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.

Frank O’Connor, former Bungie content manager and current Microsoft “Halo guy”, has stated that Microsoft has plans to keep the Halo franchise very much alive for years to come.

O’Connor heads up 343 Industries, the Microsoft division responsible for the Halo franchise.  He says that his division has plans for at least six more years of Halo content, meaning that we’ll see Halo titles appearing into 2015. He has also stated that Halo will continue to branch out into other media.

“Eventually, it will become very apparent that there is a plan for the way the canon all ties together and the way the comic books and the novels all tie together.”

For instance, the Marvel Comics series Halo: Helljumper is currently active, with another series, Halo: Blood Line, set to debut in December.  The anime series Halo Legends will start up next year, distributed on DVD and via Xbox Live.  More novels and a line of toys are also in the works.

With Halo rapidly expanding, speculations about the possibility of a Halo film.  One incarnation of the film was set up to be directed by Peter Jackson, but has been placed on hold.

“We’re being very careful to pick the right time and the right partner,” O’Connor explains.

Halo 3: ODST, which made its appearance late last month, has already sold 2.5 million copies, raking in over 27 million in revenue. O’Connor says that all of the titles in the Halo universe are going to converge at some point in the six-year plan, making the tie-ins between stories more obvious.

Ok, I think I’m a bit late on this one, but because I’m a big fan of Battlefield, I couldn’t let it pass by.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has been given a release date.  The game is due out on March 2, 2010 in North America, and on March 5 in Europe.

Bad Company 2 promises to expand on the destruction offered in the first game, with buildings that seem to be completely destructible.  15 vehicles will be available in the game, including a 4-person helicopter — which is something I missed in Bad Company after Battlefield 2: Modern Combat.  Kits and the 46 available weapons will be customizable as well, offering more variety.The series’ executive producer, Karl Magnus Troedsson, brags:

“When Battlefield: Bad Company 2 ships in March, it will deliver the best online multiplayer experience ever.”

Big words, but the Battlefield franchise usually keeps that promise, so I’m hopeful that Bad Company 2 will be no exception.  Until that time, we have Battlefield 1943 on Xbox Live Marketplace and Battlefield: Bad Company to keep us busy.  The first BF:BC is still very active, and has recently become one of the full downloadable games on Xbox Live.

This and other dates have just been updated on the Xbox 360 Release Schedule so be sure to check that out, and follow me on Twitter at @xboxliving to get more updates.

There’s quite a bit of talk going on about the new Silverlight-powered ads that are coming to the Xbox 360 Dashboard.  Xbox PR guy Major Nelson produced a blog post meant to calm everyone down by saying that the ads would be placed “organically” in the dashboard and would not interfere with the Xbox Live experience.

I’m not sure how that’ll work — I don’t care for clutter, so the only place to put them without being annoyingly distracting is in the middle of the content, which would be annoyingly annoying.  But let’s talk about that, shall we?

Ads for Gold Subscribers

The major complaint most people, including myself, has is that the ads will be shown to Xbox Live Gold subscribers, who are paying for subscriptions.  The obvious alternative is to show ads only to Silver subscribers, who aren’t paying (and can’t play online).

Here’s the math.  Microsoft claims that there are over 17 million Xbox Live subscribers, over 10 million of whom have Gold accounts, which are required to play online games.  Each of those Gold subscribers pay $49.99 U.S. a year for access to the service, if they purchase one year at a time — and nearly double that if they pay monthly.

If I’m capable of basic math, that’s in the neighbourhood of half-a-billion dollars that Microsoft is collecting from Xbox Live subscribers, if we assume a $50/year average.  That’s not counting money earned from Microsoft points purchased for downloads on the service, or for the games and console themselves.  Y’know… those things game makers used to profit from.

More profit is good profit

So, Microsoft, in its wisdom, has decided that $500 million is not enough money to supplement the money it already makes off of the actual console and its games and the things you can download off of the service.  Now, it wants to open up that 17-million user base as an advertising market.  As a business, that’s hard not to pass up.  After all, when you have millions gathered in one place, virtual or otherwise, it’s hard not to sell them something.

On the other hand, the online services for the PS3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and most PC games, most of which are not ad-supported, are all free.

Now before people start jumping up and down with the obvious retaliations, let me say two things:

• I’m no Xbox fanboy — I play on other platforms as well and I’m obviously OK with openly criticizing Microsoft.  But that said, I like Xbox Live better than any other online service that I’ve used.  The PS3 is less usable, I find, and the voice chat is nowhere near as good.  That’s an essential for online games, especially Battlefield titles, which I adore.  The Wii is not a great platform for most online games that I like, and doesn’t have much of a social networking aspect.  So, despite the fact that Xbox Live seems to be the only one charging for its service, I’m genuinely OK with paying for it.  It’s a premium service, so I pay a premium price.  More on that later.
• No, I’m not surprised that Microsoft is trying to make more money.  Of course, they’re a business.  I run a business, too. The mandate of a business is to make money for those that invest in it, and Microsoft certainly does what it can to fulfill that mandate.  However, annoying your customers is not a good long-term plan for making money, especially when you don’t have a monopoly.

So what?  Cable TV has ads.

Yes, it does.  What a brilliant observation.  And for that reason, TiVo and other DVR (or PVR) systems are becoming more and more popular. Many people now opt buy television programs on DVD rather than watch them when they are originally broadcast. Others download them from the Internet, often illegally, advertisement-free.  In other words, ads annoy people and when a viable alternative to watching them exists, people tend to choose it.

Yes, advertisements on cable television are something that we’ve all gotten used to.  That doesn’t mean that they don’t suck.  But, if the advertising money wasn’t there, cable TV would cost more.  After all, it costs money to produce the shows, and as consumers we’re only paying for general access to the service.

