Ninja defuses

Just when I thought all the fun had been sucked out of Black Ops, enter the Pinky:



This one is pure gold:

Truth in advertising

Where developers go to die

With the demise of the Guitar Hero franchise – and its associated developers – a small retrospective of Activision's business is in order. As M2 Research's Billy Pidgeon observed, Activision has "pretty much driven the [Guitar Hero] franchise into the ground with title after title after title." WoW seems fine for the long term, but what about Beenox, High Moon, Raven, Sledgehammer, Toys for Bob, and Treyarch? (Of the six, I bet you've never heard of three.) 

Sledgehammer and Raven are deep into CoD 8, Treyarch is probably already working on CoD 9, and Activision has just announced the formation of Beachhead Studios "to create an online community and suite of services for fans." That sounds a lot like a digital distribution platform (which may portend subscription fees and/or micro-transactions).

Have a look at the list below of developers that Activision has bought and shuttered over the years. Then, take a moment to think about what market oversaturation and short development cycles did for some of these franchises, and the people that made them.

• 7 Studios (Guitar Hero) – acquired in 2009 – closed in 2010 
• Bizzare Creations (Blur) – acquired in 2007 – closed in 2011
• Budcat Creations (Guitar Hero, Band Hero) – acquired in 2008 – closed in 2010
• FreeStyleGames (DJ Hero) – acquired in 2008 – future uncertain 
• Gray Matter (Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, Return to Castle Wolfenstein) – acquired in 2002 – merged into Treyarch in 2005
• Infinity Ward (Call of Duty) – acquired in 2003 – imploded in 2010
• Infocom (Zork) – acquired in 1986 – closed in 1989
• Luxoflux (True Crime, Transformers) – acquired in 2002 – closed in 2011
• Neversoft (Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk) – acquired in 1999 – closed in 2011
• Radical Entertainment (Prototype) – acquired in 2005 – staff reduced by 50% in 2011
• RedOctane (Guitar Hero) – acquired in 2006 – closed in 2010
• Shaba Games (Tony Hawk, Spiderman) – acquired in 2002 – closed in 2009
• Sierra (Timeshift, World in Conflict, the publisher of Half-Life) – acquired in 2007 – closed in 2008  
• Underground Development (Guitar Hero, Call of Duty) – acquired in 2002 – closed in 2010
• Vicarious Visions (Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk) – acquired in 2005 – staff reduced by 25% in 2011