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Call of Duty: Ghosts—the next game in Activision's blockbuster FPS series—will be out this fall, according to a promo poster seen on IGN. Rumors about the next CoD have been spinning for about a week after the console-branded box art (shown above) leaked onto the internet. Retail listings outed the upcoming installment, about which no details are yet known. Ghosts' release date of November 5th should come as no surprise, since Call of Duty games typically come out during the holday season. Kotaku has reached out to Activision for comment and will update if they respond.

The last time we mentioned the Deadpool game, we weren’t even sure that it was going to come out on anything other than soon-to-be previous generation consoles, but the recent announcement of a release date also confirmed a PC release. The game is out on June 25th or 28th – the exact time you can play it is dependent on your geographic position. Deadpool can saunter across the fourth wall with ease but it takes him ages to cross an ocean. He’s probably riding an inflatable rubber duck and using his own severed arm as an oar. It’s a third-person action game and I’ve popped a couple of videos below, one of which is a ‘gameplay trailer’, except it isn’t, because haHAHAHAHHA.

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Activision has a lot of money. Bobby Kotick has fat stacks, too. The publisher's CEO saw his compensation jump from $8.1 million in 2011 to $64.9 million in 2012, reports Bloomberg. He's the second-highest paid CEO among publicly traded U.S. companies. Kotick is due for another $16 million if the company hits performance targets, too. The bulk of his pay came in the form of stock awards valued at $55.9 million. (Though they vest over the next five years, they're reported now.) A corporate governance consultant has had a beef with Activision's executive pay in the past, and this doesn't make her any happier. “We don’t like any element of this pay package,” Nell Minow, of GMI Ratings, told Bloomberg. "In the past we have expressed concern about this company and its compensation practices." Minow said Activision isn't being clear about how Kotick earned the money. "The lack of information provided by the compensation committee is a red flag," she told Bloomberg. "It’s very difficult to discern how they determined this compensation package from the information that’s been provided." She said the stock awards aren't sufficiently tied to Kotick's performance and said the whole compensation package is out of line with the video game industry. It doesn't just make Kotick the highest paid CEO in games publishing, it puts him second only to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in executive compensation for 2012, Bloomberg said. Neither Activision nor its majority owner, Vivendi, responded to their requests for comment. Activision’s Kotick Gets 8-Fold Raise Reaching Top Tier [Bloomberg]

Released last week for the Xbox 360, Call of Duty: Black Ops II's Uprising pack brings four new maps and the "Mob of the Dead" Zombies experience to PlayStation 3 and PC players on May 16.

Call of Duty: Ghosts emerges from the darkness thanks to Target and UK retailer Tesco, with the former advertising a release date of November 5. Meanwhile, a Tesco listing notes a release date of December 30 - early November is the traditional Call of Duty ETA. The box art posted on Tesco (see below the break for a snippet) features Infinity Ward's logo.

We know (as if we didn't before) that Activision has another edition of its shooter series slated for this year. "The Call of Duty franchise continues to set the bar for innovation," company CFO Dennis Durkin said during Activision's February earnings call, "And we expect the new Call of Duty game in development for 2013 to raise that bar even higher."

We've reached out to Activision for comment.

So, this is interesting. Rumors about a game called Call of Duty: Ghosts have been floating around for a month or so, but there hasn't been much concrete info out there. Today, leaked retail listings and box art suggest that Ghosts could actually be a thing. Above you can see box art posted by the retailer Tesco Direct (as discovered by Call of Duty megasite CharlieIntel). And a leaked promo from Target corroborates all this: Rumors about this next incarnation in the massive shooter series first originated from YouTuber Drift0r, who said he heard from a reliable source that the next Call of Duty will be set in the future: Drift0r also claimed the game will be next-gen only, although the Tesco box art throws some water on that theory. Watch the video for more details, keeping in mind, of course, that everything in there is totally unconfirmed. While we don't know if any of this is really true, there are a number of different sources pointing to the name Call of Duty: Ghosts, and it is that time of the year for a new Call of Duty reveal, which traditionally happens around the time of the NBA Playoffs (which started this past weekend). We've reached out to Call of Duty publisher Activision and will update with any comment.

