More Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Marvel Games from Activision; Tony Hawk to be Reworked

In a financial conference call today, publisher Activision--soon to be Activision Blizzard--confirmed it is working on several new Guitar Hero titles and a new entry in the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance action-RPG franchise, along with new Spider-Man, Tony Hawk, and Call of Duty games.

Two new Guitar Hero titles will apparently be released between April 1 and June 31, 2008, according to FiringSquad. No details were released on either title, though the company did specify that a third Guitar Hero game will be released this fall.

One of those new Guitar Hero games is likely to be the recently-trademarked "Guitar Hero On Tour," which many have speculated to be the long-expected Nintendo DS edition. The fall release is most likely to be Guitar Hero IV, which was mentioned along with several other top Activision-owned brands in earlier financial documents.

While another release in the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise has always been expected, Activision commented that the next edition will rework the series' formulaic gameplay, in part due to the success of EA Black Box's innovative Skate (PS3, X360). No concrete details were specified.

As for the new Call of Duty game, the publisher only mentioned that the first-person war shooter would be hitting PC, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

Other than their existence, no further details were revealed regarding the new Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and Spider-Man titles. The company also reaffirmed its intent to release a new James Bond game alongside the feature film this fall.

In general, all of the titles are slated to arrive during the company's 2009 fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. If provided, more specific timeframes were noted above.