Late Night Consoling

During Activision's conference call yesterday in which the publisher divulged its financial results for the past year, company CEO Bobby Kotick also noted that Call of Duty 3, the next game in the acclaimed series of World War II shooters, would would be a console-only product released in the fourth calendar quarter of 2006. Today, IGN released a COD3 trailer serving as a de facto official announcement for the game. It was also noted that Call of Duty 3 will be coming to all three next generation console platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii--though the trailer was created before Nintendo's name change and still sported the Nintendo Revolution moniker. It is being developed by Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (PS2, Xbox, GCN) developer Treyarch.

An Activision representative confirmed to Shacknews that the game is indeed not heading to PCs. This would imply that the game is a spinoff title in the same vein as Big Red One, which was released in close proximity to the "main" second entry in the series, Call of Duty 2 (X360, PC) developed by Infinity Ward. However, Activision also noted that COD3 is followup to the 360/PC title rather than the PS2/Xbox/GCN title. It would seem odd for the franchise to skip out on PC, the platform where it got its start. Company reps assured as that all would be clarified next week at E3.

Sega keeps on truckin' with the pre-E3 game announcements. Last night, the publisher finally revealed the secret Bizarre Creations project that has been kept secret for quite a while now: The Club (working title), a third person action shooter for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Unfortunately, the press release goes into a pretty minimal amount of detail about the game, but it sounds something like organized crime meets Fight Club meets The Running Man. "The Club simply delivers that visceral thrill of high-stakes gambling and tosses in a heavy dose of frenzied gunplay," said Sega's Scott A. Steinberg "Bizarre Creations has a incredible track record and now they bring the innovation, both technical and creative, shown in the racing genre and have applied it to the shooter category."

Bizarre Creation's The Club is slated to ship some time in 2007. - Concept art.

It has been rumored that Atari-owned Australian developer Melbourne house (Transformers) has been working on some kind of Test Drive-related game. Today, Atari revealed just what the project is. Test Drive Unlimited, a pseudo-MMO racing game being developed by Eden Studios for Xbox 360 and PC, will be coming to PlayStation 2 and PSP courtesy of Melbourne House. The game will reportedly retain "most of the core gameplay features" from the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game, including the substantial online mode and huge environments. Just how the PlayStation 2 and particularly the PSP versions will differ has not yet been revealed. It is almost certain that none of the four versions will operate with one another online, as the almost identical Xbox 360 and PC versions do not have that capability.

Along with the announcement also came a quiet confirmation that the Xbox 360 version of the game has now been delayed from the previous expectation of June; the game is now expected in September. Officially, all four versions are set for a fall 2006 release.

EA today revealed its next-generation E3 lineup; that is, games from the publisher being developed exclusively for PC or next-generation systems, or multiplatform titles which include next-generation versions. These eleven titles spanned over every current- and next-generation home console and portable platform, as well as PC. The announcement also indicated that many of EA's upcoming projects will be presented behind closed doors at next week's E3: the recently revealed Army of Two (PS3, X360), Will Wright's magnum opus Spore (PC), long awaited Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (PC), and the next version of the Madden football franchises including the game in playable form on PlayStation 3 and Wii.

- Madden NFL 07 (PS2, Xbox, GCN, PS3, X360, Wii, DS, PSP, GBA, PC).
- NCAA Football 07 (PS2, Xbox, X360, PSP)
- NASCAR 07 (PSP)
- Army of Two (PS3, X360)
- Battlefield 2142 (PC)
- SPORE (PC)
- Crysis (PC)
- Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars (PC)
- The Lord of the Rings, The Battle for Middle-earth II (X360)
- Superman Returns: The Videogame (PS2, Xbox, X360, DS, PSP, GBA)
- Def Jam Fight For NY: The Takeover (PSP)

Sega today revealed its not yet complete list of E3 2006 announcements, consisting of thirteen titles across several current- and next-gen home consoles and portables. These titles do not make up Sega's entire E3 lineup, but are titles that have been recently announced or will be fully unveiled at the show. Furthermore, the company promises "three more surprises" as part of its ongoing nightly game announcements leading up to the show.

- Chromehounds (X360)
- The Club (working title) (PS3, X360)
- Full Auto 2: Battlelines (PS3)
- Midieval II: Total War (PC)
- Phantasy Star Universe (PS2, X360, PC)
- Sega Rally Revo (PS3, X360)
- Sonic Rivals (PSP)
- Sonic the Hedgehog (PS3, X360)
- Super Monkey Ball Adventures (PS2, GCN, PSP)
- Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz (Wii)
- Virtua Tennis 3 (PS3)
- World Pool Championship 2007 (PS2, PSP)
- Yakuza (PS2)

Atari today revealed the eleven titles which will make up its E3 presence at E3 2006, spanning across six current- and next-gen home console and handheld platforms as well as PC. They are as follows:

- Alone in the Dark (X360, PC)
- Arthur and the Minimoys (PS2, PSP, DS, GBA, PC)
- BattleZone (PSP)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics (PSP)
- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 (PS2, Wii)
- HOT PXL (PSP)
- Neverwinter Nights 2 (PC)
- Super DBZ (PS2)
- Test Drive Unlimited (PS2, X360, PSP, PC)

Publisher THQ revealed its fiscal fourth quarter results today, and the picture was quite similar to so many of its industry competitors: fourth quarter results were way down year over year, while overal fiscal year results weren't quite so bad. In the fourth quarter, THQ saw revenue of $148M and a loss of $8M, a significant decline from revenues of $171M and a profit of $10M in the same period of the previous year. For the overall year, THQ had $807 in revenue and profits of $34M, with revenue up from last year's $757 but profits down from last year's $63M. Still, the company performed slightly above its projections, resulting in stock rising 4% to $25.45.

In an analyst conference call, company CEO Brian Farrell touched on the development costs of Nintendo's next-generation console Wii, for which THQ is currently developing three licensed titles. Farrell indicated that investment required to develop Wii games is dramatically lower than that required for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. In fact, he said, budgets "could be as little as a third," or somewhere within the range of "a quarter to a half" of that for other next-gen systems.

The latest edition of the English-language version of Kojima Productions' podcast contains the audio stream only from the upcoming E3 trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4. I listened to it and I have no idea what was going on, but you may have better luck. Oh, and that particular clip is in Japanese.

Edge Online reprints a feature from the magazine's latest issue, sitting down with Nintendo design head Shigeru Miyamoto and speaking on Nintendo's current and future plans with DS and (as it was named at the time of the interview) Revolution.

IGN has a video interview with Toys for Bob president Paul Reiche about the upcoming Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam (Wii, DS). You know, Toys for Bob. They made Star Control. And Star Control 2. Respect.

GameSpot has a Q&A with 7 Studios producer Elizabeth Dahm about the upcoming The Sopranos (PS2, X360).