Activision today revealed that it is planning to release future iterations in the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises during 2009.

According to Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith, the publisher's 2009 lineup will include "multiple new Guitar Hero SKUs [and] an all new Call of Duty [due to our] leapfrog studio strategy," along with the next Tony Hawk game.

The next batch of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty games are arriving this fall in the form of Guitar Hero World Tour and Call of Duty: World at War.

The "leapfrog studio strategy" refers to the company's practice of rotating development responsibilities. Series creator Infinity Ward has helmed Call of Duty 1, 2 and 4, while Treyarch has produced Call of Duty 3 and the upcoming Call of Duty: World at War.

Publisher Activision expects to pull in $40-50 million dollars this year from the sale of downloadable content on Xbox Live, PlayStation Store and the Wii Shop Channel.

Most of that will stem from additional Guitar Hero songs and Call of Duty maps. While both of those practices are relatively common on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Guitar Hero World Tour, due out this fall, will be the first Wii game to sell downloadable songs.

"As you know, [DLC revenue has] been steadily growing, although in the grand scheme it's relatively small," commented Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith.

Update: Later in the conference call, it was revealed that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will arrive between October and December.

Original Story: Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime today discussed the effects that the recent launch of Funcom's PC MMO Age of Conan had on World of Warcraft (PC).

"Age of Conan released with some initial success," Morhaime noted. "We did see some of our players leave, [but] about 40% of those players have returned to World of Warcraft."

According to the CEO, World of Warcraft has a key advantage as competitors are going up against "a product that has been continually enhanced, expanded and refined for almost four years now."

Morhaime refused to specify a release date for either StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3, merely noting that both games were "heavily in development" and that the... Read more

During a conference call today, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith detailed the company's expectations for console sales across 2008, revealing its belief that the PlayStation 3 will sell more systems than the Xbox 360 this year.

By the end of the current calendar year, Activision believes the consoles will sell:

• PlayStation 3: 8 million units
• Xbox 360: 6-7 million units
• Wii: 15 million units
• PlayStation 2: 4-5 million units

Griffith also noted the company's expectation that handhelds will grow "in excess of 24 million," but did not provide a specific breakdown between PSP and Nintendo DS.

Nintendo today revealed Vicarious Vision's Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades at its conference at today's E3 2008 press conference.

A follow-up to this year's release of Guitar Hero: On Tour, On Tour: Decades incorporates a feature called song sharing, which allows users to share songs from both versions of the title via local wireless.

The game is slated to debut this fall.

In a press release announcing its upcoming lineup, Activision revealed that Raven Software is working on a first person shooter titled Singularity. No additional details were announced, though the publisher did note the game represented an "all-new wholly owned intellectual property."

The press release also noted this about the untitled new Wolfenstein game, also in development at Raven.

Set within a near-fictional, historical WWII setting, players take on the role of the heroic OSA agent BJ Blazkowicz as they are thrust into the unknown and unexpected to battle against combat troops, otherworldly forces, and the dark science created by a supernatural Nazi force hell-bent on world domination. Wolfenstein offers players an action-packed experience as they investigate the powers of a dark parallel dimension, join with resistance forces, and employ an arsenal of conventional and otherworldly weapons in attempts to annihilate the Nazi war machine. Ensuring a deep variety of action, Wolfenstein provides gamers with an assortment of interlinked missions that drive an intense, story-driven combat experience; while the Wolfenstein multiplayer experience continues the world-renowned tradition of class-based team objective gameplay with a full arsenal of conventional and supernatural weapons for addictive online warfare. (Xbox 360, PS3, Windows PC).

Activision and Blizzard Entertainment parent Vivendi Games announced the completion of their multibillion dollar merger resulting in the creation of Activision Blizzard.

Originally announced in late 2007, the merger was approved by shareholders earlier this week. The new Activision Blizzard corporation is valued at roughly $18.9 billion, marking one of the largest corporate consolidations in the industry's history.

"We are very excited about the opportunity for Activision Blizzard to create a broader entertainment software platform," said Activision Blizzard chairman Rene Penisson. "We are determined to 'think big'!"

According to the terms of the transaction, Vivendi will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. Through the merger and a $1.7B stock purchase, Vivendi will acquire roughly 358.3 million shares in the new company, amounting to a 52% ownership stake in Activision Blizzard.

Publisher Activision today announced that its merger with Blizzard Entertainment parent company Vivendi Games has been approved by shareholders, and the transaction is expected to officially close tomorrow, July 9.

