Activision Announces Franchise Updates

Activision has announced follow-ups to its solid-selling Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk franchises...along with a new racing title.

In recent months, game publisher Activision has been all about building its franchise juggernauts, announcing it would be killing off games series it didn’t think had to the potential to become long-running franchises in favor of long-running titles it can iterate (and sell) over and over again. At the same event where the company announced its Blizzard unit would start running ads from Microsoft subsidiary Massive, Activision also announced it plans additional sequels in its Guitar Hero,Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk franchises, even as it kills off formerly-touted titles like Ghostbusters and Chronicles of Riddick.

Activision’s next installment in the Call of Duty franchise will be Modern Warfare 2, a sign that the company is looking to split the title into two branches: one dealing with contemporary combat and another sticking closer to the game’s World War II roots. Meanwhile, Activision also plans to bring back skate king Tony Hawk for a tenth title, currently in development at Neversoft. Activision declined to give many details, saying only that players would not be using a hand-held controller to play it, implying that the game may be aiming at a foot-based device like Nintendo’s Balance Board or another motion-based controller. And, of course, Activision is spinning out more Guitar Hero content and games, announcing The Eagles, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and other artists are lined up as downloadable content in December, and hinting that the next installment of Guitar Hero is likely to be rife with in-game advertising.

Activision also announced it’s developing an original cart racing titles, as well as a new installment in the James Bond franchise, independent from any movie or novel tie-ins. Activision won the Bond franchise from EA back in 2006.