Groundhog Year For Activision In 2009 News

We all know that Activision has become the undisputed heavyweight champion of year-on-year releases for their leading game franchises, and 2009 will be no exception according to news that's been spilt from an advertising showcase with in-game ad company Massive Inc.

Top of the bunch of confirmations is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Despite rumours that Infinity Ward were developing a sci-fi CoD for 2009, it has now become apparent that CoD 6 will return to the Modern Warfare setting of CoD 4 next autumn, according to the scoop from MTV's Multiplayer blog.

Also mentioned was next year's Tony Hawk game (despite the series being on hiatus this year). "You're not going to be playing this game with a controller in your hands," Activision reportedly teased at the advertising showcase (as we role our eyes at the prospect of yet another overpriced Activision peripheral).

This next Tony Hawk game is most likely to be in development at budding studio Robomodo, which previously revealed that it is "working on a high-profile extreme sports title for Activision Blizzard". The game is coming to Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and DS.

Guitar Hero 5 also got a brief mention at the showcase, confirming the title for a 2009 release, but it wasn't all uninspired sequels as further details were revealed of the games that Activision has got its 2007 acquisition, Bizarre Creations, working on.

It seems the former Project Gotham Racing dev has a James Bond racing game in the works (taking advantage of Activision's ongoing Bond license), while a second game described as 'Mario Kart meets Forza' is also being developed by Bizarre.
 
Although we fear this may be bad news for a company that once reached the heights of PGR 4 and The Club, at least this unlikely Mario Kart/Forza hybrid is a new IP for Activision.