Ownership
Publisher and Owner - Activision for Call Of Duty
Developer - Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games
They develop games on a rotational basis though Treyarch generally develops the Black ops series.
Franchising
Activision also franchises the Call of Duty brand to a number of different companies.
Merchandise such as action figures, comic books and games are sold by other people but a portion of the money goes back to Activision.
Marketing and Distribution
For this year’s CoD title “WWII,” Activision is placing more focus on billboards rather than popular digital platforms. This is because the first three CoDtitles were set in WWII, and news had already leaked that the new game would be set in the same time period. Billboards also make fans feel more physically connected and involved on the ground with the CoD community, Harvey said.
While Harvey declined to give out many details about the “WWII” campaign in order to preserve the surprise element, this is what the marketing framework roughly looks like: On Wednesday, Michael Condreyand Glen Schofield, the founders and co-studio heads of Sledgehammer Games who developed “WWII,” and Hirshberg will reveal the new game and trailer in a live stream on CallofDuty.com, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. On the same day, five billboards will go up in New York City, Los Angeles, London and Paris.(Above the line advertising) There are unique codes hidden on the billboards for fans to find. The gamers can then piece the codes together and unlock them on a website. When the codes are cracked, gamers can unlock exclusive content related to “WWII” that cannot be obtained anywhere else.
Above the line advertising - Traditional advertising: BFI Imax, London
Audience & Regulation
Convergence:
Consoles = Black box device because it has loads of things you can do.
App - Stats / friends
Streaming power has increased and this has meant the quality has gone up.
Integration of video and audio calling. Before these were all separate devices but now it is all in one, it means you have a much more social experience.
Much easier to do updates for games as in the past you had to physically get the update, however now you can simply download it quickly. You can do live gaming with virtually anyone. No more disks required.
The PS5 Has a No disk version
League tables for what games are good / tournaments online have rankings.
Advancement of consoles
Youtubers and social media influencers have allowed for things such as cheats, promotion, competitions.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33960075 - BBC Article on violence
1) Pan European Game information
2) PEGI regulate the age rating for games, for example PEGI 16 Would be suitable for ages 16+
3) 3, 7, 12, 16, 18 are the PEGI regulation ages.
4) A problem of violence in the ratings is that it is subjective, some people may find one of the ratings to not be correct as something they see might be violent to them and inappropriate.
5) Propp Theory, Male Gaze, Blumer and Katz, Hypodermic syringe theory, Todorov theory.
Do Video Games make people violent?
More than 200 academics of science are saying they do not agree about the new research saying violent video games = Aggressive behaviour.
American Psychological Association came up with the research,
The way they researched it is by reviewed 100's of studies and papers from 2005 - 2013
"Violent video games did contribute" - This means either that it clearly shows it has an impact. (NEGATIVE) But it also shows there are other factors (POSITIVE) .
A link to aggressive behaviour and anti social behaviour.
These 200 academics however was said to be flawed as it was not peer reviewed. (For academics work to be accepted it needs to be reviewed by peers to make sure its correct, if it isn't checked it isn't correct)
Youth violence in the USA is at a 40 year low.
Game violence is going up but youth violence is at a 40 year low so they contradict each other.
Theories:
Uses and grats - Active / passive audiences
Hypodermic needle
Desensitisation
Moral Panic
Who is black ops 4 targeted for?
G R A C E
G - Male
R - White
A - 13 - 25 in realism (Meant by PEGI to be 18 - 35)
C - B,C1,C2
E - White
PEGI: Operating Procedure for ratings.
Black ops 2 PEGI rating is 18
The reason it is 18 is because there is use of violence bad intent, murder as well as language abuse and race abuse, drug abuse and more.
Gameplay
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