Xbox Living

How did this happen?

Activision recently fired some two execs from Infinity Ward for supposed “breaches of contract and insubordination”, and now word comes in that Activision is taking the Call of Duty line away from the company, who developed the series from day one. Infinity Ward will continue to support the hugely-successful Modern Warfare 2, providing new map packs for the game. They will not develop any new titles in the Call of Duty franchise.

Instead, Sledgehammer Games, made up of former EA employees, will take over the series. Their first Call of Duty title is planned for Fall 2001.

Meanwhile, my preferred FPS series, Battlefield, released its latest title, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 yesterday. Bad Company 2 is another step forward for the Battlefield franchise and puts EA’s Digital Illusions CE in a position to take on Call of Duty. With this news, it looks like the franchise is vulnerable.  Move in for the kill, DICE.

Battlefield veterans have the option to bring some guns over from Battlefield 1943 when they play Battlefield: Bad Company 2 next month, EA DICE has announced.

For those players that purchase both games, you’ll be able to receive exclusive codes to unlock three World War II-era guns in Bad Company 2. The guns are the M1 Garand rifle, the Thompson machine gun and the M1911 pistol.

In order to do so, you’ll need to register both Battlefield 1943 and Bad Company 2 at veteran.battlefield.com — although you still can’t register Battlefield 1943 on the site, you can also register copies of any Battlefield game since the original Battlefield 1942. Hopefully that site will be fully-functional in time.

Meanwhile, EA product manager Will Graham has been building up hype for Bad Company 2, bragging that EA’s DICE studio is positioned to take over the FPS genre, which has recently been dominated by Activision’s Call of Duty franchise.

“We genuinely believe there isn’t a developer out there that competes with DICE in this space, and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is going cement that,” Graham says. “The use of vehicles in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 sets it apart from the competition and no one else in the industry does this better.”

Having played the demo for Bad Company 2, I’m inclined to agree, though I’ve long-since favoured Battlefield over the Call of Duty games. Bad Company 2 certainly seems to take the better parts of Call of Duty and put them into the masterful Battlefield gameplay style, so Activision does have a solid contender to worry about.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 comes out March 2 in North America, and March 3 in Europe.

Microsoft has announced that Crackdown 2 will be out this June.

Crackdown 2 again has you working for the Agency, hunting down criminals and forcing order back upon Pacific City. This time, though, the city is being overrun by mutants in addition to the regular breed of criminals, offering a greater challenge to the super-powered Agents.

Better customization and even more augmented powers for the Agent are promised in the sequel.  The co-op is back in Crackdown 2, but has been extended to allow four players. Additionally, a multiplayer mode allows up to sixteen players to compete together.

Crackdown 2 is being developed by Ruffian Games and will be published by Microsoft in June.

The second installment in the Mass Effect trilogy, Mass Effect 2, has been released worldwide. EA reports this weekend already passed the 2 million sales mark.

Ray Muyzka, who heads up the EA-controlled BioWare studio, had this to say: “Mass Effect 2 is poised to be one of the biggest games of 2010. We could not be more proud of the game’s universal acclaim and early commercial success.”

EA has also announced that it will be showing off new BioWare titles at E3 this spring, no doubt building off of the instant success of Mass Effect 2, along with Dragon Age: Origins late last year. Meanwhile, the Mass Effect has confirmed that work has begun on the final installation in the trilogy, Mass Effect 3.

Do I really need to tell you that? Activision is calling it the biggest entertainment launch ever.

People like their Call of Duty.

A warning comes to us on the Battlefield Blog today about sites pretending to offer beta sign-ups for Battlefield: Bad Company 2. The Battlefield team assures us that there is no beta for Bad Company 2 at this time, and if and when one comes along, it’ll be announced through the official Battlefield site only.

GordonVanDyke explains on the blog:

Please do not let these e-tards take advantage of your enthusiasm for BFBC2 in their scam and only give them the middle-finger if anything.

Message received.