March 3, 2010
Activision forms new "Call of Duty" unit

By Reuters

Activision Blizzard Inc is forming a business unit for its blockbuster "Call of Duty" franchise, following the departure of two senior executives at the studio that developed the video game, the company said yesterday.

Jason West, president of the Infinity Ward studio, and Vince Zampella, its chief executive, have left the company, Activision said.

In a regulatory filing, Activision said it is finishing an internal inquiry into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward."

The issue is expected to result in "the departure of key personnel and litigation," but the company said it does not expect it to have a material impact.

An Activision spokesman declined to provide any details beyond the filing, but said the departure of the Infinity Ward executives and the decision to form a new business unit for "Call of Duty" were unrelated.

Infinity Ward, which was acquired by Activision in 2003, developed the original "Call of Duty" game and several others in the franchise.

"Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," the sixth installment in the series, was released in November and went on to sell nearly 12 million units in the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom for 2009. It set an industry record with first-day sales of 4.7 million copies, raking in an estimated $310 million (£206 million).

The newest "Call of Duty" title, scheduled for release this fall, was developed by a different Activision studio, as was another title in the series expected to be released in 2011, Activision said.

The new "Call of Duty" business unit will be led by Philip Earl, who currently runs Activision Publishing's Asia Pacific region.

The company said it will look to expand the brand into new geographies and genres, and focus on higher-margin digital online content.

Steve Pearce and Steve Ackrich will lead

As you may be aware, some customers have been unable to connect to the PlayStation Network today. This problem affects the models other than the new slim PS3. We believe we have identified that this problem is being caused by a bug in the clock functionality incorporated in the system.

Errors include:

• The date of the PS3 system may be re-set to Jan 1, 2000.
• When the user tries to sign in to the PlayStation Network, the following message appears on the screen; “An error has occurred. You have been signed out of PlayStation Network (8001050F)”.
• When the user tries to launch a game, the following error message appears on the screen and the trophy data may disappear; “Failed to install trophies. Please exit your game.”
• When the user tries to set the time and date of the system via the Internet, the following message appears on the screen; “The current date and time could not be obtained. (8001050F)”
• Users are not able to play back certain rental video downloaded from the PlayStation Store before the expiration date.

We hope to resolve this problem within the next 24 hours. In the meantime, if you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.
As mentioned above, please be advised that the new slim PS3 is not affected with this error. We are doing our best to resolve the issue and do apologize for any inconvenience caused.

We are aware that the internal clock functionality in the PS3 units other than the slim model, recognized the year 2010 as a leap year. Having the internal clock date change from February 29 to March 1 (both GMT), we have verified that the symptoms are now resolved and that users are able to use their PS3 normally.

Modern Warfare 2 players on Xbox 360 just received an update today. This is what it included. Feedback welcomed.

We've updated the PS3 & Xbox 360 version of Modern Warfare 2, including the following fixes:

- Care Package, Emergency Airdrop, and Sentry Gun marker grenades sprint speed normalized.
- Fix for "infinite care package" exploit.
- Sentry Guns: Improved placement detection, preventing cases of Sentry Guns inside geometry.
- Model 1887: Bling using Akimbo and FMJ combination now has same range and damage as non-Bling Model 1887s.
- Fixes to prevent various XP hacks (including the prevention of negative XP)

Note to PS3 Player: The PS3 still needs to receive one additional fix, regarding the infinite care package exploit - not included in this patch - which will come in the near future.