Hot on the heels of the bad blood surrounding the blocked Rock Band patch and an impending lawsuit from the Romantics comes more bad news for Activision. According to Wired's Game|Life, the company has just been hit with a class action lawsuit over the issue of the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's mono soundtrack. Activision has already gone on record as being aware of the whole monaural problem of course, and promised to fix the problem by mailing out remastered game discs to all affected parties sometime in early 2008. "We are currently working with Nintendo" says the company "and are planning to issue an improved audio experience in future versions of the game," said the company. "We will be offering consumers replacement discs at no cost once they become available. We thank all of our customers for their support and patience." That's not good enough however for Samuel Livingston of San Diego and KamberEdelson LLC (his legal representation), who are planning on taking Activision to court over the issue. Livingston is seeking "actual damages, individual restitution, equitable relief, civil penalties, costs and expenses of litigation, including attorney's fees, and all further relief available" on behalf of those individuals who "would not have purchased the Guitar Hero III video game and/or paid as much for it had they known the truth about the product."

A number of Wii owners have reported that their new copies of Guitar Hero 3 are only providing a mono output rather than the stereo that is advertised on the box. Activision has responded by saying that it will replace all disks experiencing this problem for free, although it has not given details of the process just yet. Activision's spokesperson, Rhy-Ming Poon said:

We recently became aware that some consumers have not been able to enjoy the full audio output in the Nintendo Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. We expect to have re-mastered discs available by early 2008 and we will be offering consumers replacement discs at no cost once they become available.

So if you are affected by this problem, it may be worth sending Activision an email and keeping an eye on its website to find out how you can get your copy replaced.

Developer Infinity Ward has just released the 1.3 patch for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

This patch addresses the issue reported by community member Uzi Kidding which now catches some files bypassing the pure client test. In addition this update will set properties so that Anti-lag is always enabled upon map loads, an optimization for Sniper Rifle accuracty at certain distances, as well a fix so text chat between rounds of multiplayer will no longer cut out at the end. The 1.3 patch will also include all previous fixes from previous patches.

You can download the patch from here.

The recent merger of Activision Blizzard seems to have slowed down neither. While Blizzard announced yesterday that the only thing changing on their side of things was ownership, Activision announced that they're going to immediately begin (or continue) work on new games. Activision is proud to announce that they're hard at work on quite a few games, including "Guitar Hero IV, Call of Duty 5, James Bond, new Tony Hawk, new DreamWorks titles, new Marvel titles and (an) entry into racing with Bizarre." Thanks to the experts at Blizzard, we may see some great games coming from Activision in the future.

Activision and Vivendi today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business - which includes Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the world's #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise - with Activision, creating the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.

Starting today gamers can enlist in Activision, Inc.'s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a gripping modern-day action-thriller that deploys them into heart-stopping battles across the world's most treacherous hotspots. Developed by Infinity Ward, the game is now available at retail outlets nationwide and delivers unprecedented high-definition graphics, piercing 5.1 surround sound and a dynamic community-oriented multiplayer experience. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is available now on Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system for a suggested retail price of $59.99; the Windows PC version for $49.99. Also available for Nintendo DS, developed by n-Space and carries a suggested retail price of $29.99. Gamers also have the option to enhance the experience with a Limited Collector's Edition for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC. Each Collector's Edition includes a special hardcover book featuring never-before-seen imagery and artwork. The Xbox 360 version carries a suggested retail price of $69.99 and also features a bonus DVD exploring the British S.A.S. behind-the-scenes footage from developer, Infinity Ward. The Windows PC edition has a suggested retail price of $59.99 and includes a digital copy of the BradyGAMES Official Strategy Guide.

Furthering its commitment to bring high definition sound to next-generation video games, Activision has come to an agreement with Audiokinetic to integrate the WaveWorks Interactive Sound Engine (Wwise) into select titles across the company's global development studios. The Wwise technology will allow Activision to streamline audio production across multiple platforms, enhance sound and music interactivity, and deliver a more immersive, higher fidelity audio experience to the company's next-generation titles. Activision claims that this partnership will dramatically improve the quality of audio in their feature console video games.

