Earlier this month, Activision announced seven new songs that will appear in Guitar Hero: Rock the 80s. Since then, they've changed the name of the game to Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s, and added seven new songs to the playlist: 

• 18 and Life (as made famous by Skid Row)
• Bathroom Wall (as made famous by Faster Pussycat)
• Lonely is the Night (as made famous by Billy Squier)
• Nothing But a Good Time (as made famous by Poison)
• Play With Me (as made famous by Extreme)
• Shaken (as made famous by Eddie Money)
• Synchronicity II (as made famous by Police)

They also released the bitchin' cover art seen to the right. Activision and RedOctane should start a ritual where they host a concert each time a new Guitar Hero game is released, where they don't even invite rockstars, just let the best Guitar Hero players live out their dorky dreams up on stage. In another month Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s will be in stores on July 17th for the PS2.

Glu Mobile Games just announced that they'll be partnering with Activision to develop a Call of Duty game for mobile phones:

"Through this exclusive agreement, Glu will create a future title in the critically-acclaimed Call of Duty franchise, giving gamers around the world a way to experience Call of Duty directly on their mobile phones. We’re thrilled to engage in an exclusive partnership with Activision and bring a new Call of Duty title to mobile gamers worldwide,” said Greg Ballard, chief executive officer and president, Glu. “The Call of Duty franchise has brought new meaning and innovation to the first person action category and is a great addition to Glu’s portfolio of award-winning games.”

Either Square Enix predicted the future shift in the game industry would lead to the micro mobile market (which is already considerably large over in Japan), or everyone is just blindly following Square Enix and hoping that they're right. Last I checked though, the majority of gamers are guys, and the majority of guys hate being on the phone. It would be hard for me to make a list of even ten game series I'd be willing to follow to mobile phones. Nintendo and Sony made handhelds for a reason, and until phones overcome handhelds (N-Gage, huh?), I won't be buying many mobile games.

Infinity Ward has been working on Call of Duty 4 ever since they finished up Call of Duty 2, letting Treyarch pump out Call of Duty 3. Now that we've all fulfilled our healthy dose of Nazi deaths, Activision and Infinity Ward have announced that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare will be revealed this Saturday, April 28th, during ESPN's broadcasting of the NFL 2007 Draft. Because that makes sense . . . Tune in at 10 A.M. PDT (1 P.M. EDT) and you'll be forced to wait several hours before a commercial randomly appears showing a teaser trailer for the new war game. Will it be about Iraq, or a futuristic World War III scenario, or something else? Infinity Ward isn't saying, and they won't even tell us which platforms it will be released for yet.

Long time The Last Boss readers know that all we've been told so far about the game, is that you can shoot the enemies' heads into a lot of tiny pieces, which makes me not care so much about the setting. It'll be interesting to see if America is even in the spotlight - a full fledged terrorist game in such a respectable series would cause quite the stir in the industry.

During an hour long Activision conference yesterday, CEO Mike Griffith mentioned that Guitar Hero would be coming to the Wii eventually:

The key difference in our strategy versus the prior cycle, is that in addition to full support on Sony and Microsoft platforms, we will aggressively target the Nintendo platforms consistent with our multi-platform strategy and Nintendo’s expected growth. In fiscal 2008, we will double our offerings on the DS and the Wii, including Spider-Man, Shrek, Transformers, and Guitar Hero.

Could be an error in his speech, but I don't see why Guitar Hero wouldn't spread further. With Neversoft now responsible for the series it's just a matter of time before they're able to pump out a new Guitar Hero (or villain) title across all consoles each year. I'm still waiting for Ocarina Hero dammit.

First MTV bought Harmonix, then the series was given to Neversoft. But the percussion plot has thickened. GameSpot discovered that we can expect much more than just a Guitar Hero 3 game. Actually, we might not even get another Guitar Hero game, the US Patent and Trademark Office Web site shows that Activision is applying for the rights to the video game names "Guitar Villain" and "Drum Villain." The trademark applications were filed on November 29th and December 1st last year, and are very specific too, stating that "they are intended to cover computer game software in a variety of forms, including downloadable games, games sold together with controllers, arcade games, and games sold with electronic toy guitars." It even mentions leaderboards for high scores - this is awesome!

Although nothing is guaranteed, and GameSpot notes that after Activision acquired RedOctane last year, they also filed for trademarks on Keyboard Hero, Drum Hero, and Band Hero, so don't get too excited. I don't see why they wouldn't push this series as far as it can go though, there's plenty of demand for more Guitar Hero games, and as long as they don't actually release a $600 Band Hero game that ships to your house in two days by semi-truck, then I'm all for the Tony Hawk styled murdering of the series with yearly installments until we're sick of it.

I think the biggest part of this announcement is actually the part about arcade games. Activision has to realize that Dance Dance Revolution arcade games have reached a high level of fame - why not offer a new music arcade game that costs 1000 times more than an Xbox 360 game to make, but gains its price back in quarters in just months? It would be bold, the arcade business hasn't been booming for a long time, but I can see a lot of people willing to play Guitar Hero Arcades. Can you imagine if they could convince schools to put them in choir rooms? Even I draw the line at playing DDR in public, but not many people hesitate to pick up a Guitar Hero controller at a Best Buy booth. I really hope Activision and Neversoft run far with the series.

Activision has announced that the Xbox 360 version of Gitar Hero II will be launched worldwide this March. If you have yet to play the game, then you really don't know what you're missing. And if you're already a Guitar Hero fan and March is too long to wait, then you should join Gamestop's Guitar Hero 2 tournament. Also, a 1980's edition of the game might be on the way as well.

Hey reader Bomber, ask and you shall receive apparently. Activision just announced that the 360 version of Call of Duty 3 will get some new multiplayer maps after the holidays. There will be six new maps total, with one being free to download and taking place in Port Royal de Champs, but the other five maps will come together in one "Valor Map Pack" that will cost you 800 Microsoft points total (about $10), and all take place in France. Is it worth it to you though? I'll pass - six maps shouldn't be worth a sixth of the game's total cost. Although, when I've got friends over and we want to play something new then 10 bucks suddently doesn't seem like much money between five drunken friends. Tough call.