It has been widely accepted in online video games for a long time that you have to compete against people of the same level. It doesn’t make much sense to be beaten by a master or feel that victory has been too easy: it’s called SBMM (Skill-based matchmaking), where each match will always be a challenge, but one that players feel they can overcome without much trouble.
Now, Activision has revealed all its tricks to match players by skill and, above all, what happened when they secretly decided to deactivate the option and have everyone face each other: “Everyone hated it, more people left the games, there was less play and more anger and negative reactions.“ You didn’t need an investigation for that, really.
The truth is, it is always fun to face a challenge to push players to be more efficient, but if they are overcome time and time again, they simply decide that multiplayer is not their thing, and they don’t try to participate again. Considering that the vast majority of Call of Duty is based on multiplayer, it was a noteworthy finding.
That doesn’t mean they don’t play with the idea of creating confrontations that don’t use personal skill as a factor to unite rivals, knowing full well that the worst players would never get into that mode, leaving it only for those who have skills far superior to the normal ones. Who knows. The future is unwritten.
Perhaps some find it fun to feel crushed (or crush) another team and have them withdraw out of sheer exhaustion. Activision has promised to study it. Because, hey, you never know where the future of video games may be.
The developers of two of the best remakes in recent years were working on a Donkey Kong, but Activision said no.
Activision Blizzard is not among the most beloved and appreciated companies in the world. Even if it’s not EA. That’s because, even before the acquisition plans by Microsoft, they had already taken numerous missteps. Many buried franchises. Many questionable decisions. Not to mention all the accusations that it is a less than ideal work environment. Something that doesn’t seem to have improved particularly even after its acquisition by Microsoft was approved.
This does not mean that all the suspicions raised by Activision Blizzard have highly recognized studios within their ranks. Blizzard, until a few years ago, was one of them. And one that has recently demonstrated its ability to create works that resonate with the public is Vicarious Visions.
If you don’t know Vicarious Visions by name, that doesn’t mean you don’t know their games. Active since 1991, they were acquired by Activision in 2005. They have numerous versions of games for handheld consoles, especially Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. In addition, they are perhaps best known by some of their recent works. They were responsible for the absolutely fabulous remake of the first two Tony Hawk games, called Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, and the remasters of the first three Crash Bandicoot games in Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
Just for that, Vicarious Visions already deserves all our respect. But in the last few days, several pieces of information have come to light that give us a small perspective of what the studio has done so far. Including why we haven’t seen more of their extraordinary work.
Now, thanks to DK Vine, a fan website dedicated to the Donkey Kong universe, we have discovered that Vicarious Visions has been working on a 3D Donkey Kong game for Nintendo Switch.
The game, codenamed Freedom, was a 3D platformer focused on movement, where one of its key mechanics was jumping between vines. One of the reasons why the project got the green light was because of Vicarious Visions’ extraordinary work on Nintendo characters in Skylanders SuperChargers, a platformer developed by the studio with the support of Beenox. With the active participation of Shigeru Miyamoto in the project, suggesting mechanics and providing perspective, Nintendo was heavily involved in the development.
In 2016, however, Freedom was cancelled. Although it never progressed beyond its early stages, with about 6 months of active development, it was not cancelled because it was performing poorly, but for something much worse: Activision lost interest in the project. Or to be fair, they lost interest in all their projects. Because since then, at Activision Blizzard they decided to focus almost exclusively on the development of Call of Duty.
Of course, Vicarious Visions has worked on more than just Call of Duty since then. Although they were part of Activision, they had not been absorbed at that time. Not completely. And that’s why they were able to make the fantastic Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
What we didn’t know is that’s not all the Tony Hawk we could have had. According to Liam Robertson, a video game historian who has also revealed everything about Freedom, Vicarious Visions had planned to make Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4. Initially, they wanted to include it in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, introducing mechanics from the third installment into the first two, but due to lack of time, they decided to discard it for a future release.
What happened is that, despite Vicarious Visions proposing to Activision to make Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4, they refused. Despite the excellent sales and reviews, Activision made them collaborate on the development of Call of Duty and the remake of Diablo 2. Leaving the possibility of making this second part of the remake on hold until they were fully absorbed by Activision in 2022, becoming a support team under the name of Blizzard Albany.
With Activision focused exclusively on Call of Duty and Blizzard on Diablo and World of Warcraft, it seems doubtful that we will see the former Vicarious Visions offering us one of their excellent remakes. Much less a new game. This makes it even more frustrating that they have canceled such promising projects that they had in progress. Thus, further reducing the landscape of video games.
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Activision has already released all the information about the new season of Call of Duty, promising us an overwhelming amount of content.
It seems like it was just yesterday the last time we talked about the news of the new season of Call of Duty. And it’s because Activision doesn’t allow players of its flagship franchise to have even a single second to get bored or even consider that they don’t give them all the content they may need. That’s why today we’re going to tell you what this third season of Call of Duty brings us, perhaps less loaded with news, but still juicy.
