.callofduty.com/elite.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.–The quest for glory continues in Amalur! EA, 38 Studios, and Big Huge Games unveiled The Legend of Dead Kel™, the first downloadable content (DLC) pack for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning™, the critically acclaimed open-world action role-playing game. Featuring a mysterious tale of intrigue, danger and dark magic on the island of Gallows End, players will encounter shadowy characters and new enemies, and will experience a host of new side quests, treacherous battles and exciting new challenges. The Legend of Dead Kel gives players access to Gallows End, a gigantic new continent to explore where players claim ownership of a vast personal estate and experience new weapons, Twists of Fate and other perks against new enemies. The Legend of Dead Kel will be available starting on March 20,2012 on Xbox Live, PlayStation®Network, Origin™ and Steam.
An Epic New Questline – The Legend of Dead Kel is only part of the story of Gallows End. It intertwines with numerous side quests, multiple dungeons to explore and a colorful cast of characters New Enemies, Dungeons, Items – Multiple new enemies and enemy variants, a new dungeon type: Dverga Fastings, three new Twists of Fate, eight new armor sets, eight new shields and 18 new unique weapons The Ultimate Player Housing – Gravehal Keep is more than just player housing, it’s a massive estate with multiple buildings and a full retinue of retainers, each with their own back stories, side quests, perks and quirks Tons more to Explore – The Legend of Dead Kel DLC adds in more than 15% of additional land to traverse and explore in the already massively expansive world that is Amalur
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning has gained critical acclaim in its first weeks since launch. Claiming “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning will be discussed when Game of the Year 2012 rolls around,” IGN scored Reckoning 9 out of 10. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was brought together by a stellar team of creative minds that joined World Series Champion pitcher and founder of 38 Studios, Curt Schilling, including 24-time New York Times bestselling author R.A. Salvatore who created Amalur’s 10,000-year history, Spawn creator Todd McFarlane who lent his signature visual style to the artistry of the game, and Ken Rolston, internationally celebrated game designer.
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning brings open-world exploration and unparalleled action and combat together in the ultimate RPG experience. With near infinite combinations of destinies, abilities, weapons, items and special moves, players are able to customize their play experience to suit any play style. By reweaving their fate, they can retool and totally rebuild their hero in the midst of their adventure. Within Reckoning, players will immerse themselves in a world filled with extraordinary landscapes, mysterious cities, colorful characters and fantastic creatures exploring an entirely new universe where every building, tree, and creature has a clear and defined history.
Developed by 38 Studios, a subsidiary of Big Huge Games in Baltimore, Maryland and 38 Studios in Providence, Rhode Island, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is available now in North America and Europe for the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PC. Learn more about Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning by visiting www.Reckoning.com or follow us on Facebook (http://facebook.com/ReckoningTheGame) and on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ReckoningGame). Press assets for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning are available at www.info.ea.com.
Rockstar Games has announced the release of a title update for the iOS version of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary Edition, which includes optimized memory usage for older devices and some minor bug fixes. The update follows the release of the patch on the Android version of the game.
New York, NY, February 29, 2012 – 2K Games, Gearbox Software and Valve today announced an agreement to power all PC versions of the highly anticipated Borderlands™ 2 with Steamworks when the game launches on September 18, 2012 in North America and September 21, 2012 internationally. Currently in development by Gearbox Software,Borderlands 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed four-player cooperative shooter-looter that combined intense first-person mayhemwithrole-playing gameplay.
Borderlands 2 players will enjoy the benefits of Steamworks features, such as Steam Achievements, downloadable content, auto-updating, multiplayer matchmaking, Steam Cloud support and more. Customers who purchase the PC retail version of Borderlands 2 will also be able to enjoy all the great Steamworks features as well. Borderlands 2 features all-new characters and skills, imaginative and diverse new environments with unique missions and enemies, and more exciting, fun weapons, equipment and loot than ever before. All of these features come together in a story that takes players to the world of Pandora to take down the notorious Handsome Jack and his corrupt Hyperion Corporation as a solo campaign or with up to four cooperative players. To pre-order Borderlands 2, please visit www.borderlands2.com/preorder.
Borderlands 2 is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information on Borderlands 2 please visit www.borderlands2.com.
New York, NY – February 29, 2011 – 2K Sports today announced the return of the Major League Baseball® 2K12 RV tour, a coast-to-coast mobile experience featuring special giveaways, batting cages and hands-on play time with Major League Baseball 2K12. The cross-country tour brings the excitement of authentic baseball action to fans this spring and summer with a custom-designed Major League Baseball 2K12 recreation vehicle. The mobile demo vehicle will be rigged with portable video game gear for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Traveling to various Arizona Spring Training hotspots, including Hohokam Park in Mesa and Tempe Diablo Stadium in Tempe, as well as big league ballparks, such as Comerica Park in Detroit, Citi Field in New York and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, 2K Sports will slide into more than 25 cities in total.