I was there from the beginning of the TMNT phenomenon, back when Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were riffing off of Frank Miller’s Ronin and Dave Sim’s Cereberus comics. I don’t remember Mike, Don, Raph and Leo having junk punts as part of their martial arts repertoires. Granted, they very well could have. Like most nerds of a certain age, it gets harder for me to remember anything before the Turtles made it onto TV and became a pop culture sensation. I do recall there was blood and grit in those old black-and-white comics. But nut-kicking? Just can’t remember. And it's kind of a harsh move, considering this game's tied into a kid's show. Still, this trailer for Activision’s upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows looks far better than I was expecting.

"PR executive" Kathryn Kirton stole £18,963 to pay for her wedding parties and shopping sprees.

Activision has announced that Deadpool, High Moon Studios' third-person action game starring Marvel's quirkiest fourth wall-breaking anti-hero, will be released for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 in North America on June 25.

The Japanese language and Call of Duty have never gotten along. But in the past, that's been simply due to translation mistakes. That might not be the case here. In the latest downloadable content for Black Ops II, the in-game Japanese is both strange and funny. The downloadable content features four new multiplayer maps, including "Magma", which is set in the Japanese city, Kitakyushu. The map isn't very realistic! Forget the flowing lava, there are a handful of truly odd things in the map, which are raising eyebrows and causing people to snicker on 2ch, Japan's largest web forum. Black Ops II is no stranger to odd Japanese lingo. Most glaring is above. In Japan, "〒" is the symbol for the post office (it's also used to write zip codes). In Black Ops II, instead of "〒", the Magma map has "テ", which is the katakana symbol for "te". This is like using the letter "S" instead of the "$" symbol. Bit of history: The "〒" symbol is well over a hundred years old. Originally, the post office symbol was going to be a "T" or "テ" (te). Both were short for the Teishinshou (逓信省), which controlled the post office until 1949 when it was dissolved. The now famous 〒 mark was selected instead. In Black Ops II, it's unclear if this is an error or on purpose. As mentioned above, the map isn't exactly a realistic rendering of Japan! Yesterday, Kotaku contacted Activision about this discrepancy, but did not hear back before publication. There are other oddities, too. For example, elsewhere in the same map, there is a sushi sign that reads, "Get 10 percent off if the volcano erupts!" The sign also adds that saying "te" can get you one plate of sushi free. So maybe "te" (テ) is a gag? Seems that way. There are a few more in-game jokes, like the above sign that reads, "Hon-maguma" (本まぐま). It's a word play on "honmaguro" (本マグロ), or bluefin tuna belly. To extend the pun even further, "maguma" sounds somewhat like "maguro", which would tie into the sushi jokes. In Japanese, "maguma" (マグマ) means "magma", which is the map's name. There are other odd signs dotted throughout the map, such as this one for a 600 km/h "Magma Superliner": The poster's catchphrase might be odd to Japanese speakers. The way it's written (だから北九州、いこう or "Therefore, let's go to Kitakyushu") seems somewhat jarring to some online in Japan. Though, one commenter pointed out that it could be a parody of a domestic tourism campaign for Kyoto. Many people in Japan seem amused by the Japanese in this Black Ops II map. Some think these are more Call of Duty translation mistakes. Others think these are parodies. One commenter summed it up best: "The Japanese is strange, but funny." 『CoD：ブラックオプス2』の新マップに北九州登場！日本語が凄いことになっててワロタｗｗｗｗｗｗ [はちま起稿] Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.

I can’t confess to having played much Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (I’m all Call-of-Duty-ed out, although I actually enjoyed BLOPS 1 well enough), but I have to applaud it for occasionally going a bit off the script. Case in point: while the main story was, of course, mostly a near-future/past military techno-stravasplosion, upcoming DLC Mob of the Dead is, well, exactly what it sounds like. The co-op campaign stars four old-timey mobsters attempting to break out of Alcatraz and also there are zombies for some reason. And naturally, there’s heaps of Hollywood voice talent involved because Call of Duty. Sure, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon (and maybe even Assassin’s Creed III: WASHINGFACE) probably has it beat for sheer zaniness, but I certainly can’t knock Treyarch for reining in its horse-based warcrimes for a bit of the good old-fashioned organized kind. Hilariously elaborate trailer after the break.

