Activision Bizzard for sale ? :O

LOS ANGELES--The industry's largest third-party publisher might be for sale. According to a Bloomberg report, senior executives of Activision Blizzard parent Vivendi are meeting later this month to determine whether they want to sell the telecom giant's majority stake in the game developer.

Citing "people with knowledge of the matter," Bloomberg reports that the Vivendi executive meeting is scheduled for June 22, with the possibility of an Activision Blizzard sale being the main point of discussion. The telecom company has reportedly been meeting with investors to discuss a variety of possible reorganizations recently, including spinning off the cable television division Canal Plus.

In late 2007, Vivendi announced an $18.9 billion merger between its own games group--which included Blizzard and its World of Warcraft business--and Activision, which at the time was riding high on the success of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.

Wrech-It Ralph trailer debuts

Game-based movies haven't always done so well, but Disney is hoping audiences will still flock to a movie based on games. Today the company debuted the first trailer for Wreck-It Ralph on MSN.

The movie follows the titular Ralph, a villain in a retro Donkey Kong-style arcade game. After decades of coming out on the losing end, Ralph decides he's fed up with being hated for doing his job and quits. He takes off to explore other gameworlds, coming across a variety of gaming icons along the way. In the trailer alone, he encounters characters from Street Fighter (Zangief and M. Bison), Mario (Bowser), Sonic the Hedgehog (Dr. Robotnik), Pac-Man (Clyde), and Q-Bert.


The film stars John C. Reilly (Step Brothers) as Ralph, Sarah Silverman (Jesus is Magic), Jane Lynch (Glee), and Jack McBrayer (30 Rock). It will hit theaters this November in Real 3D.

Nitendo to unveil new 3DS at E3 briefing - Report

Nintendo will show off a new model of its 3DS handheld console at its E3 conference tomorrow, according to a Nikkei report, as translated by Andriasang.

The model will be one and a half times bigger than the current design, with a 4.3-inch display. Launch could be as soon as this summer in North America, Japan, and Europe, says Andriasang.

The release of a larger 3DS around 18 months after the 3D handheld's initial release in Japan resembles the launch of the Nintendo DSi XL, introduced a year after the camera-adding DSi handheld.

Look for the unveiling of the 3DS XL alongside all the Wii U news at the Nintendo conference tomorrow morning.

[UPDATE]: Nintendo responded to the report by posting a counter on its Japanese-language investor relations site. As translated by Andriasang, the 3DS maker says the Nikkei report was based on conjecture and full of errors. Expect to find out more (one way or the other) at the Nintendo conference Tuesday morning.

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Kingdoms of Amalur : Reckoning 2 was in Pre-Production - Report

The Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning sequel that 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling confirmed was in the works in February was in pre-production, and was aimed at "improving everything," Joystiq reports. Unnamed sources told the site the team at Big Huge Games wanted to make a sequel with better graphics, no loading screens between zones, expanded combat animations, fewer branching quests, and the ability for players to affect the game world at a deeper level.


38 Studios went belly up last week, with all employees across it and its subsidiary Big Huge Games laid off. The site reports that even if Big Huge Games were to continue to exist under a different banner, the team would likely not be able to work on Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2. Though 38 Studios presently owns the Amalur intellectual property (believed to be valued at around $20 million), the company is likely to be forced to hand it over to the state of Rhode Island as part of a collateral arrangement originally agreed upon as part of the 2010 $75 million loan that brought 38 Studios to the Ocean State.

The site also reports that Electronic Arts--which published Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning--passed on working on the sequel due to "executive politics." 38 Studios then sought other publishing partners for the game, though no companies were named.

[UPDATE] Rhode Island newspaper The Providence Journal reports today that an unnamed publisher pulled out of a $35 million publishing deal for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning 2 after word came that 38 Studios may be in trouble.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning shipped in February to a warm critical reception and sales of 1.2 million units over 90 days. Despite this, Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee said the game was a "failure," and needed to sell 3 million copies to break even.

Troubles at 38 Studios first came to light earlier this month, when reports from the Rhode Island government indicated that the company had failed to make a $1.125 million loan payment to the state's Economic Development Corporation. The studio eventually made the payment, but it also enacted a round of unspecified layoffs, before shutting down completely.

Copied from: Gamespot.com

Grand Theft Auto V expected to sell 14 million at launch

Grand Theft Auto V will sell more at launch than Grand Theft Auto IV managed in its first year on shelves, according to one analyst. Sterne Agee's Arvind Bhatia today released a note to investors, saying he expects the game to debut in the first three months of 2013, posting sales of 14 million copies.


Bhatia said the GTAV launch should bring in about $700 million in revenue for Take-Two, which said it expected just over $1 billion for Rockstar products this fiscal year. With Max Payne 3 the only announced Rockstar title to launch this year, Bhatia believes it "is all but a given" that the publisher is planning to launch GTAV before the March 31, 2013, end of its fiscal year.

For perspective on just how big the game is for the publisher, Take-Two's previous fiscal year saw total revenues of $825.8 million. The publisher has projected this year's sales to hit $1.75 billion to $1.85 billion. That uptick has led to widespread agreement from analysts that GTAV will launch in Take-Two's current fiscal year.

GTAIV debuted in April of 2008 and shipped 13 million before the end of March 2009. The game enjoyed sales over a prolonged stretch of time, as two years later, Take-Two said shipments had reached nearly 20 million.





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