Today’s news is dominated by Activision Blizzard. Heard of them? They make games. And sequels. Lots (and lots) of sequels. They recently had an investor call, so that means a lot of stuff was yapped about. Below you’ll find some of the more interesting bits.
News Blips:
• Obvious news blip of the day: Activision Blizzard is kinda making a lot of money. In the first quarter of 2009, the megapublisher made, oh, only about $981 million. Couldn’t top a billion, guys? Pathetic. [Joystiq]
• Activision Blizzard ramping up new Tony Hawk game for E3. An investor call today revealed the everlasting skateboard franchise will be shown at this May’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). Pretty obvious, sure, but at least it shows Tony Hawk is still a pro in videogame land. Kelly Slater? Not so much. [Kotaku]
• StarCraft 2 demo strategically hitting this summer. Blizzard head honcho Mike Morhaime confirmed today that you’ll soon be able to tryout the eagerly anticipated real-time strategy sequel. You hear that sound? That’s Korea exploding. [Shacknews]
• New Zelda DS game is going for a wider audience; narrow audience feels insecure. According to Nintendo’s 2009 fiscal year results, the company says the upcoming DS title The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is going for a “wider age group.” Lost’s Richard Alpert approves of this news. [Kotaku]
Hit the jump for some video blips, including an electrifying demo of the PS3 open-world action game Infamous, Robot Chicken creators fooling around with Spore, boob-touching mini-games on the DS, and…more.
Video Blips:
• Not-so-shocking: Infamous looks fun. Especially if you like riding on top of trains. Or shooting lighting bolts out of your hands. Y’know, like this guy.
• Red Dead Redemption debut trailer moseys on in. Looks wild. For a Western.
• DiRT 2 studio tour surprisingly clean. See the place where the muddy racer is made.
• Robot Chicken creators cluck it up with Spore developers. Don’t get too excited — it’s mostly a teaser for some Spore-related thingy on May 19th. Still worth watching if you fancy fart jokes. If so, I just farted. Zing!
Cultural Blips:
• Konami Code websites so easy to click you don’t need 30 lives. The appropriately-named Konami Code Sites compiles Internet pages that allow you to use the classic cheat (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start) for fun surprises. Have fun, cheater. [n0wak via Kotaku]
• This Street Fighter II kicks ASCII. Some crafty students at the University of Central Florida created a text-based version of Street Fighter II. Pretty cool, guys, but can you make a pizza? We can: (@>. Beat that, hotshots. [Kotaku]
• Pervs use DS to touch fake boobies. Thanks to this game, you can create your own WarioWare mini-games. Hot, huh? For porn-freaks, yes. Check out the link to see some NSFW rubbing. [Destructoid]