The new company, dubbed Activision Blizzard, is valued at roughly $18.9B.

As per the terms of the merger, Vivendi Games will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision, and receive approximately 295.3M shares of Activision stock. Vivendi will also purchase nearly 63 million shares of stock at a total value of $1.7B, making Vivendi's ownership stake in the newly created Activision Blizzard around 52%.

Announced late last year, the Activision Blizzard merger is one of the largest corporate consolidations in the history of the gaming industry.

The first supposed details on the formerly revealed Marvel: Ultimate Alliance sequel have surfaced, providing a glimpse at the action-RPG's characters and platforms.

Due out on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP, the game is set during Marvel Comic's recent Civil War event.

Players can apparently combine the superpowers of their chosen team. For example, crossing Storm with Spider-Man would produce electrified webs.

Over 20 Marvel heroes will be playable--including Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Venom, the Human Torch and Storm--as they face off against their own to show their support or dismay of the Superhero Registration Act.

As with many of our other stories today, the information arrived courtesy internal documents from marketing firm Intellisponse, which were rehosted by NeoGAF.

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is expected to arrive during publisher Activision's 2009 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. No developer has been revealed, though Marvel: Ultimate Alliance veterans Raven Software are expected to return.

Marketing research firm Intellisponse's inadvertent leak of multiple internal documents detailed a total of 14 new Spider-Man game concepts from publisher Activision.

Included in the massive list was Spider-Man: Agile Warrior, which is controlled with the Wii Balance Board, Spider-Man: Hero Evolved, set in 2064, Marvel Team Up: Spider-Man Meets the X-Men, and Spider-Man vs. Marvel Zombies.

Agile Warrior is a Wii exclusive, while the latter three are slated for PS3, 360 and Wii.

As Intellisponse helps test market response for products, it is difficult to know which titles are merely proposals and which are in full-blown development.

Read on for the full list and descriptions of the 14 games... Read more

A new entry in the classic action-adventure series Pitfall will be released on the Wii this fall, publisher Activision has revealed.

Titled Pitfall: The Big Adventure and developed by Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (PS2, Xbox, GCN) veteran Edge of Reality, the game is said to incorporate motion-sensitive controls with reptile dodging, vine swinging, and clever puzzles across its 60 levels.

"What could be more fun than using the Wii Remote to swing on a vine over blood thirsty crocodiles as retro-cool Pitfall Harry," pondered Activision representative Dave Oxford.

First released on the Atari 2600, Pitfall represents one of Atari's longest-running franchises.

For the first time since 1999, publisher Activision will not release Tony Hawk-branded skateboarding game on consoles in the fall.

Instead, the company is plotting a release for the next fiscal year that will, in the words of Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith, re-invent the series "from the ground up." The company's next fiscal year runs from April 2009 to March 2010.

"It won't be your father's Tony Hawk," Gamasutra reports Griffith as saying during a conference call yesterday. "For competitive reasons we're not going to talk about it today, but we're very bullish on the kind of innovation it will bring."

Activision representatives had previously commented that series' formulaic gameplay would be reworked due to the strong performance of EA Black Box's Skate (PS3, X360), which outsold the ninth main Tony Hawk game 2 to 1. No additional details were provided, though it is assumed that series creator Neversoft is helming the project.

While there will not be a new Tony Hawk on consoles until next year, the company did note that a new Nintendo DS entry, developed by Vicarious Visions, is due out later this year.

The next entry in the Activision-owned wartime shooting franchise Call of Duty will take place in a "new military theater," according to Activision Publishing CEO and president Mike Griffith.

Speaking during a conference call yesterday, Griffith said that the unnamed sequel, which many unofficially refer to as Call of Duty 5, will arrive on PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS later this year.

The CEO did not elaborate further on the game's setting. His comments suggest that, contrary to past reports, the title may not return to the World War II setting featured in the first three Call of Duty titles.

As pointed out by Gamasutra, no details were provided as to which studio is developing the game. Job listings have indicated that Call of Duty 3 developer Treyarch may be returning to the franchise, with speculation that series creator and Call of Duty 4 developer Infinity Ward is already working on Call of Duty 6.

Growing publisher Activision today reported that its year-to-date 2008 net income totaled some $344 million, a significant increase over its 2007 take of $85 million.

The record profits were pulled from a total revenue of nearly $2.9 billion, up from $1.5 billion the previous year. Activision's fiscal year ends on March 31.

Activision's strong lineup was lead by Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4, which continued to perform well into the company's fourth quarter. The company records over 9 million sales of Call of Duty 4 as of March 31.