To begin with, the multiplayer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III is going to receive quite a bit of new content. To start, six new 6 vs. 6 maps will be added, four at the beginning of the season and two in the middle of the season. The maps we will receive at the beginning are 6 Star, which takes place in a luxury resort in Dubai; Emergency, which will take place in mountain medical facilities; Growhouse, which will place us in a nest of drug traffickers; and Tanked, which surprisingly takes place in a zoo. The remaining two maps are Grime, which will take place in a ruined London canal, and Checkpoint, based on the fortress of Rebirth Island.
On the other hand, Modern Warfare III will also benefit from new game modes. At launch, we will have the classic Capture the Flag, but also the return of the classic One in the Chamber. For the middle of the season, we will have Minefield and Escort, to finish off the new content for the online part of Modern Warfare.
Zombies mode fans won’t be left wanting either. With a new story mission, a new Dark Aether Rift, and a new Warlord. This time an expert in demolition and artillery who goes by the inspiring name of Rainmaker.
Of course, Warzone fans won’t be the only ones without news. And it’s not like there are few. Warzone Season 3 will see the return of one of the fans’ favorite maps, Rebirth Island, as well as the return of the Rebirth mode. In addition to that, a new mode called Training Ground will be included, where it will only be possible to play in squads on the Urzikstan map, in a map with 20 players and 24 bots to train before jumping into the big leagues.
In addition to all that, new weapons and operators will arrive, including, for obvious reasons, Snoop Dogg. There will also be a collaboration with Godzilla vs. Kong, with special skins, and a celebration for 4/20 with Cheech & Chong, featuring a submachine gun with marijuana imagery. An entire festival that you can’t miss if you’re a fan of Call of Duty, coming on April 3rd.
Now that, for Microsoft, everything has come to a good port, the company does not hesitate to positively value the long legal process that it took to complete the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, one of the largest and most powerful companies in the video game industry. And it is that, with a “tough, but fair” deal, Microsoft adapted to the demands of the United Kingdom to overcome the obstacle and close the operation without any institutional obstacle.
With this operation already closed, Microsoft’s acquisition has been the largest ever recorded in the world of video games, as never before has an operation reached such staggering figures as the $69 billion that the company was willing to pay to strengthen the commercial area of Xbox.
These statements have been made by Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, who has not hesitated to go into detail about the work it took for the company to convince the British court that the purchase would not harm the free market or pose a monopoly risk. Indeed, from the perspective of Great Britain, given the size of Microsoft and the magnitude of the acquisition, the doubts and risks of this acquisition were more than evident to the CMA.
In fact, one of the aspects that most concerned the CMA was cloud gaming, which consisted of a broad initiative by Xbox, and, in the face of an emerging segment that is not yet established, having such a disproportionate advantage would imply that this niche could have a risk of monopoly from very early stages.
Microsoft has agreed to sell Activision Blizzard’s cloud to Ubisoft to give up the monopoly
The agreement with PlayStation
PlayStation, when it still had Jim Ryan at the helm, was particularly concerned about the exclusivity rights of Call of Duty, Activision’s cash cow. It is a globally successful shooter with huge sales figures every year, even when the game turns out to be a “flop”, as in the most recent case.
Do you like zombies? Do you like Call of Duty? If the answer is yes, we have excellent news for you: zombie mode returns to CoD.
Who doesn’t enjoy a good zombie apocalypse in their shooter game? Especially when it has been refined over the years and has proven to be an extremely popular mode executed to perfection. Because shooting zombies is fun, even when we’re not in a horror game. And Treyarch knows this very well because, without beating around the bush, the zombies mode has been revealed for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
Presented with a cinematic trailer, the biggest change compared to previous zombie modes is that this time it will feature an open world. As reported in a blog post on Call of Duty’s website, this will allow squads to team up with other squads to take on the zombies, who are more numerous than ever this time around. Additionally, the missions themselves will be significantly more complex.
With different regions that increase in difficulty, this mode aims to bring a different vibe to the Modern Warfare 3 gaming experience and to the franchise’s other zombie modes as well. Therefore, it will be an open-world PvE survival and objective extraction mode with special missions.
Adding to what we’ve already discussed about teaming up with other squads, they have all the ingredients to make this the most epic and wild zombie mode experience in history. Especially because they’ve indicated that we can expect unique elements, challenges, and cinematics that will enhance the most important aspects of the story.
Modern Warfare 3 will be released on November 10, 2023, for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC. The game is being developed by Sledgehammer in collaboration with Infinity Ward, with Treyarch handling the zombie mode.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2 is not going through its best moment, with its players very unhappy, due to a serious problem with its sound design.
