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'Activision doesn't blacklist journalists,' working on resolution with Gameblog
Earlier this week, France's Gameblog posted a screenshot of Amazon France's premature listing for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, a story that we and other gaming sites picked up immediately. We later found further support for the claim in a Treyarch employee's resume.A new Call of Duty title -- or a second Black Ops -- wasn't particularly surprising, but apparently Activision wanted to keep the news quiet, and it called the site to take down the story, Gameblog wrote in a follow-up post. Gameblog said the reporter refused and that Activision took a strangely extreme route, "blacklisting" the site, uninviting it from events, declining to send it any more review titles and removing all advertisement.Activision has now publicly responded to Gameblog's claim: "Activision doesn't blacklist journalists. We believe this was a misunderstanding and are working towards a resolution." That sounds like a more reasonable response than the all-out journalistic warfare Gameblog reported; then again, this is all about a Call of Duty title, so maybe "warfare" was the angle they were comfortable with at first.
Treyarch contract art studio employee lists 'Black Ops 2' among current projects [update: pulled!]
Hugo Beyer has worked on some major titles over the years (Beatles Rock Band, Anno 1404), including some still unreleased ones (Doom 4, Aliens: Colonial Marines), at a variety of studios (Terminal Reality, Liquid Development). What stands out to us, however, is his current work with Nerve Software on what he refers to as "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2," as seen on his public LinkedIn page."But who is Nerve Software?" you're probably wondering. Nerve has done a bunch of contract work for Activision in the past, including Treyarch-developed James Bond title Quantum of Solace, as well as ... Call of Duty: Black Ops (the first one).So, there's one more lead in the "Activision and Treyarch are probably gonna release Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 this year" news cycle. Between domain registrations and reported retailer listings in Europe, we're thinking an announcement can't be too far off. Activision and Nerve Software had yet to respond to request for comment as of publishing.Update: Mr. Beyer (or someone on his behalf) has taken down his LinkedIn page, it would seem. We've still yet to receive responses to comment requests from him, or Nerve Software, or Activision.
Report: 'Black Ops 2' listing spotted on Amazon France
In an entirely unsurprising turn of events, a listing for "Call of Duty: Black Ops 2" reportedly popped up on Amazon France this week. GameBlog.fr spotted the listing and grabbed a screenshot (seen above) before it was allegedly pulled, which has resulted in a bit of a kerfuffle between Activision's French arm and the site.Earlier this year we reported that Activision had already snapped up domain registrations for a variety of Black Ops sequels (all the way up to "Black Ops 6", actually), so the listing on Amazon France doesn't exactly come off as unbelievable. Nor is it a surprise to suppose Activision might want to capitalize on Treyarch's most financially successful -- not to mention critically acclaimed -- Call of Duty titles.Activision's US reps have yet to get back to us when asked for comment.[Image credit: GameBlog.fr]
Report: Activision scoops up blackops2.com
Activision, by proxy, has bought BlackOps2.com. Fusible did the detective work on this, which posits Activision bought up Black Ops domains last year -- up to Black Ops 6 -- through brand protection company MarkMonitor. Black Ops 2 domains were missing from the previous list, but it appears that's being rectified. Now, none of this guarantees that Black Ops 2 is on the way as this year's Call of Duty, but it does mean that MarkMonitor is under orders to protect the brand for the future. Call of Duty: Black Ops had a record-breaking debut of $650 million in sales during its first week at retail in 2010, which it held for one year until Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 crushed that with $775 million.
