(Update) Motion Controller named “Playstation Move” – available in the fall.

(Update 2) Move will have a few different bundles. A stand alone controller option. A Move controller, EyeToy and game bundle, and a controller, Eye, game and PS3 console bundle. Pricing not announced yet – but the EyeToy and controller bundle should be under $100.

After the chaos between Activision and Call of Duty developers Infinity Ward, Jason West and Vince Zampella, former heads and founders of Infinity Ward have filed suit against Activision over claims of unpaid “substantial royalty payments.”

Earlier this week, West and Zampella were fired from their positions as studio heads by Activision, citing an investigation of insubordination.

However, in the court documents as uncovered by Kotaku, the duo’s attorney claims elsewise.

“Activision has refused to honor the terms of its agreements and is intentionally flouting the fundamental public policy of this State (California) that employers must pay their employees what they have rightfully earned,” said the pair’s attorney, Robert Schwartz, of law firm O’Melveny & Myers. “Instead of thanking, lauding, or just plain paying Jason and Vince for giving Activision the most successful entertainment product ever offered to the public, last month Activision hired lawyers to conduct a pretextual ‘investigation’ into unstated and unsubstantiated charges of ‘insubordination’ and ‘breach of fiduciary duty,’ which then became the grounds for their termination on Monday, March 1st.”

It’s quite clear that West and Zampella aren’t going to take this lying down. In addition to seeking the unpaid royalties, they are also looking to obtain the contractual rights granted to them by Activision to control Modern Warfare-branded games. It is yet unclear whether it’s to make more Modern Warfare-branded games without Activision, or simply to control the name so games can’t be made without their input remains to be seen.

“We were shocked by Activision’s decision to terminate our contract,” Jason West told Kotaku. “We poured our heart and soul into that company, building not only a world class development studio, but assembling a team we’ve been proud to work with for nearly a decade. We think the work we’ve done speaks for itself.”

“After all we have given to Activision, we shouldn’t have to sue to get paid”, Zampella adds.

Update: Activision has responded to the lawsuit, via an emailed statement.

“Activision is disappointed that Mr. Zampella and Mr. West have chosen to file a lawsuit, and believes their claims are meritless. Over eight years, Activision shareholders provided thexe executives with the capital they needed to start Infinity Ward, as well as the financial support, resources and creative independence that helped them flourish and achieve enormous professional success and personal wealth.

“In return, Activision legitimately expected them to honor their obligations to Activision, just like any other executives who hold positions of trust in the company. While the company showed enormous patience, it firmly believes that its decision was justified based on their course of conduct and actions. Activision remains committed to the Call of Duty franchise, which it owns, and will continue to produce exciting and innovative games for its millions of fans.”

According to an internal memo at Activision reported by G4TV who originally broke the story on Ward & Zampella leaving Infinity Ward, Activision is seeking documentation of West and Zampella’s alleged communication with other publishers, specifically naming Electronic Arts as one such possible company.

Today Square-Enix announced that developer Crystal Dynamics is creating a new downloadable Tomb Raider game, but here’s the catch: It won’t be called “Tomb Raider.”

The game is instead called “Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light.” According to Crystal Dynamic’s Darrell Gallagher, it will be “something completely new and very different to what people might be expecting.”

It’ll be released sometime later this year with its first public showing at GDC next week. We’ll bring you more information as it’s revealed!

Here you can see the side-by-side comparison of the old and the new art, as highlighted by the folks at Aeropause.

And below you can see the final artwork as released by big N.

It isn’t as if Nintendo hasn’t always been big on downplaying sexuality in most of their titles, so this isn’t so much surprising as it is amusing to catch in action.

New details have emerged thanks to a Gamestop product description. We’re looking at 2 campaigns – 1 a solo player experience and the 2nd is a completely different Co-Op experience. Portal puzzles with TWO PLAYERS?? Sign me up now!

Taken from Gamestop:

“Coming this holiday. Portal 2 is the sequel to 2007’s Game of the Year and draws from the award-winning formula of innovative game play, story, and music that earned the original over 70 industry accolades. Features single and multiplayer co-op modes. The single-player portion of Portal 2 introduces a cast of dynamic new characters, a host of fresh puzzle elements, and a much larger set of devious test chambers. Players will explore never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs and be reunited with GLaDOS, the occasionally murderous computer companion who guided them through the original game. The game’s two-player cooperative mode features its own entirely separate campaign with a unique story, test chambers, and two new player characters. This new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals. Success will require them to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively.”

UPDATE:

Portal 2 has been announced!

Next months cover for gaming magazine Game Informer was revealed today on their website – revealing that indeed all the hoopla around these Portal updates has been about Portal 2.