“For the second straight year, we’re taking the 2K Sports RV on the ultimate baseball road trip,” said Jason Argent, vice president of marketing for 2K Sports. “It’s always a pleasure to interact with our fans across the country, and we can’t wait to get the tour started and share Major League Baseball 2K12 with baseball fans everywhere.”
2K Sports will begin the tour on March 9, 2012 in Surprise, Arizona, and visit Cactus League ballparks throughout the month of March. Following the start of the regular season, the tour kicks into full gear with events through June. Some of the highlights include stops at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, and two special events at the MLB FanCave in New York City. The tour concludes with a booth at MLB All-Star FanFest in Kansas City.
Fans at tour stops will have the opportunity to practice their in-game pitching skills for the $1 Million Perfect Game Challenge, which returns for the third successive year beginning on MLB Opening Day, April 4th. Eight gamers who pitch perfect games on Xbox 360 or PlayStation®3 prior to May 1 will be eligible to participate in a live tournament for the grand prize of $1 million. Full rules and details can be found at www.2ksports.com/perfectclub.
The Major League Baseball 2K12 tour dates** are below. Additional events will be added at a later date, so fans should visit www.2ksports.com/mlb2k12/tour for the latest schedule.
March 9 Surprise, AZ – Surprise Stadium
March 10 Glendale, AZ – Camelback Ranch (Games @ 12:05 PM and 6:05 PM)
March 11 Tempe, AZ – Tempe Diablo Stadium
March 15 Tempe, AZ – Tempe Diablo Stadium
March 16 Surprise, AZ – Surprise Stadium (11 AM)
March 18 Maryvale, AZ – Maryvale Baseball Park
March 22 Goodyear, AZ – Goodyear Ballpark
March 23 Tucson, AZ – Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium
March 24 Mesa, AZ – Hohokam Park
March 25 Goodyear, AZ – Goodyear Ballpark
March 29 Tempe, AZ – Tempe Diablo Stadium
March 30 Glendale, AZ – Camelback Ranch
April 6-7 Anaheim, CA – Angel Stadium of Anaheim
April 9-10 Oakland, CA – Overstock.com Coliseum
April 14-15 Los Angeles, CA – Dodger Stadium
April 20 Houston, TX – Minute Maid Park
April 24-25 St. Petersburg, FL – Tropicana Field
Host: Tampa Bay Rays
April 29 Atlanta, GA – Turner Field
May 1 Cincinnati, OH – Great American Ball Park
May 4-5 Detroit, MI – Comerica Park
Host: Detroit Tigers
May 7 Baltimore, MD – Oriole Park at Camden Yards
May 9-10 New York, NY – MLB FanCave
May 12 Philadelphia, PA – Citizens Bank Park
Host: Philadelphia Phillies
May 14-15
Host: New York Mets
May 19-20
Host: Washington Nationals
May 22 Pittsburgh, PA – PNC Park
Host: Pittsburgh Pirates
May 26-27
May 29 Minneapolis, MN – Target Field
June 5-6 Kansas City, MO – Kauffman Stadium
June 9-10 St. Louis, MO – Busch Stadium
Host: St. Louis Cardinals
July 6-10 Kansas City, MO – MLB All-Star FanFest
**Tour dates are subject to change. Visit www.2ksports.com/mlb2k12/tour for the latest schedule.
The upcoming Game of Thrones RPG today unveiled a new series of 6 exclusive screenshots.
Blizzard Entertainment CEO, Mike Morhaime, has posted up an official letter to the gaming community over at the Battle.net forums announcing that the company is in the process of laying off 600 employees. We wish all of those affected by the layoffs the absolute best and hope they recover quickly.
Please see below the official letter for this morning’s Blizzard Press Release.
Everyone,
We announced today that we’re in the process of cutting a number of active positions, mostly non-development, throughout the company. I’m sure this announcement has sparked some questions from all of you, so I want take this opportunity to address those as best I can. Over the past several years, the company has grown rapidly and evolved to better serve you and the rest of our global community. Thanks to all of your support, we continue to serve by far the biggest subscription-based MMO community, as well as the most passionate eSports and online gaming communities, in the world.
In order to keep making epic game content while serving players effectively, we have to be smart about how we manage our resources. This means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions about how to best maintain the health of the company. We’re in the process of making some of those hard decisions now.
After evaluating our current organizational needs, we determined that while some areas of our business had been operating at the right levels and could benefit from further growth, other areas had become overstaffed. As a result, we need to scale down some of our departments and part with some of our colleagues and friends here at Blizzard. I know that you all understand how difficult this type of situation can be for anyone who might be affected, so I want to assure you that we’ll be offering each impacted employee a severance package and other benefits.
I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by today’s announcement. We’re continuing to develop, iterate, and polish Blizzard DOTA, Diablo III, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, as well as other, unannounced projects. We’ll have exciting news to share in the coming weeks regarding Diablo III’s release date, and will soon be holding a private media event to showcase the latest work on Mists of Pandaria. It goes without saying that we’re working hard to get all of these games in your hands as soon as possible.
