Activision Confirms Three for PS3 Launch
Near the end of its Q3 earnings shareholders conference call today, Activision executives confirmed that it would be releasing three titles for the U.S. PlayStation 3 launch. Though an exact release date for the three titles was not given, it was stated that the games would be out before the end of Fiscal [Year]2007 -- which translates to sometime between April 2006 and March 2007.
Unfortunately the most important bit of information -- namely, the titles of the launch games themselves -- were not provided. We'll have more on this developing story as it comes to light.
I'll give you a minute to let that all sink in.
There's a lot of meat there, so allow me to break it down for you. The second largest game publisher in North America, Activision, who has been a staple in the industry for nearly thirty years, is going to release games for the upcoming Playstation 3. And those games, whose names have yet to be revealed, will release sometime between April of 2006 and March of 2007.
I don't know about you, but I for one didn't see that coming. Not at all. Especially given the fact that Activision has several franchises that receive annual updates (Tony Hawk and Spider-Man to name but two of them) and that Activision
always releases games for a new system's launch.
Thank goodness for IGN, because without groundbreaking news like this, I'd have been worried that Activision was going to skip the PS3 and hold out for the XBox 720. And that piece of info about the games coming out sometime in the next year was a total scoop. I don't think that would have ever occured to any of their readers and I for one don't like being kept in the dark.
Excuse my rampant sarcasm here (blame it on the Seahawks loss yesterday if you desire to make excuses for me) but this is exactly why "games journalism" is always either typed in quotes (I actually made the little air-quote gesture as I typed that) or prefaced by the words "so-called". This so-called "news" (two birds, one stone -- count it!!) story is as obvious as obvious gets. Right up there with financial analysts swooning over Nintendo's comments that the Revolution would cost less than $399. And for my next trick, behold the sky is blue!
Allow me. Activision is going to have at least 2 games ready to ship day-and-date with the PS3, whenever that day comes. Based on the past five years and previous console launches, one of the titles will be a Tony Hawk game, another will be a Spider-Man game (especially since Spider-Man 3 is already confirmed for other consoles for 2006), and probably the sequel to Gun (again, because it's confirmed for other consoles). Anybody who follows this industry in the least could have told you this.
And, since I like you, I'll even offer you a second bone entirely free. Electronic Arts will have a Madden football game ready to ship for the PS3's launch. I'm just going on a hunch here, but I think it's likely. Oh, and for the coupe de grace, I'll even predict right here on February 6th, that that game will not only come out sometime between April, 2006 and March 2007, but I'll narrow it down to October to March.
Summary: Big game companies will support the PS3 launch.
Shocking, huh?
2 comments:
Sorry, Doug. I came by earlier this morning and thought I saw a fuzzy newspaper image and then I had to go. I belive it said something like, 'All I have to say.' I hope you took it down because you decided you have more to say.
Yeah, it said "Nothing More to Say..." and it showed an image of yesterday's Seattle Times front page. The large headline read "Not this year" and showed a picture of a famous Seahawk fan hugging another guy in the stands.
I took it down because that image link rotates to show whatever the next day's cover looks like.
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