As you may have noticed, Apple has been more serious about gaming lately that it was even during its Pippin-fueled haze in the mid-1990s, and it’s now offering yet more evidence of just how invested it is with a pair of new hires. While the company isn’t confirming the move just yet, MCV is reporting that Apple has snatched up Nintendo UK’s former head of communications, Rob Saunders, who just left the big N last week and will apparently be focusing on PR for iOS apps at Apple. What’s more, he’ll reportedly be joined at Apple by former Activision PR director Nick Grange, who’s said to be focusing specifically on the iPad — which, as we’ve seen, can be a pretty versatile gaming device in its own right.

Apple reportedly hires top UK gaming PR execs from Nintendo and Activision originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 04:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This week Jon’s still hard at work with the iPad! Dionne brings you this week’s best tech news and goes to check out Blur – the latest racing game from Bizarre creations and Activision. For more videos, news and reviews go to fwd.five.tv
Video Rating: 4 / 5

The burning embers of a once-proud game…

Simply amazing. Just totally, out-of-this-world amazing. Activision is said to be working on no less than three new Call of Duty games, to be released before 2012. That’s three games in less than two years. You’d think that Activision learned its lesson with Guitar Hero. Remember when Guitar Hero was white-hot in 2007? The game was everywhere! Now? Is there anybody left on the planet who has any interest in the game, or the genre as a whole?

This news comes to us by way of Dam Amrich, an Activision blogger and podcast champion. (That actually sounds like a neat job, being a publisher’s go-to guy like that.) Anyhow, the full quote, taken from an anti-Bobby Kotick (Activision’s CEO) Facebook group, reads:

They’ve confirmed three games in the next two years. Seeing as how there is a pattern of one new COD game every year, this is one new COD game from one new developer, and in a different genre from the core games we’ve seen.

Let’s assume that one, lone game is the much-rumored MMO, which, if our feedback is any indication, won’t exactly light the world on fire.

But, let’s wait and see what this mysterious developer comes up with before jumping to conclusions.

That still leaves two “core” Call of Duty games in the next few months, games developed after Infinity Ward imploded.

I don’t know, we’ve written enough about this in the recent past, but I really don’t know how many Call of Duty games the “average” is going to put up with.

There’s always Call of Duty 4 to play. That game is still good.

If Activision were a pro-wrestler, it would be the greatest heel of all time. Better than Ted DiBiase, better than Hollywood Hogan—it would even be better than Anderson Silva and his fantastic manager, Ed Soares. (Not that UFC is pro-wrestling, but some of the same dynamics are at work there.) The amount of heat this company generates over the most insignificant, throwaway comments—it’s simply unreal. Nuclear, if you will. Take this latest remark: “We haven’t yet announced the content of [Sledgehammer, a new developer it swallowed]’s game, but it’s going to be an innovative take that will further broaden the audience for Call of Duty.” Yes, because a game that makes you one billion dollars isn’t “broad” enough.

I should probably put that comment in content. The company’s chief operating officer, Thomas Tippl, was asked by the Los Angeles Times his thoughts on, well, pretty much everything Activision has gone through in the past few months. (Recap: Activision fired Jason West and Vince Zampella, of Infinity Ward, who pretty much the creators of Call of Duty, over what it claims was “insubordination.” West and Zampella say they were treated like hot garbage and weren’t paid the royalties they were due. Then they founded a new studio, Respawn Entertainment, which will work with EA. Then a whole bunch more people left Infinity Ward, with one “insider” calling the development studio “dead.” It’s bat-shit crazy, all of it.) Let’s just copy-paste the relevant question and answer:

Q: How many studios do you have working on Call of Duty games now?

A: Today, we have three studios working on Call of Duty. We have Infinity Ward, which made Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Then we have Treyarch, which will be releasing a Call of Duty game in the fall of 2010. Treyarch also developed Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty 3. And, most recently, we’ve added Sledgehammer in the Bay Area. We haven’t yet announced the content of their game, but it’s going to be an innovative take that will further broaden the audience for Call of Duty.

Too bad the Treyarch-developed games were nothing in comparison to the Infinity Ward-developed ones. It’d be like ordering a fine piece of dark chocolate in a small Brussels bakery, but then getting handed a Hersey bar instead—why even bother getting your hands dirty? It’s not even worth the effort.

The absurdity of “broadening” a billion dollar game needs little explanation. First off, how? Second off, why?

What’s Activision’s track record with “broadening” video game franchises? (And yes, the word “franchise” does annoy me, but it’s all I could think of.) Tony Hawk? Do you know anyone who still plays that? Guitar Hero? 2007 called: it wants its fad back.

So congratulations to Activision for enraging an entire generation of video game site-reading gamers. You’re the best.

You’ll recall that the two bigwigs at Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, left the studio a few months back under, well, insane circumstances. It’s basically he said, she said, only involving lawsuits, hired goons, and Activision, the least popular video game publisher according to a recent GameFaqs poll. Yes, I just cited a GameFaqs poll. West and Zampella didn’t like the way Activision were treating them, and Activision alleges that the two were looking to leave Infinity Ward and perhaps start up a new studio under the watchful eye (and with the gigantic bank account) of EA. Funnily enough, West and Zampella have done just that, forming a new development studio called Respawn Entertainment. Wonder how Dice, makers of Battlefield: Bad Company 2, feels about all of this?

The new studio will remain independent of EA, creating games under the auspices of EA Partners.

Zampella called it a ” fresh start for Jason and me. For the past decade we led a great development team and poured our hearts into creating an epic game franchise. We’re very proud of what we built—and proud that so many millions of fans enjoyed those games. Today we hope to do it all over again—open a new studio, hire a great team, and create brand new games with a new partner, EA.”

The duo worked for EA in the past, creating Medal of Honor: Allied Assault for the PC. It was basically a better (and harder) version of the PS2’s Medal of Honor: Frontline. The Allied Assault version of the D-Day level is pretty much the hardest level I’ve ever played, ever.

Here’s a handy chart! (I don’t know how this thumbnail nonsense works.)

So what to make of this latest Call of Duty rumor? The seventh game in the series will be named Call of Duty: Black Ops, and will take place between the end of World War II and the present day. It won’t necessarily “be” a Vietnam War game, but will have missions that take place all over the world. Remember: it’s being developed by Treyarch (i.e. not Infinity Ward), the same dudes who developed Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War.

That’s what the latest rumors suggest, with various Web sites citing “undisclosed sources at Activision.” In truth, you might as well talk to a cup of water, but what are you gonna do?

Setting the game exclusively in Vietnam would have been tricky. You’ll recall all the nonsense surround the release of Battlefield: Vietnam. THIS GAME IS ANTI-AMERICAN, an so on. Great soundtrack, though.

Oh, and good news for PC gamers: dedicated servers may be coming back. Victoire!

I thought the whole point of “black ops” was that they were black? Now we’re making a video game about them? Madness. Yes, this sentence is supposed to be small.