But that’s not the case with Xbox Live.  To play Xbox Live, you must have first purchased an Xbox 360 console, which currently ranges from $199.99 to $399.99 depending on the model you choose.  You also need to purchase games, which usually cost $59.99 when they’re new.  So, after you’ve spent at least $260 on a new console and game, you need to pay another $50/year, at least, to play online after the first free month expires.

For some of us, we’ve also invested time and/or money replacing our dead consoles (red ring!).  I’ve spent both, since my third Xbox 360 failed after my extended warranty was up, leaving me to buy a new console.

No sense in fighting it.

I’ve seen this response, too.  If you read the comments on Major Nelson’s blog post above, some people want to point out that advertising is everywhere anyways, and that there’s no use/sense/point in protesting these.  It won’t change anything.

But here’s what they’re forgetting: we’re the consumers.  We are the people on which the entirety of the business depends on.  Whether or not Microsoft “gets away” with this is our decision.  If we pay for a service full of ads, they’ll keep them there.  Maybe even add more down the road, testing that boundary.

If we all migrate to the PS3 or other platforms, well, that will be the end of it.

They will get away with it.

That’s my prediction.  We’re all going to make a fuss about it, like I’m doing here.  Microsoft will add the advertisements anyways, and enough people will be indifferent to it, or like the games enough, that they will put up with the ads and Microsoft will make its extra cash.

After all, we’ve made an investment in the console by purchasing it.  The alternative, if you don’t already own a PS3, is to spend more money — assuming you still want to play games.

Organic. Also, subtle. (OK, that one probably wasn’t fair.)

For now.

But in the next generation, will we forget about it?  Will Microsoft have muddied the Xbox brand with enough to make us buy a PlayStation 4 in the next generation?  Or will Major Nelson be right about the ads “enhancing” the service somehow?

It’s my opinion that jamming more ads in our faces — no matter how much you try to camouflage them, no matter how “organically” they are implemented, no matter how “enhancing” they’re meant to be — is only going to dilute the quality of the service.  Content is king.  When you try to make the ads the content, the content sucks. When the content sucks, nobody wants to buy it.

I said I’m happy paying for Xbox Live because it’s a premium service.  The things that make it that way are its cleanliness, its functionality (I see some complaining of Dashboard issues, but it works great for me), and its features.  It’s not bothersome to use.

But ads are a bother.  So much so that if another one of the consoles is able to fix up its system well enough to make it a better alternative to Xbox Live (Sony, I’m talking to you), these ads may make me an easy convert.

So listen up, Microsoft

I’m a Gold subscriber.  I’ve defended the Xbox 360 against its competition here.  I’ve recommended to friends that they choose the Xbox 360 over the PS3, and they’ve listened.  This blog is practically a free advertisement for the console and its many fine games.  I had my first Xbox 360 console fail three times. That’s frustrating, but I didn’t give up on it. When my warranty was up, I bought another console.  An Elite model, mind you.  I’ve praised the speed of the repair/replacement service when I had to send my fried Premium console in.  I buy downloadable content.  Microsoft, I’m one of your better customers.

I don’t want more ads on my Xbox Live Dashboard.  I want to play games.  That’s all I want to do.  Don’t sell me cars.  Don’t sell me clothes.  Don’t sell me food.  Don’t sell me anything that isn’t video games, and don’t be pushy about that, either.

Instead, you can make more money by making more games, expanding existing games, and generally producing actual content to sell me. That’s the stuff I like you for.  That’s the stuff I invite you to sell to me.  That’s the stuff I’m paying for.  And that’s the stuff I and other bloggers post happy things about, which helps you sell more games.  (You should have your Marketing and PR department pay your ad sales department to not sell ad space.)

Don’t sell my eyes to other people.  They’re not looking at your ads, and they’re not for sale.

I’m not paying you to look at ads, that’s stupid.

Well, I’ve fallen behind on my blogging, and what a week for that to happen.  I didn’t have time to post all of the news on here, so I posted most of it to the Xbox Living Twitter account.  Here’s a rundown of what’s going on:

• Point Lookout, another DLC for Fallout 3, will be out on June 23
• Halo 3: ODST will be out on September 22
• Dragon Age: Origins will be released on October 20
• Forza Motorsport 3 will be out in October
• Assassin’s Creed 2 will be out November 17
• Left 4 Dead 2 will also be out November 17
• Alan Wake finally emerged with a trailer on Xbox Live.  It will be out Spring 2010.
• Final Fantasy XIII was shown off on the Xbox 360.  It will be out Spring 2010.
• A new Halo title was announced.  Halo: Reach will be out in Fall 2010.
• Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 will be out in 2010
• Crackdown 2 was confirmed to be in the works.  A short trailer is available on Xbox Live.  The game promises “unprecedented levels” of multiplayer, both coop and competetive.
• Metal Gear Solid Rising is in development for the Xbox 360
• Square Enix announced a third-person mech shooter, Front Mission Evolved
• Microsoft announced Project Natal, a camera controller that will eliminate the need to hold anything.  It has facial recognition features and can track body movements.
• Microsoft promises that the Xbox 360 will get Modern Warfare 2 DLC maps first
• Joy Ride will be a free-to-play driving game featuring Xbox Live avatars
• Wolfenstein 3D is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace
• Sony announced that Final Fantasy XIV, the next Square Enix MMO, would be PS3-exclusive.  Later, they admitted it was coming to PC also.  Even later, Square Enix said it may still come to the Xbox 360.  Nice try, Sony.
• Microsoft says the Xbox 360 will be supported until 2015 at least
• The Xbox 360 will get support for Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm

So that’s most of it.  Lots of exciting games to check out in the next little while.  Be sure to follow @xboxliving on Twitter to get more updates as they happen!