On the battlefield being able to hear your enemy can be the difference between life and death. That’s no different in Call of Duty. That’s why Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 is proving to be tremendously controversial, in which its developers have decided to make the characters’ footstep sounds virtually imperceptible, making it virtually impossible to detect rivals through sound.
This is a problem that was already present in Call Of Duty Warzone 1, but has only gotten worse with Call Of Duty: Warzone 2.0. Although the beta seemed to have alleviated this problem, many players complain that it is possible for an opponent to run up to practically next to them and that their footsteps are virtually impossible to hear. Something that makes that, in competitive environments, there are cases in which many deaths feel unfair due to the impossibility of responding to rivals that we should be able to stand up to. Something that would justify declaring it as one of the worst sound design jobs in the history of competitive gaming.
In fact, sound is so important that a multitude of games even include accessibility options for them. Fortnite is the most famous in this regard – with an exceptional accessibility system that indicates the intensity and direction where the sound is coming from, which is also used by professionals without any kind of hearing problem – but it is increasingly common in all kinds of multiplayer games. So Call of Duty players are hoping that Activision will listen to them and do something about this problem that is making this season 3 experience of the popular multiplayer game one of the least fun in the franchise’s history.
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Microsoft purchasing Activision came as a huge surprise to gamers, industry members, and business people alike. After all, the two companies represent a huge market share on top of enormous respective catalogs of games. The $68.7 billion USD deal is all cash and has some people wondering how Microsoft can get away with this regarding anti-trust laws.
Tencent, Sony, and other companies are still bigger than they will be even with Activision under their belt. But the PC giant purchased storied studio Bethesda recently, announcing that their next release, Starfield, will be an Xbox exclusive.
Of course, that doesn’t mean much for people who have Windows PCs thanks to Xbox Game Pass. With Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s Head of Gaming, making promises, what can Game Pass users expect out of the Activision deal?
How does Game Pass work?
Before we dive in, let’s have a quick refresher on how Game Pass works and what it offers for those who might be unfamiliar with it.
From streaming services to shipping services and even car companies, many are moving toward subscription modalities. While the user may not own an item, they will have access to far more and may even gain perks along the way.
In this vein, the Xbox Game Pass service provides access to more than 100 games, EA Play, and Xbox Live Gold for multiple devices using the cloud. At $14.99 a month, that’s a ton of games for the average user. What’s more: it spans a huge amount of companies and studios. For instance, you could play a Mass Effect then pick up the latest Yakuza title, switch to Halo Infinite for a while, and then play a fun indie game like Hades.
Better still is that purchasing a title on Xbox allows users to play the games on PC, as well via Game Pass.
How Activision games fit in on Game Pass
Blizzard is known for its heavy-hitting franchises like World of Warcraft,Diablo,StarCraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and more. While you can play MMOs on Xbox and PC, Microsoft doesn’t have true MMO experience under its umbrella.
All the same, Microsoft does have tons of experience with handling many server calls as you would need for managing multiple massive always-online titles. With Diablo 4 still in development, Microsoft also stands to influence how the game will come out, as well.
While future development of titles in other franchises remains opaque, it’s a sure bet to see Microsoft maintain service for current Blizzard/Activision titles. Current subscribers can maintain their service or postpone it until Microsoft ports over the Activision/Blizzard titles. Those on the fence about purchasing the service can take a look at the titles to see if it sways them or not.
Game Pass will protect Call of Duty on PlayStation
Though many people love Blizzard titles like Spyro or Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, many more gamers actively and often playCall of Duty. Since the franchise had already committed to releasing three more titles on the Sony PlayStation, Microsoft intends to uphold this deal, according to Bloomberg.
For now, Game Pass won’t afford any additional perks (that we know of) regarding Call of Duty games. Some sites have theorized that collaborating could prompt bringing Game Pass to Switch and even PS5. The likelihood of this move is entirely suspect right now.
Prepare for resurrecting older Activision titles
It’s common knowledge that Phil Spencer and other Xbox Studios members want to bring back classic Activision and Blizzard franchises. Of note are Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, and Skylanders, but the gigantic company also houses many other popular and profitable games such as:
Though Game Pass holders should not expect to see these titles pop up right away, it is possible that Microsoft will pursue them down the road.
Number one step: find out what you want to play
As with anything, finding out what you want is the most important step to prepare for Activision games coming to Game Pass. If you’re an avid Overwatch player, the ~$15 USD per month fee makes sense as it not only gets you access to that game but a bunch of other new releases, too.
For Hearthstone fanatics, it might not make as much sense. After all, Hearthstone is free to play unless you purchase card packs, cosmetics, or expansions.
The bottom line is that Game Pass already had a ton to offer for that monthly fee. With Microsoft’s purchase of Activision/Blizzard, their supremacy in the games-as-a-service and subscription space is even more assured.
