I can just imagine monocled gentlemen sitting around a wood-paneled study at EA, chortling with glee as their besotted rival flails around in agitation.
News Blips:
Activision scoffs at the formation of Respawn Entertainment by former Infinity Ward (Modern Warfare 2) heads Jason West and Vince Zampella. While the fledgling company (which has partnered with EA in an exclusive distribution deal) has yet to release any information regarding future projects, the embattled Activision is adamant of achieving success with the remainder of Infinity Ward. "This agreement comes as no surprise to Activision given the myriad of improper activities detailed in the cross-complaint filed on Friday against Jason West and Vince Zampella," said the company in a statement earlier today. "We look forward to continuing to work with Infinity Ward’s deep bench of proven talent on exciting new projects." Naming your company "Respawn" does get the message across, but I would have gone with something avant-garde like "ActiSuck." [MCV]
In order to reduce the gaming sessions of its younger citizens, Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism is introducing blackout periods for certain online games. Gamers will choose a specific time block that denies access to games requiring an Internet connection, such as massively multiplayer titles. A secondary clause in the new plan calls for a throttling of Internet speeds if the gamer remains connected for a "lengthy" period of time. Sadly, I'll bet dollars to Zerglings that this new system will be quickly thwarted. [GamePolitics]
Former and current professional Starcraft players in Korea have been implicated of illegal betting and tampering with match results. Organizations involved with the shady practice had infiltrated certain teams and official betting websites in order to approach players, coaches, and announcers with the prospect of leaking replay files and skewing win-loss ratios. The police have begun an investigation of the various online betting sites for the wildly popular competitive Starcraft leagues. Oh, say it ain't so, Joe! [TeamLiquid]
A recently resolved glitch encountered in an early level of Splinter Cell: Conviction for the Xbox 360 caused the game to freeze up completely. The glitch occurred by reaching a weapons cache in the mansion area of the game, which forced players to restart their consoles in order to un-freeze their consoles. A fix was quickly released, much to the relief of Ubisoft who should by now realize how much of a bad ass Sam Fisher is by his power to kill electronics with his mind. [GamerVision]
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