Our partnership with Audiokinetic will allow us to overcome many of the technical difficulties in managing the production pipeline for audio and will ensure that the sound the consumer hears will be as immersive and interactive as the sound designer intended it.

states Adam Levenson, Director of Audio for Activision.

The Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock demo is due to hit Xbox Live Marketplace tomorrow, October 23, In the US. The demo features five songs from the final game and can be played with either the original X-plorer guitar controller or, if you still haven't succumbed to Guitar Hero's charms, a boring old controller. Activision's demo contains the following tracks: Even Flow (by Pearl Jam), Lay Down (by Priestess), The Metal (by Tenacious D), Hit Me with your Best Shot (as made famous by Pat Benatar), Rock You like a Hurricane (as made famous by Scorpions).

IGN has released some videos for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. They are located in the PC section, but are marked with 360. So it makes it hard to say on which version they are showing. In one of the videos it states that the PC and PS3 version will be identical to each other. The game its self looks very promising, and could bring a lot fun to FPS fans when it is released.

You can check out the videos here.Source/Videos: IGN

Since Harmonix and Activision went their separate ways, each company is developing a new rock-based game. Activision is busy developing Guitar Hero 3, and Harmonix is making Rock Band. Over at Gamasutra, Activision explained why they think Guitar Hero 3 will be the better of the two...by claiming that Rock band is a Guitar Hero imitator. Activision implied that Rock Band will merely be a Guitar Hero retread rather than an original game. However, one could claim that Harmonix has every right to, considering that they originally made the game, and they helped make Konami's Guitar Freaks series.

Since acquiring the Guitar Hero license and franchise from Red Octane, Activision has handed it over to Neversoft for development of Guitar Hero 3. Harmonix decided that it will do Rock Band with the help of MTV and Electronic Arts (EA).

We already posted a press release which talked all about how there really was going to be a Guitar Hero 3, and how it was going to be for the PS2 and Xbox360. The press release went on about how sweet Guitar Hero was going to be.

While Guitar Hero 3 looks good on paper, IGN actually went through the trouble of reviewing a pre-release version of the game.

Guitar Hero 3 is much different from either of the two previous versions of the game. The first thing dedicated fans of the game will notice is Neversoft's interest in tweaking the difficulty. At this point, they aren't doing a good job...Guitar Hero "experts" were constantly failing songs in the pre-release version of GH3. Neversoft claims that when they actually release the game, the difficulty will be "just right", between the first and second game's level of difficulty.

Further strengthening its online multiplayer development capabilities, Activision, Inc. announced today that the company has entered into an agreement to acquire DemonWare, the leading provider of network middleware technologies for console and PC games headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The acquisition will enable Activision to gain efficiencies related to online game development and positions the company to take advantage of the growth in online gameplay that will be driven by the next-generation consoles.

Activision, Inc. announced today that it has entered into an agreement to license the Unreal Engine 3 from Epic Games, Inc., for an upcoming as-yet-unannounced action game.
"The Unreal Engine is one of the most technically advanced engines on the market and is a perfect fit for our upcoming action game," said Laird Malamed, head of production for Activision. "The engine's robust suite of programming tools will enable our development team to deliver what is sure to be an amazing game experience."

Some of you may have heard that The Ant Commandos were known for making an aftermarket Guitar Hero controller. Of course, you may also remember that they never got permission from Activision to make/use it. And so after a considerable amount of lawsuits/counter-suits, they settled. Now, with Harmonix having left the Guitar Hero project, things have gotten much stickier. Some Red Octane employees left the Guitar Hero project, and went over to The Ant Commandos to help them make their own game. This game is being accused of using elements that were clearly used in the Guitar Hero series, and some forms of DDR. Activision responded immediately by banning the demo from being downloaded. The demo will remain banned unless The Ant Commandos can prove that they developed their game without the help of the Red Octane employees or Reverb Communications.