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Week in Review: 7/6/12
Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. But if you do, you can always read this Week in Review column and catch up on all the big video game news you slept on.
Sony Surprises
Sony dominated the industry news this week. The most notable announcement was the company's acquisition of Gaikai, the cloud-based streaming gaming service started by former game designer Dave Perry (Earthworm Jim, MDK, Enter the Matrix). Sony purchased the company for a reported $380 million -- a serious investment that seems to indicate that Sony is serious about integrating at least some element of cloud gaming into its next console hardware.
While many speculated that Sony was set to make the next PlayStation a disc-free, cloud-only service, Sony's UK boss Fergal Gara said that it remains committed to retail playing a large part in the company's future plans.
It is also interesting, in light of the recent announcement, that Gaikai had partnered with Samsung to deliver smart TVs that offered streaming games as a preview before buying. We assume Sony now might have similar plans for its own televisions.
In other Sony news, there were also rumors that a redesigned PS3 was in the works, and the revelation that Sony Santa Monica has hired former Capcom community manager Seth Killian.
Changing Times
Sony isn't the only company that's looking for different business and distribution models for its games. In light of NPD data that shows retail sales continuing to slump, many companies feel that digital distribution and free-to-play models are the way forward.
A high-ranking Electronic Arts official stated this week that he sees the company moving towards a 100 percent digital future. On the 4th, GI's Matt Bertz published a feature that recounted quotes from other executives in industry espousing their enthusiasm for free-to-play games. Clearly, big changes are coming to the game industry.
Whatever, the future of the game industry, Microsoft plans on being a part of it. This week, the company secured several domain names, including "xbox8.org", "xbox8.us", and "xboxphone.com".
Call of Duty In the News
If you haven't heard of it, let's just say that Activision and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty series is kind of a big deal. This week, the company announced that it's partnering with Tencent, the company that recently bought a minority stake in Epic Games, to bring Call of Duty Online -- a new PC, free-to-play, microtransaction-based shooter -- to China. While Activision hasn't said whether it's bringing the game to the west, given the size of the Chinese market this could end up being the most significant news of the week in the long term.
Activision also announced some news regarding maps for Black Ops II and Modern Warfare 3, and well as held an online sale on Call of Duty DLC.
Next Page>>Comic Con, Reviews, Trailers, Announcements, GI Exclusives
Comic Con
Comic Con, the annual comic book (and movie…and video game…) convention takes place next week in San Diego, and we'll have reporters on scene to report on all the action. In addition to Sony's lineup, it's also been confirmed that Gearbox's long-awaited Aliens: Colonial Marines will be playable at the show. High Moon, the studio behind Activision's recent Transformers games, will be there to debut a new game based on a Marvel property.
Trailer, Reviews, & Announcements
While we're at a low ebb for new releases and announcements, there were some new trailers and announcements released this week.
Trailers:
Star Wars Battlefront III (a full hour of gameplay!)
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Assassin's Creed III (as well as new info about the AC III limited edition pack and a planned art book based on the game)
Halo 4 (and by the way, if you want the game's full multiplayer experience, you're going to have perform a huge install on your 360 HD)
Reviews:
Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends
Announcements:
Activision's Walking Dead FPS (as well as Telltale's promise to deliver episode three of its Walking Dead adventure series in a more timely fashion)
Knights of the Old Republic PC Collection
Limbo (a special edition boxed version of the popular downloadable title)
Game Informer Exclusive Content
We do the best to keep up with all the news that's fit to print, but we also try to deliver some exclusive, original content for readers of our site.
This week, some of our popular originals included Dan Ryckert's remembrance of some botched sequels, the a highlight reel of Dan's worst moments from the Half-Life Super Replay, the first episode of our Super Metroid Super Replay, a Test Chamber on Resident Evil 6, and the weekly Game Informer Show podcast -- which featured an appearance by Game Informer's big cheese Andy McNamara.
Oh, and we also revealed the cover(s) of the upcoming issue of Game Informer!
Have a great weekend everyone.