According to the publisher, 82.8% / $2.39 billion of its total revenue came from console software. The sale of portable games brought in 10.8% / $314 million of the overall sum, while PC games only made up a paltry 6.4% / $185 million.

A further breakdown revealed that Xbox 360 sales were responsible for 31% of the company's $2.50 billion publishing revenue, with PlayStation 2 software following at 29%. PlayStation 3 publishing made up 13%, Wii games checked in at 12%, and PC represented 6%. Nintendo DS software publishing followed at 5%, and PSP was responsible for 3%.

Soon to be merged publishers Activision and Vivendi will not be attending this year's E3 Media and Business Summit and have withdrawn from the Entertainment Software Association, Kotaku reports.

Moreover, four other companies—id Software, NCSoft, Codemasters, and Her Entertainment—have also decided not to attend this year's E3, which is organized by the ESA, a group dedicated to the business and public affairs needs of game developers and publishers.

Citing anonymous industry sources, Kotaku claims that the withdrawal of the six publishers from E3 was partially due to developer displeasure with ESA president Mike Gallagher. While in the office, Gallagher oversaw the shutdown of ESA's New York City office and a reduction in the organization's lobbying efforts.

Publisher NCSoft said the withdrawal was due to their current development cycle of their games and was not meant to reflect on the ESA or its leadership. Activision, meanwhile, chalked up its departure from the ESA up to "business reasons."

Several of the developers are holding their own events to showcase upcoming products, with Activision putting on a gamers day the week of E3 and id Software's QuakeCon in August.

The latest entry in the Fun Labs-developed line of Rapala-branded fishing video games will arrive on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii this summer, publisher Activision revealed today.

Titled Rapala Fishing Frenzy, the game includes fishing tournaments, 25 different species of fish, and licensed Rapala lures. The PS3 and X360 editions will feature traditional controls, while the Wii version will utilize the motion-sensitive Wii Remote.

"This is the most exciting, progressive fishing game ever made and every angler's dream," the company boasted.

"A proper fishing game needs to capture the adrenaline-pumping intensity of sport fishing," added Fun Labs representative Adrian Filippini. "Rapala's involvement has resulted in a game with a new level of realistic fishing fun."

Publisher Activision today announced Little League World Series 2008 for the Wii and DS platforms, aimed for release on August 5. The company also released a handful of screenshots from the Wii version of the title.

Little League World Series 2008 offers players the ability to bat, pitch and field using controls developed exclusively for the Wii and DS, and is the first officially licensed Little League to hit "next-gen" consoles.

The game is said to feature sixteen teams—eight from the United States and eight international—character customization, World Series mode and a variety of skill-based challenges. Activision did not disclose the name of the studio developing Little League.

Addressing rumors that Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward will soon be the sole developer of the hit franchise, publisher and studio owner Activision has labeled the claims as "erroneous."

The reports first emerged from Next-Gen, which cited an ex-employee from Activision's soon-to-be-closed Foster City studio.

According to the source, Infinity Ward had somehow renegotiated its contract with owner Activision to become the sole developer of the Call of Duty property following Call of Duty 5, which is reportedly in the works at Call of Duty 3 developer Treyarch.

This act then supposedly contributed to the upcoming closure of... Read more

Publisher Activision recently revealed that its Foster City, CA-based Underground Development studio will be closed by the end of May, GamesIndustry reports.

The studio, which employs some 45 people, most recently worked on the PlayStation 3 port of Splash Damage's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (PC, PS3, X360). Activision noted that it is trying to find opportunities for all of its employees at other studios owned by the company.

Underground Development was formerly known as Z-Axis, which developed the Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX and Agressive Inline series. The developer was acquired by Activision in May of 2002 and renamed Underground Development in February of this year.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that the fourth installment of Neversoft's Guitar Hero franchise will incorporate additional instruments similar to competitor Harmonix's Rock Band (PS2, PS3, Wii, X360).

"[Guitar Hero IV's] not just about guitars," Kotick told IGN. "We'll include a lot of other instruments, vocals. It will help us expand internationally. It's the first game we've had in which we can use local content and local bands."

The runaway success of the multi-instrument rhythm game Rock Band, which includes drums and vocals on top of guitars, had led many to speculate that the traditionally guitar-only Guitar Hero franchise would eventually see the addition of more instruments.

Guitar Hero IV is expected for release this fall, as the third Guitar Hero title announced by Activision for release in 2008. The first two were announced as Guitar Hero: On Tour and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.