Activision has announced that a new installment in the Call of Duty franchise is currently being developed and will be available sometime in 2011.

Before you get too excited about the new Call of Duty announcement, I must mention that it will not be a new FPS. Development is being handed off to Sledgehammer Games, a brand new studio created by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. They both previously worked at Visceral Games, the studio that created Dead Space. Instead of going the obvious route of creating another FPS, they have elected to make an action adventure game. We can expect to see the new game sometime in 2011.

Completely overshadowing the new game announcement, rumors have surfaced and then were confirmed that two top people from Infinity Ward were fired today. Infinity Ward, the developers behind the insanely popular Modern Warfare 2, is apparently without their President and CEO. Jason West and Vince Zampella were both removed from their positions for rumored breach of contract and insubordination. Several sources are suggesting that Infinity Ward was looking to create a new IP and that they were shopping this to publishing rivals of Activision. These are all just rumors at this point but sources have stated that some bouncer types showed up at the Infinity Ward offices and that West and Zampella were nowhere to be found after a meeting with Activision. Stay tuned to hear more as the Infinity Ward/Activision soap opera continues.

Nintendo unveiled a new Super Mario Galaxy 2 trailer and officially announces a release date for the highly anticipated sequel.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 was unveiled at last year's E3 to everybody's excitement. Now Nintendo has released a new trailer for the game and also announced when we can get our hands on it. The new Super Mario Galaxy 2 trailer was unveiled at the recent Nintendo Media Summit 2010. It shows off more gameplay footage including the new drill that looks really cool. It allows you to drill through a planet and come out the other side. That adds a lot of gameplay variations to the game and it looks like Nintendo is taking full advantage of it. SMG2's level variation and creativity looks awesome and the bosses look pretty cool too. We also get to see the new and improved Yoshi in the new trailer. He is now able to use his tongue to swing and pull with and he gains different powers whenever he eats the fruit lying around. One such power that is in the trailer allows Yoshi to inflate and then float up like a balloon. It's a pretty cool trailer that definitely should get Mario fans really excited.

Super Mario Galaxy 2 is going to be released exclusively for the Nintendo Wii on May 23rd. Check out the new gameplay footage after the jump.Read more...

Rockstar Games has finally given the other GTA IV fans some love and officially announced that Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City will be coming to the PlayStation 3 and the PC.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City was originally exclusive to Xbox 360 due to the DLC deal made between Microsoft and Rockstar before GTA IV was released. The retail disc includes both DLC episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony which were originally only available to Xbox 360 owners. PlayStation 3 and PC owners will now be able to play these very well-received episodes themselves and not have to act like they weren't bothered by the original announcement. Many people believed that the episodes would eventually make their way to other consoles once the exclusive deal expired or that maybe they would receive their own. In addition to the retail release, PS3 owners will be able to download the individual episodes on PSN.

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City and the individual episodes will be released for PlayStation 3 and the PC on March 30th.

Ruffian Games has confirmed they will be releasing a demo of Crackdown 2 before its release.

Crackdown 2 was one of those games that a lot of people wanted but thought might never happen. When it was announced at last year's E3, fans of the first game rejoiced even though the game was in the hands of another developer. Microsoft had decided to go with newly formed studio, Ruffian Games, which was formed by former members of the original Crackdown team at Realtime Worlds.

James Cope, the Producer on the upcoming sequel, was interviewed by IGN where he reveals more details about the game. During the interview he confirmed that they will be releasing a demo of the game on Xbox LIVE before its release later this year. He stated that "The Crackdown demo was fantastic and we want to carry on in that form". That is great news for anybody that might want to try out the game before they buy it. Fans of the original game will tell you that if it is anything like the original, this will be one to pick up.

There is no official release date for Crackdown 2 yet but some outlets are pointing towards a possible May release though. It will be released exclusively for the Xbox 360.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has announced they will complete the console trifecta by bringing its movie streaming service to the Nintendo Wii.

It has long been rumored and basically announced before with Netflix's boss wanting its service to be on all three consoles. Netflix streaming will be available on the Nintendo Wii starting this spring. It will follow in the PlayStation 3's footsteps by requiring a streaming disc in order to access the service. Many people believe that this is a way to get around the Xbox 360 exclusivity to the console's dashboard and that a future firmware update could drop the requirement. You can sign up for your streaming disc now so you are ready when the service goes live.

Unfortunately for Wii users they will not be able to take advantage of the HD streaming service. Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime tries to justify the omission of HD content on the Wii during a CNBC interview stating that most of the streaming content on Netflix isn't available in HD anyway. Impressive spin Reggie. Do you think the omission of HD is important or not? Let us know in the comments.

Microsoft officially announces Game Room, a retro arcade space for Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows LIVE.

During the recent CES 2010 keynote address, Microsoft announced their new retro arcade space, Game Room. It will allow you to play 1000 retro games and customize your own arcade space while letting you compete against your friends. Each game will have achievements you can play for as well as universal leader boards so you gain bragging rights. You will be able to send out challenges to your friends and they can visit your arcade space to play demos of your games while they are there. The whole concept sounds a bit like Sony's PlayStation Home but a lot more fun.

Microsoft is taking an interesting approach to the pricing plan. Game Room will be free for download and games will cost you between 240 - 400 Microsoft points. They are also letting you play them really old school by plopping down 40 MS points for one play until you die. I'm really curious to see how this pricing plan works out and if other people will try the same approach.

Game Room will be released this spring for Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows LIVE. 30 out of the 1000 promised games have been announced so far including Centipede and Asteroids Deluxe. Check out the launch trailer after the break.Read more...