You’ve all come to expect Blizzard to live up to our mission statement with every game, and deliver the most epic entertainment experiences ever. You can continue to expect that and nothing less from us as we move forward.
-Mike Morhaime
IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that it has conducted a review of its business based on current organizational needs. Following a completion of the review, the company is conducting a global reduction in workforce of approximately 600 employees. The company anticipates approximately 90% of the affected employees will come from departments not related to game development. The World of Warcraft® development team will not be impacted.
“Constant evaluation of teams and processes is necessary for the long-term health of any business. Over the last several years, we’ve grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However, as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we’ve also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Knowing that, it still does not make letting go of some of our team members any easier. We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to work with the people impacted by today’s announcement, we’re proud of the contributions they made here at Blizzard, and we wish them well as they move forward.”
Blizzard’s current development and publishing schedules will not be impacted. The company will announce specific release plans for Diablo® III in the near future, and it’s continuing to drive aggressively toward beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria™, Blizzard DOTA, and StarCraft® II: Heart of the Swarm™. Blizzard also remains committed to maintaining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery. In addition, Blizzard is still recruiting and looking to hire qualified developers for a number of open positions. Further details are available at http://jobs.blizzard.com.
This has turned out to be a great day for geek-kind as the viral marketing campaign for Ridley Scott’s upcoming Alien prequel sci-fi flick, Prometheus has begun! It comes to us in the form of the official website for Weyland Industries (which eventually combines with Yutani Corp to form Weyland-Yutani a la Alien and Aliens) AND a video keynote from TED 2023, fifty years before the movie is said to take place. In the video, Guy Pearce (who plays Weyland) gives a keynote speech about wanting to change the world, comparing humanity to the Gods of old. Check it out!
Hamburg, 28 February 2012 – ROCCAT Studios today announced the upcoming availability of the Savu Mid-Size Hybrid Gaming Mouse – a competition device that “fusion welds” an ideal blend of performance and customizable features into a robust, perfectly-balanced, medium-size design.
The Savu offers a combination of unprecedented, true 4000 dpi optical sensor power, world famous Easy-Shift[+] technology allowing for advanced button configuration, and a lighting system delivering 16.8 million colors. What’s more, it’s the world’s first mouse to feature a stats and trophy system – called the ROCCAT Achievements Display, or R.A.D. — something previously known in similar form only in online gaming. Designed specifically for fans of mid-size gaming mice, the Savu also pampers the hands with an ergonomic right-hand thumb rest and soft-touch surface.
Hamburg-based ROCCAT Studios says the Savu severely outperforms every gaming mouse in its class and is sure to set a new standard in the mid-size field. CeBIT 2012 visitors can catch the Savu debut at stands from Acer (Hall 22, Booth 24) and XMG by Schenker Notebooks (Hall 23, Booth A01-3.1). The Savu is expected to hit shelves internationally early May.
“The Savu raises the bar for optical mid-size gaming mice significantly,” says René Korte, ROCCAT Founder and CEO. “It really is a dream piece of machinery for gamers who love medium-size gear and a welcome addition to our powerful mouse line-up.”
With its advanced Pro Optic sensor, the Savu delivers true 400, 800, 1600 and 4000 dpi – placing it at the pinnacle of optical gaming mice. The latest R3 sensor also delivers lag-free gaming without any interpolation, and provides ultra-precise feedback during even the fastest movements – all so players can command with the utmost accuracy.
The Savu comes standard with exclusive Easy-Shift[+]™ technology, which lets gamers set two functions for each mouse button and the scroll wheel, essentially transforming a seven-button mouse into a 12-button one without the clutter of unnecessary additional buttons. Easy-Shift[+]™ also lets gamers take advantage of Easy-Aim, which automatically reduces the dpi setting when in sniper mode – delivering pinpoint accuracy at the touch of a button. And thanks to advanced Omron switches, the Savu’s two main buttons feature consistent and precise pressure points – as well as high durability for a long life.
The Savu features a large, customizable rear light bar, which users can set in their choice of 16.8 million colors – to add to the atmosphere of gaming sessions. Players can also activate a color cycling feature, as well as a “breathing” function, which instructs the mouse to pulse in a choice of color.
The Savu also marks the debut of the ROCCAT Achievements Display – or R.A.D. – a fun and useful application that tracks and rewards a wide range of gaming feats, such as mouse movement, button clicks, scroll steps, etc. The driver-based software compiles user data, provides a range of statistics for analysis, and hands out trophies when exceptional milestones have been reached. It’s an entertaining way for gamers to keep track of their mouse skills – and it even lets players share their accomplishments with others via social network sites, like Facebook.
See the Savu in action for the first time at CeBIT 2012 at the Acer Stand, Hall 22, Booth 24, and at the XMG by Schenker Notebooks Stand, Hall 23, Booth A01-3.1.
Further information available after 6 March 2012 at:
