Addressing rumors that Call of Duty creator Infinity Ward will soon be the sole developer of the hit franchise, publisher and studio owner Activision has labeled the claims as "erroneous."

The reports first emerged from Next-Gen, which cited an ex-employee from Activision's soon-to-be-closed Foster City studio.

According to the source, Infinity Ward had somehow renegotiated its contract with owner Activision to become the sole developer of the Call of Duty property following Call of Duty 5, which is reportedly in the works at Call of Duty 3 developer Treyarch.

This act then supposedly contributed to the upcoming closure of... Read more

The North American console market pulled in $1.18 billion in January 2008, reports sales-tracking firm The NPD Group. Of that figure, $377.8 million was related to video game hardware, with $610.6 million spent on software and $191 million on accessories.

According to NPD, the month's top-selling console titles in North America were:

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision, X360) - 330, 900
2. Wii Play (Nintendo, Wii) - 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Vicarious Visions, Activision, Wii) - 239, 600
4. Rock Band Special Edition Bundle (Harmonix, MTV Games, X360) - 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Neversoft, Activision, X360) - 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo, Wii) - 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Criterion, Electronic Arts) - 140,000
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision, PS3) - 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (Nintendo, Nintendo DS) - 138,500
10. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega, Nintendo DS) - 133,000

In terms of revenue, the Xbox 360 version of Harmonix's Rock Band (PS2, PS3, X360) was the month's top performer, bringing in over $30 million thanks to... Read more

During an awards ceremony last night, the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named Infinity Wards' Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) as 2007's Overall Game of the Year. The title also took three other awards: Console Game of the Year, Action Game of the Year, and Outstanding Achievement in Online Game Play.

Valve's The Orange Box (PC, PS3, X360) was named Computer Game of the Year, while Outstanding Achievement in Game Design, Game Play Engineering, and Character Performance all went to Portal, one of the three new titles contained within the bundle.

Harmonix's Rock Band (PS2, PS3, X360) was honored as Family Game of the Year along with awards for Outstanding Innovation in both Gaming and Soundtrack. Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass (DS) took Handheld... Read more

New figures released in Activision's fiscal third quarter report reveals just how much cash the publisher raked in during the holiday season, as well as new details on its upcoming merger with Vivendi Games.

Activision's report states that net revenue for the third quarter clocked in at a record $1.48 billion, up 80% over figures of $824 million in 2007's holiday season. The company also raised its 2008 fiscal year net revenue outlook from $2.45 billion to $2.65 billion, driven by the industry-wide surge in sales figures and the success of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The company also noted that its merger with Vivendi is proceeding as planned, and is currently waiting on clearance from several regulatory commissions and other protocol before the deal can be sealed. Activision anticipates the transaction to be closed in the first half of 2008.

In a conference call earlier today, Activision confirmed that it is planning on new entries in the Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance series, as well as a reworking of the long-running Tony Hawk series.

After tallying figures from sales tracking firms across the world, publisher Activision now claims that Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) was 2007's best selling game worldwide.

In all, the game sold in excess of 7 million units, according to data compiled from the NPD Group, Chart Track, and the GFK Group. Incredibly, that figure represents less than two whole months of sales, as the game deployed to stores in early November.

Of the overall figure, North American sales of the Xbox 360 version accounted for 3.04 million. The PC version, meanwhile, only sold 383,000 units at North American retailers, though that number does not include sales made... Read more

Update: The NPD Group has chimed in, attributing the low percentage of PC software sales to the growing shift towards digital distribution, which the firm does not track.

Original Story: Of the $18.85 billion the video game industry generated at North American retailers throughout 2007, only $910.7 million of that, roughly 14%, was attributed to PC games.

Data from the sales-tracking firm NPD reveals that retailers sold 267.8 million games in 2007, 36.4 million of which were PC titles. Console games brought in $6.6 billion, selling 153.9 million units total, while portable software hauled a record $2 billion in revenue with 77.5 million units sold.

Figures were also released highlighting the top ten best-selling PC games of this year, accompanying last week's list of 2007's top ten console games. The numbers, which do not take digital downloads into account, have Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft and EA Maxis' Sims franchises occupying six of the top ten spots. A complete run-down of the top PC games of 2007 follows:... Read more

As had been expected, Infinity Ward had released the mod tools for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The 603mb download includes everything required to make levels, models and mods for the game.

To get people started, Infinity Ward has opened a Wiki with information on using the Call of Duty 4 version of the Radiant level editor. There's also a promise of frequent article additions.

A new feature on MSNBC details the lives of several parents who—in an uncharacteristic display of common sense—actually play games with their children.

A recent poll of parents with gaming children conducted by AOL and the Associated Press show only four in ten play games with their kids. Those featured in the article see games as a worthwhile means of bonding with and educating their children.

"Being a single mother to a son can offer many gaps," says Tammy McCoy, a single mother who games with her 17-year-old son. "Gaming became a way to bridge the gaps—which is what helped to make our bond even stronger."

One parent notes that even prohibiting violent games can lead to a positive outcome. Brian Albright turned a denial of his son's hopes to play Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) into a discussion of the realities of war and the politics and policies surrounding it.

"I think that what he's doing is basically the essence of parenting, which is to say, find a way to have teachable moments. You could have the same sorts of discussions about music lyrics, and you could have the same sorts of discussions about Jamie-Lynn Spears, or drinking on Friday Night Lights," said pediatrician Don Shifrin.

New numbers released by the NPD Group reveal that the Xbox 360 version of Infinity Ward's intense shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare edged out the competition this holiday season, barely beating Nintendo's Super Mario Galaxy to become the top selling game in December.

For those interested in how the gift-giving spirit factored into this year's record sales for the industry, the top ten console games for December 2007 follow, in order of units sold:

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision, X360) - 1.47 million
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD Tokyo, Nintendo, Wii) - 1.40 million
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Neversoft, Activision, PS2) - 1.25 million
4. Wii Play with Remote (Nintendo, Wii) - 1.08 million
5. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft, X360) - 893,000
6. Halo 3 (Bungie, Microsoft Game Studios, X360) - 742,700
7. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day (Nintendo, NDS) - 659,500
8. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts, PS2) - 655,200
9. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Neversoft, Activision, X360) - 624,600
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Sega Japan, Sega, Wii) - 613,000

Riding a wave of strong software releases and still-fresh hardware offerings, the North American console video game market grew a massive 43 percent in 2007, according to new numbers released today by the NPD Group.

Overall industry sales totaled a record $17.94 billion--compared to 2006's take of $12.53 billion--with software making up $8.64 billion of the pie. The highest-selling games list, which doesn't factor PC software sales into the mix, was unsurprisingly lead by Bungie's Halo 3, followed up by Nintendo's remote-including Wii Play.

The top ten software titles follow, listed in order of units sold:

1. Halo 3 (Bungie, Microsoft Game Studios, X360) - 4.82 million
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote (Nintendo, Wii) - 4.12 million
3. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, Activision, X360) - 3.04 million
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Neversoft, Activision, PS2) - 2.72 million
5. Super Mario Galaxy (Nintendo EAD Tokyo, Nintendo, Wii) - 2.52 million
6. Pokemon Diamond Version (Game Freak, Nintendo, NDS) - 2.48 million
7. Madden NFL 08 (EA Sports, Electronic Arts, PS2) - 1.90 million
8. Guitar Hero II (Harmonix, Activision, PS2) - 1.89 million
9. Assassin's Creed (Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft, X360) - 1.87 million
10. Mario Party 8 (Hudson Soft, Wii) - 1.82 million

Consoles hardware sales topped out at $5.12 billion, with Nintendo again leading the competition. The yearly numbers are as follows, with life-to-date totals... Read more

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) developer Infinity Ward was shocked to discover an unexpectedly high level of piracy in regards to the PC versions of its acclaimed FPS.

After using his blog to reveal that the developer is quite happy with the recent number of PC owners playing the game online, the studio's community relations manager fourzerotwo expressed amazement at how many of those players were running a pirated copy of the game.

"What wasn't fantastic was the percentage of those numbers who were playing on stolen copies of the game on stolen / cracked CD keys of pirated copies (and that was only people playing online)," he posted under the heading "They Wonder Why People Don't Make PC Games Any More."

Renowned development houses id Software and Epic Games chimed in on the matter last year, with both noting that they were pursuing multiplatform development due to piracy of their PC titles. Two of last year's biggest PC titles--Epic's... Read more

Nintendo's plans to dominate the living rooms and exercise schedules of gamers and not-quite-gamers has proven successful in gaming's motherland: The latest Japanese software sales numbers from Media Create show Wii Fit has clawed its way to over a million units sold during the week ending December 30, Gamasutra reported today.

Released on December 1, Wii Fit has sold a grand total of around 1,019,000 units in Japan since launch. Wii Fit is expected to hit North American shelves sometime in early 2008.

Other notable entries in the list include Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on the PS3 and Xbox 360 at number 15 and 22, respectively—not bad given the typically poor performance of Western FPS titles in Japan.

Activision sends along the latest Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare patch, updating Infinity Ward's first person shooter to v1.4. The 70mb download offers more bug fixes and game improvements, improved mod support, and a holiday version of the multiplayer map Crash. ... Read more

Following its announcement of a significantly increased market share and noteworthy fiscal year 2007 performance, Activision has raised its third quarter guidance. The company now predicts it will bring in $1.375 billion during the three month period ending December 31, up from its prior estimate of $1.225 billion.

"We continue to see strong audience excitement for our products and as a result we are again raising our financial outlook for the December quarter and the fiscal year," said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in the announcement.

In the first 11 months of 2007, Activision increased its market-share to 16.8%, a 7.9% year-over-year increase. The company already raised its sales estimates once based on the $100 million revenues in the first week of Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PC, PS2, PS3, Wii, X360) launch.

Sales of Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) bolstered the company's bank account as well, with the game taking the top spot in overall software sales during its November launch month.

In an announcement today, publisher Activision stated it holds the number one home console and handheld video game publisher in the United States from January to November 2007. The company bases its claims on figures from tracking firm NPD, which recently released its latest report.

Activision claims overall market share of 16.8% for that period, a massive year-over-year increase of 7.9%. Meanwhile, chief rival Electronic Arts' market share has waned somewhat in recent years, and its stock prices have grown at a slower rate than Activision's--though EA CEO John Riccitiello recently stated in a conference call that his company will hold 20% market share in North America and Europe during the third and fourth quarters.

Much of Activision's success is due to the astronomical success of the Harmonix-created, now Neversoft-developed, Guitar Hero franchise. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock proved to be the highest-earning title across all platforms; to some extent, the per-unit revenue on Guitar Hero games is increased due to the available packed-in hardware. Another Activision-published title, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, apparently came in at the number two earnings slot. Meanwhile, the Guitar Hero franchise as a whole is said to be the highest-selling franchise of the year.

Today's announcement is likely to be particularly worrying to EA, since the performance it reports precedes the epic Activision/Vivendi merger that will result in megalithic Activision Blizzard. That newly-formed company is expected to top the industry in total revenues.

A patch making a plethora of tweaks and changes to the online multiplayer in Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) will be arriving on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in December. Infinity Ward's community relations manager made the announcement on the official Xbox forums, and the full list of changes is hosted here.

The playlist changes augment most of the gametypes with additional maps, and all playlist changes apply to both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game. Xbox 360-specific patch updates include improved network performance for larger games, weapon tweaks, and additional spawn locations.

The community manager didn't list the PS3-specific patch updates. The PC version of the game has received three patches since its launch.

Kojima Productions' Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3) and its multiplayer side project Metal Gear Online (PS3) will be bundled together as one release, PlayStation: The Official Magazine has confirmed.

The report indicates that a "starter pack" version of the online game, featuring five different maps, will be bundled alongside MSG4. Though it was previously known that MGS4 would include some version of the online title, publisher Konami had yet to specify any concrete details.

With support for up to 16 players, Metal Gear Online is said to place a heavy emphasis on character customization. Much like Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360), players will be able to level up based on their combat experience, as well as assign their characters special abilities. It is believed that extra maps will be sold through Sony's online PlayStation Store.

The PlayStation 3-exclusive MGS4-MGO bundle is currently expected to release in Q2 2008. For more on Metal Gear Online and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, scope out Nick Breckon's Tokyo Game Show coverage of both titles.

NPD just released its game industry data for November, and the month containing the infamous Black Friday brought with it an insane level of video game sales across the board. The $2.63 billion brought in by the gaming industry marked a 52% year-over-year increase compared to last November.

Software sales eclipsed hardware sales in both dollar amounts and year-over-year change. The 62% year-over-year increase in software sales brought in $1.31 billion for the month, led by 1.57 million units of Infinity Ward's shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) for Xbox 360.

Nintendo's Mario Galaxy (Wii) and Ubisoft Montreal's Assassin's Creed (PC, PS3, X360) on Xbox 360, both released later in the month, brought in second and third place in sales with 1.12 million units and 980,000 units sold, respectively. Notably absent from the top-10 best-sellers, listed below, is Harmonix's Rock Band (PS2, PS3, X360), which sold a combined 382,000 units across both PS3 and Xbox 360.

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (X360, Infinity Ward, Activision) 1.57 million
2. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo) 1.12 million
3. Assassin's Creed (X360, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft) 980,000
4. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock Bundle (PS2, Budcat, Activision) 967,000
5. Wii Play with remote (Wii, Nintendo) 564,000
6. Mass Effect (X360, BioWare, Microsoft) 473,000
7. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3, Infinity Ward, Activision) 444,000
8. Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock Bundle (Wii, Vicarious Visions, Activision) 426,000
9. Halo 3 (X360, Bungie, Microsoft) 387,000
10. Assassin's Creed (PS3, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft) 377,000

Comments made in the midst of an online match in Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, PS3, X360) led to the arrest of college student Allieu Shaw earlier this week, reports the Cumberland Times-News.

Shaw, a Frostburg State University student who resides in West Virgina, was playing the game on Xbox Live with the Oregon-based Kaipo Damurand, and the two were communicating via voice chat. Shaw apparently threatened to begin "shooting up the school," and Damurand notified police of the comment.

While police worked with Xbox Live operator Microsoft to track down the location from which the threat originated, area schools were warned of a possible hostile action and operated under a state of alert. Both school staff and students were notified that a threat had been made.

Once arrested, Shaw claimed the threat was a joke, and no weapons were found in his immediate possession. In addition to being temporarily suspended from school, he is being charged with two counts of disrupting a school operation, which, at most, can result in one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.

A job posting by Activision-owned, California-based Treyarch suggests that the studio responsible for Call of Duty 3 (PS2, PS3, Xbox, X360, Wii) is returning to the still remarkably popular World War II first-person shooter genre for its next project. One qualification for the level design position is "working experience with first-person shooter or third-person shooter genres (console or PC)." The post adds, "And if you're a fan of World War 2 shooters, then even better!"

It is likely Treyarch is working on the next Call of Duty game, be it a main numbered entry or a spinoff. Treyarch has developed Call of Duty: United Offensive (PC) as Gray Matter, which merged into Treyarch; Call of Duty 2: Big Red One (PS2, Xbox, GCN); and Call of Duty 3. All of Treyarch's standalone Call of Duty games have been console-only.

In order to keep the successful series releasing on a yearly basis, publisher Activision juggled entries such that creator Infinity Ward worked on Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat while Treyarch worked on the prior game. Given that setup, it is plausible that Treyarch would now be working on Call of Duty 5 while Infinity Ward moves onto Call of Duty 6.

Given the language of Treyarch's posting, it is almost certain its next game is set during the ubiquitous world War II. Infinity Ward, however, has seen critical and commercial success with its new modern-day game, which may prompt Activision to keep new entries in that vein. In a Shacknews interview this year, lead designer Steve Fukoda said the studio had not decided whether it would retain the setting.