Now that Activision's Tony Hawk skating franchise is facing stiff competition from EA's Skate, rumors are circulating that the publisher may want to innovate the series by giving the axe to the series creators. Is Neversoft out and is new dev Robomodo in? Details after the jump.

The PC version of Activision's Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock is getting a new patch. Yup, it's now at version 1.3 and plenty of cool additions have been put into place for people who love to shred on their computers. See the full article for the changelog.

The Tony Hawk video game franchise is already a winner in itself, but Activision, Neversoft, and Tony Hawk still saw it fit to do some overhaul in the franchise's direction. Dubbed as the "Tony Hawk Innovation Plan," what can fans expect from this move? Read more in the full article.

Game Developers Magazine is starting a new trend, and it's to list out the Top 50 videogame developers of the year - just to give back to the groups that made our lives a bit more exciting through their realized (and digitized) works of art. Want to know if your favorite game developer made the list? Hit the full article to find out!

At this year's recently concluded DigitalLife, the yet unreleased Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, PS2, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii) from Aspyr  Media and Neversoft took home a Best of Show award for the Game Category.

DigitalLife is a consumer electronics event and trade show featuring new and innovative technology annually held by Ziff Davis in New York City. The said event reserves awards in twelve categories including gaming, PC, portable gadgets, toys, and automobile technology, among other things.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was playable at the Guitar Hero booth at DigitalLife, and it impressed the judges and the PC magazine editors enough to win Best of Show for gaming. Monica Vila, Vice President of Ziff Davis Media comments:

This year's Best of Show winners represent some of the most exciting technology products on the horizon. The quality and quantity of new product announcements at this year's show indicates that DigitalLife continues to evolve from being a great venue to interact with consumers to an industry gathering place, and one of the year's major focal points for technology and lifestyle press.

Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (PS3)]
Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Xbox 360)]
Buy: [Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Bundle (Wii)]

 

We recently reported that British game studio Bizarre Creations has inked an acquisition deal with giant publisher Activision. The deal places the former as an in-house development wing of the publisher, retaining its identity under a bigger corporate mantle.

Many were shocked as to why Bizarre Creations would sign such a pact with Activision, noting that the firm is doing very well on its own with various publishing partners handling its deals. Commercial Director Sarah Chudley explains the rationale in a report by GamesIndustry.

Chudley says that the successful run that both Bizarre Creations and Activision are having makes the partnership an ideal one. Activision is looking for good developers that will create new games for them while the developer wants to focus on creating quality content without the hassles of trying to strike deals before a project materializes.

"All we want to concentrate on is making great games, rather than the pressures of running a pretty large development studio, searching out deals," says Chudley as she expresses relief in not having to spend months on legal and business issues anymore.

"We want to be doing what we love, in the way that we enjoy, without having to think about being big business people," she adds. "It was a long and hard path coming to this decision, but we were driven by our desire to continue being able to deliver great games, and to enjoy doing it."

Chudley says that Bizarre Creations also chose Activision because of its "hands-off policy" on their developers. They don't tend to cramp up the creative styles of the teams working on games, preserving their individuality and freedom. She cites Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare developers Infinity Ward and Tony Hawk creators Neversoft as prime examples.

"They are an extremely successful publisher who has a big passion for games, and who have great respect for all of our teams," Chudley concludes. New IPs under Activision are yet to be announced.

 

Joystiq's Alexander Sliwinski reports that in noting one of the big pink elephants of the gaming industry at the moment - Activision purchasing peripheral manufacturer and Guitar Hero rights holder Red Octane instead of Harmonix - Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan noted that at the end of the day he thinks it's good for consumers and will only make Activision and Neversoft work more. Pachter explains:

Would you pay $150 million dollars for someone who ripped off Konami's Guitar Freaks? The game is fun, I totally respect Harmonix, I'm sure Red Octane turned to them with Guitar Hero and said let's figure out a way to rip off Guitar Freaks and help sell our peripherals ... I think at the end of the day, the MTV/Harmonix game Rock Band will be a good game, it will cannibalize market share. I think it's good for consumers and it'll make Activision and Neversoft work harder on Guitar Hero III.

The situation is that Red Octane has been purchased by Activision, while Octane's former developer Harmonix, was purchased by MTV. Since then the companies have been on separate paths. The clincher here is that Red Octane retains the rights to Guitar Hero and - most importantly - the guitar.

Pachter notes that if the look of Harmonix's new project, Rock Band, or even if the guitars the game will hypothetically use comes anywhere close to the look of Guitar Hero, then Red Octane definitely has every right to sue. Harmonix also has to figure out how to copyright a drum peripheral so that Red Octane doesn't develop their own version.

Pachter's notes: "I guess what's interesting here is Harmonix/MTV telling us that this game, with its four peripherals and the game, is coming out in less than six months and yet we have no more details."

The bottom-line? Rock Band is new, involved a lot of problems on the technical side, and has big corporations tied up with it. In short: it's a risk. Pachter says: "Activision didn't buy the wrong company, MTV bought the wrong company."