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No One Lives Forever was basically the greatest. This is an incontrovertible truth of the universe. The unabashedly groovy stealth shooter (and its sequel; though not blah blah blam blam spin-off Contract J.A.C.K) was equal parts silly and smart, with a peeling back of the proverbial weaponized banana peel yielding everything from lowbrow stereotypes to startlingly nuanced dissections of sexism and the criminal mind. Also, it had the best phonetic title acronym ever. NOLF. Just say that out loud. Isn’t it wonderful? It’s like the yelp a dog would make if its nose were being pinched by an enraged yet largely harmless lobster. But anyway, point being, wouldn’t it be great if we could somehow get another from somebody? Please? Well, happily, there appear to be at least a couple interested parties. Problem is, Cate Archer’s performed a disappearing act so formidable that even the likes of the maniacal *lightning crackles* Activision Corp can’t track her down.

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I’ll admit, I’m rather bemused by the desire for more King’s Quest. It seems that everyone else has far more affection for the series than I ever mustered, far preferring the runs of Police Quest, Space Quest and Quest For Glory. I’d throw money at a Police Quest Kickstarter so hard it’d fall over backward. But reviving King’s Quest is clearly the dream for many, and until recently, was a dream of Telltale’s.

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If you've ever wondered what it'd be like to have a bacon gun, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 solves that mystery with the personalization pack. The downloadable content is available now on Xbox 360 and is scheduled for release April 12 on PS3 and PC.

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Also, wow. NVIDIA aren’t the only ones doing remarkable things with videogame faces – Activision have their own take on a very similar real-time rendering concept – and indeed using the same bald, parfait-obsessed character. This is apparently all done on current hardare – a GeForce 680 can muster it at 120FPS, they say, although obviously that’s without anything else being rendered. More impressively, Activision R&D are demonstrating this face-sim at GDC, using a two-year-old laptop, whereas NVIDIA talked about their own tech needing a GeForce titan.

You, however, can only watch this surprising video. I should warn you that the phrase ‘frozen fruit’ may take on faintly nightmarish associations for the rest of your natural life.(more…)

After Blizzard announced that Diablo 3 was coming to PlayStation 3, many of us may have wondered just what it looked like in motion. As it turns out, it looks an awful lot like Diablo 3.

Readers! I have a joke for you. What’s green, has four shells, and lives in the sewer with a big rat thing? And also knows ninjutsu and orders pizza? The answer is… wait! This isn’t a joke book. It’s my diary from 1989. I thought all the punchlines were worryingly personal. How did a joke book know about my imaginary butler, Pierce Craigson? It turns out back then I was really into the Turtles, and imagined myself to be the fifth crime-fighting green thing. I was “Indiana Jones Turtle”, used a whip, and had some rather iffy ideas about April O’Neal. I was clearly an unimaginative idiot. Anyway, ten year-old me and thirty something (ahem) me both agree that the footage of the upcoming TMNT: Out Of The Shadows looks surprisingly good. Ooh, we can pretend we’re all going in to the sewers. Follow me down.(more…)

When we became aware of The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct opportunity with Activision and AMC, we leapt on it. We devised a first-person survival-horror strategy approach and pitched it. Our game was planned as a labor of love: an endeavor to create a relatively intimate The Walking Dead game experience for fans like us… as well as players new to the series who were looking for a different type of zombie game. Our goal was to create an authentic and compelling experience worthy of the name.

Since then, of course, Telltale has released all the amazing episodes of their deserved Game of the Year, and AMC’s series has consistently shattered broadcast television records! So while ‘pressure’ may be an understatement, we’ve stayed the course. And Activision and AMC have been steadfast, wonderful partners in us making the game we set out to make in the first place: a new type of zombie game experience for players that want to take on The Walking Dead’s world for a while!

Here are some of the lessons the team learned while developing The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, which is out today on PS3!

I was skeptical, but I learned that you can create a game that uses one fundamental type of enemy and still maintains challenge, intensity, and intrigue throughout. There are no super-zombies or acid-spitter zombies in The Walking Dead universe, but we found that by adding lots of behavioral and physical variations within the accepted Walker ‘spectrum’, we were able to keep players scared and surprised throughout the game. –Russell Mirabelli, Lead Programmer I learned that smashing zombie skulls sounds alot like smashing various fruits and veggies. It gave us some great audio for the sound department. The lingering fruit-salad fragrance in the studio was an added bonus. –Brian Fieser, Lead Sound Designer

