-ModernWarfare3.com vs Activison-

Activision has been fuming after discovering the website http://www.modernwarfare3.com. A site not owned by Activision which was purchased in 2009. It featured anti-Call of Duty content and eventually redirected users to Battlefield 3 – after Activision  gave them a notice to take down the site.

“grow up and forget about Modern Warfare 3 (because it looks just like Modern Warfare 2). Buy Battlefield 3 instead.”

Since the privacy settings for the domain are secured, no one  knows who is behind the website. For a while, it appeared as though EA was behind it but they denied that. Activision is till trying to gain control of the domain. As of  now, the website is down. This could’ve easily been solved if Activision had purchased the domain name years ago during the pre-development stage. This folly is on you Activision.

-EA Goes Casual-

Trying to make a bigger dent in the casual gaming market, EA purchased the company Popcap Games – known for making the games Plants vs Zombies, Zuma, and Bejeweled, EA bought the company for $1.3 billion – out bidding Zynga (know for Farmville).

“PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels.”

Most of PopCap games have been on mobile devices. Although, EA’s Sims franchise is a big hit among casual gamers, the company is mainly know for their hardcore titles and is working hard to change that image. A majority of Popcap’s sales last year were digital devices and now backing EA, they’ll most likely put the classic gaming company at the top of the casual gaming market and rivaling Zynga.

-Nintendo 3DS Price Drop-

After a weak launch, Nintendo announced that they will drop the 3DS price to $170 on August 13th. As for those who already own the 3Ds, Nintendo will release 20 free titles on Nintendo EShop, 10 NES games and 10 Gameboy games. Nintendo still needs a huge title (especially in the Eshop) and sales to attract more people. Think of Steam. Iawata explained one of the reasons for the price cut…

“First, since the launch of Nintendo 3DS, one of the things we have learned is that it has taken longer than we had originally expected in order for the appeal of this product to widely spread,” he told investors. “We feel that those who have experienced the system appreciate its attraction, but this appreciation has not necessarily been expanding at the speed which we had expected. For us to maximize the effect of the anticipated titles of this year end, it is necessary to greatly expand the installed base (before the launches of the anticipated titles) so that the appeal of the new software will be able to spread to consumers in a short period of time. Without creating such a circumstance, we would not be able to realize explosive sales in the year-end sales season. This is one reason for the markdown.”

If the 3Ds doesn’t pick up any steam before the Sony Vita comes out, they will lose the handheld market to Sony.