Forbes - A big part of the Microsoft Xbox One Reveal in Redmond, Washington today was the unveiling of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Ghosts to the world. I was able to see the game last week at a pre-E3 event with Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who took the stage today at Microsoft’s headquarters to unveil the new game. Activision has big plans for its biggest franchise, and the game demo promises a next generation of shooting action with even more Hollywood influences (thanks, in part, to the involvement of acclaimed director Stephen Gaghan on the new game).
Hirshberg said people have been asking for years now how long can Call of Duty last and whether or not this franchise is ever going to crest. The only “problem” is (and it’s not a problem for Activision, but perhaps for other publishers) that the franchise continues to grow.
Ubisoft announced on recent earnings calls that it has already recouped the cost of Activision/Blizzard streaming rights - which were only between €50M and €100M.
Activision has published a new patent that wants to create NPCs capable of reacting with AI-generated audio and animations in games.
Have people forgotten that the 'A' in 'AI' stands for ARTIFICIAL? As in not real, as in the opposite of realism? AI-Generated content is the opposite of realism.
Microsoft and Activision have announced a AA-focused splinter team, making Tango Gameworks' closure baffling.
Yea let’s shut down a AA studio that just put out a great game and open another AA studio out of nowhere. I swear Microsoft never make any sense.
Microsoft constantly talks about creating new studios but most of their titles end up coming from studios they just threw money at 🤷♂️
Remember when they hyped The Initiative as their Naughty Dog? It's been 6 years and we've seen a trailer....
Bottom line is the Xbox part of Microsoft is in a helluva mess. The pivots are snapping ankles.
Obviously the team that remained after so many left didn't meet the needs of MSFT. A new team is not unusual for new projects. Some of the old team moved on internally and we do not know where they all went. The resources elsewhere that were freed up could likely have even been a part what spun up this new studio. Resources move. Just not in Tango Austin anymore.
It's nice to see a game developer not shooting a dog for a change.
We need to see gameplay!
ghosts does look good.
fuc hershberg that shyt garbage.
then they haven't seen BF3 ,killzone on consoles