I learned, or relearned, that you simply cannot overestimate the value of a headline actor that gets the material, is excited about the game, and brings their own expertise to the character. As Norman Reedus and Michael Rooker have been credited multiple times with shaping the characters of Daryl and Merle Dixon — the only major characters that don’t appear in Mr. Kirkman’s comics. These two know those characters as well as anyone: what they would and wouldn’t do, what they would and wouldn’t say, and were incredibly generous in sharing that with us. In terms of authenticity, what higher authority is there? –Drew Haworth, Creative Director

Well-defined parameters work really well to help bring out creative solutions to problems. For example, one of Survival Instinct’s points of focus is on replayability, rather than a single static campaign where you see everything the first time you play. So that helped inspire elements like the Travel System and its unpredictable Road Events, catering to unique playstyles and results based on player’s weapon loadouts, flexible and dynamic Walker AI, and branching paths on the Georgia map. –Jason Alexander, Primary Level Designer Walkers don’t wear shorts. You’d think they might, in Georgia, but no. Long pants, maybe a nice skirt. We learned that fact from Greg Nicotero. –Robert St. Aubin, Concept Artist

A key lesson for me during the course of development was to see the importance of Daryl’s crossbow. Our initial builds only allowed melee weapons and firearms, so there was no real way to kill a walker from a distance without drawing the entire street to your location. When TRI introduced the crossbow, it opened up all kinds of possibilities in strategically pacifying an area of walkers. Add the ability to reuse ammo and we have a great candidate for the ultimate zombie weapon. If you gave me a choice between Daryl’s crossbow and two bolts, or an assault rifle with a full 30 round clip. I’ll take the crossbow every time! –Matt Hohl, Activision Producer One thing I learned through extensive hours of playing The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct is to always, always CLOSE DOORS BEHIND YOU! It seems like something so innocuous that it wouldn’t be a big deal, but trust me: it is. I can’t count the number of times where I get into an altercation in a room that only had one or two walkers in it, only to have a flood of them hear the noise and pour out of the door that I haplessly left open behind me (d’oh). This is especially significant when you’re entering a building since the dead pretty much run rampant in the streets — an open door might as well be a neon sign inviting them in after you. Metal doors are the best since the walkers can’t break through them, but even those flimsy wooden doors are enough to delay the herd and buy you a few precious seconds to GTFO. So, for heaven’s sake, shut the dang door on your way in and out! –Dino Verano, Activision Associate Producer

If you didn’t preorder the game, don’t worry, The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct will be getting a DLC pack containing a Herd mode and backpack full of new weapons on April 18th!

In a new Mail Sack blog post, developer Bungie has responded to concerns about its always-on requirement for Destiny, the studio's upcoming multi-platform shooter. The developer says it's not worried about a SimCity-style server outage for Destiny when "the massive onslaught of players" arrive on launch day because it's dealt with high-demand in the past.

"This isn't our first rodeo," the post reads. "Bungie is no stranger to anxious mobs of players who rush home after a midnight launch and put our best-laid plans to the test." Bungie says it plans to "focus on some less frightening but equally important challenges" for now, worrying about release day problems at a later time.
Elsewhere in the Sack, there's also a question about whether or not the alien races will be playable in the game, and Bungie mysteriously teases that it's "barely scratched the surface on the character and customization options." When graphic designer John Stvan is asked to tell a tale about playing the game, he says he once "loaded a build, shot a gun, killed a dude." Sounds riveting!

#callofduty Beginning Wednesday, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will begin offering "personal customizations" on the Xbox 360, the game's community manager said this morning. The items don't affect gameplay—they're items like weapon skins, targeting reticles, and player calling cards. Moreover, the multiplayer map Nuketown 2025, originally a preorder incentive back in November, will be made available for free. More »

#deadpool Deadpool is my second-favorite Marvel Comics character. Seeing him come to life (courtesy of IGN) at the hands of the studio that brought me two stellar Transformers games should be a dream come true, but the more I see of the Deadpool game the more I realize the character I fell in love with back in 1997 has spiraled out of control. More »

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows will shell shock digital distribution networks this summer. DigitalSpy posted the trailer for the downloadable game coming to PC, PSN and XBLA in several months. The game will offer four-player online co-op where players can become any of the heroes in a half shell.

TMNT: Out of the Shadows appears to be the first in a three-game deal between Activision and Nickelodeon. The turtles used to be in the hands of Ubisoft, but that relationship seems to have splintered.

The entire Call of Duty Xbox 360 line-up launches a charge of concessions in today's Games on Demand sale - well, almost. The very first CoD is MIA, mainly because it's on XBLA and not GoD, which seems like reason enough for conscription to us.

Calls of Duties 2 and 3, Modern Warfares 1 and 2, and World at War are all down to $9.99, while Black Ops makes a 60 percent drop to $19.99. 2011's Modern Warfare 3 comes in at $29.99, and last of all is Black Ops 2 with $10 off at $49.99.

And don't forget, a heap of other Games on Demand are staying discounted until March 4, each one priced at $4.99 or less.

Diablo 3 will not require a constant internet connection for local multiplayer on the PS3 or PS4, Blizzard production director John Hight has confirmed. "You can have four people on the same screen - no split-screen, we just zoom the camera out. Or if you're offline," he tells Geoff Keighley on GameTrailers.

It's around the two-minute mark where Hight goes into the changes to Diablo 3 for PS3 and PS4 in the episode above - specifically, the talk about the camera and local multiplayer. Hight reveals there's also a new evasion ability to help players quickly escape large encounters.

Diablo 3 launched on the PC and Mac OSX with a required connection to Blizzard's Battle.net service, even when playing single-player. Blizzard previously revealed the PS3/PS4 versions will have a different UI and feature all major PC updates.

StarCraft 2 community manager Kevin Johnson produced the above video, a quick rundown of some major additions to the StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm eSports suite and multiplayer experience. Chief among these new features is "Take Command," which allows you to jump into a replay and take over as any player - you can rewrite history, prove your strategy yields better results or relive the conquests of your favorite eSports match-up.

You can now also recover games. No matter how your game ended prematurely, you can round up all the original players and pick up from where you left off. Or not, there's an option to set the start time in the recovered game to whenever you want.

Additionally, players can watch replays in a group, and individual units now benefit from new physics - the example above shows a cadre of Terran soldiers being torn apart in rather animated fashion as they fight off some Zerg. Remember, kids: the only good bug is a dead bug.

StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm launches on March 21, 2013. The game's ongoing public beta is slated to end on March 1.

Activision Publishing's Eric Hirshberg took the stage during today's PlayStation 2013 event to announce that the Bungie-developed Destiny will make its way to the PlayStation 4.

Bungie's Jason Jones also noted that the PS3 and PS4 versions of Destiny will be coming at the same time, though there's still no specific date after Bungie's own reveal last week. Bungie has exclusive content planned for Sony's platforms, though it's unclear which one the content would be exclusive to.

Acitivision Publishing's Eric Hirshberg took the stage during today's PlayStation 2013 event to announce that the Bungie-developed game, Destiny, will make its way to the PlayStation 4.

Bungie's Jason Jones also noted that the PS3 and PS4 versions of Destiny would be available simultaneously at the game's launch. Bungie has exclusive content planned for Sony's platforms, though it's unclear which one the content would be exclusive to.

Activision has promised to stop making terrible games. Well, okay, that’s not quite true. But they’ve said to Kotaku that this year they’re planning to release “fewer games based on license properties”, which is publisher speak for, “Good lord, that James Bond game was terrible.” This coincides with the announcement that the company is laying off 30 employees, thought to affect CODBLOPS developers, Treyarch.

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Despite being available for pre-order at major retailers, Bungie's recently revealed Destiny isn't going to launch in this calendar year. An Activision Blizzard press release sent out today noted: "Activision has not included [Destiny's] launch in its 2013 outlook and there should be no speculation or expectation of a different result."

Oh, and in case there's any confusion about calendar '13 versus fiscal year, Activision Blizzard is one of the few companies that has its fiscal year synched with the planet's trip around the sun.

The 2010 contract between Activision and Bungie regarding Destiny tentatively scheduled four retail games for the fall of 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. There are also four "comet releases" planned for the years between, which are speculated to be substantial add-ons to the prior year's offerings.

After a day of Bungie-related content, we present you with an easy-to-use recap of today's Destiny reveal. As an added bonus, we've developed a lengthy video feature - as seen above - with associate editor David Hinkle and myself discussing the reveal and answering as many questions as we could. If you prefer to watch your previews, Joystiq has you covered.

• [PREVIEW] Destiny in the stars: Exploring Bungie's 10-year plan
• [FEATURE] Destiny: What we know now vs details in the Activison-Bungie contract
• [NEWS] Bungie reveals 'Destiny': an always-on, persistent world adventure