According to release information from Steam – the game which is due to be released this holiday season as a stand alone title will feature a new antagonist named Cave Johnson, whom Portal 1 players will remember is the deceased President of Apeture Science – the corporation that was using you as a test subject in the first game. How will a dead man become your enemy? Simple – his mind was transferred into a computer, an act that has slowly driven the man insane.

From leaked images and speculation it appears that this new game will take players out of the confines of Apeture Science and into the outside world. No word if Glados will make a return – but most gamers know that the homicidal machine is “still alive”.

More information should be available next week at GDC – so be sure to stay tuned.

(Original Story follows)

Weird things are happening in the PC version of Portal as Valve has been adding new updates for the past couple of days.

Yesterday a new achievement was added called “Transmission Received” and idle gamers with a bit of time on their hands dug through the new files and found some odd morse code files that once translated turned into a slew of hidden images.

Today the game was updated once again with what seemed to be nothing much – but it was later discovered that Valve has added a completely new ending to the game.

WARNING SPOILERS – WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK

So what does this all mean? Is this Valves way of announcing Portal 2? Taking an unheard of route of announcing their next game in their current title?

Stay tuned as more information is bound to be coming soon.

This includes Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman in an Apple white HEV suit (with Apple log0), TF2 and Portal’s turrets making with the Mac/PC ad, TF2’s Heavy in an iPod-like Sandvich ad, and Left 4 Dead’s Francis on thinking “different.”

It’s not  yet clear whether this is simply teasing Steam for Mac, or if Valve is actually going to add OS X support for its Source engine games.

Perhaps we’ll find out next week at Game Developer’s Conference, where Valve founder Gabe Newell will be receiving the GDChoice “Pioneer Award.” Stay tuned for more details, but in the meantime enjoy the pictures in the gallery!

A headline at Square-Enix Music Online, a fansite, notes that Square-Enix has voted to disband their in-house music team. The six affected composers on the team are reportedly out of a job, including:

• Masashi Hamauzu (Final Fantasy XIII, Dirge of Cerberus, SaGa Frontier II)
• Junya Nakano (Final Fantasy X, Threads of Fate, Musashi: Samurai Legend)
• Tsuyoshi Sekito (The Last Remnant, Dawn of Mana, Founder of The Black Mages)
• Naoshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy Gaiden, Founder of The Star Onions)
• Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Chocobo Series, Code Age Commanders)
• Takeharu Ishimoto (The World Ends With You, Dissidia, Compilation of Final Fantasy VII)

These six were employed by S-E for up to 15 years, and it’s unknown what their next moves are. S-E Music Online says that most of Square-Enix Music’s staff intend to retire, but many are looking to continue careers in gaming.

Square-Enix Music Online also notes that the company will rely on independent contractors for their music needs from here on out, which is similar to how Western developers operate, seemingly another overture toward Square-Enix’s bid to Westernize their development processes and designs.

Today publisher Activision announced new “strategic plans” for the Call of Duty franchise, including a new developer and the departure of key Infinity Ward staff members.

As we’ve reported on earlier, former studio heads Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward, officially. Activision announced it will form a “dedicated [Call of Duty] business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world.”

The publisher expanded on their intentions, with plants to grow the brand “with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business unit” with a focus on “high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models.”

Leading this business unit will be Philip Earl, currently the head of Activision Publishing’s Asia Pacific region. Steve Pearce, Activision Publishing’s CTO and Steve Ackrich, head of production, will take over Infinity Ward on a temporary basis.

In 2011, Activision plans on releasing a new game in the Call of Duty series from an unspecified developer. It also announced another Call of Duty game from new developer Sledgehammer Games, the new studio formed by former Dead Space creative leads Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The Sledgehammer Games title is meant to “extent the franchise into the action-adventure genre.”

Activision Publishing also announced the company is “in discussions with a select number of partners to bring the franchise to Asia, one of the fasted growing regions for online multiplayer games in the world.”

It’s still unclear what precipitated the drastic change. A recent report by Activision noted that only three franchises, one of which being Call of Duty, made up nearly two thirds of its entire net revenue, a situation which demands diversification.

It’s also said that former studio heads West and Zampella don’t have a reputation for being easy to work with. In an analysis piece at Gamasutra, it’s noted that sources have said the pair first fell out of favor with Activision CEO Bobby Kotick when they refused to let Activision follow up on Modern Warfare 2 milestones.

Other sources suggest that the pair demanded a larger share of profits in return for developing Modern Warfare 3 at Activision’s call, instead of along with Infinity Ward’s original plans which were to work on a new IP before the anticipated sequel.

It’s been incorrectly reported that Activision has been behind in royalty payments to Infinity Ward, as sources have confirmed that Activision routinely pays royalties at the end of the quarter in which they’re earned – beginning next month in this case.

Activision also has a history of flexing its legal muscle to get what it wants, such as in the issue over Brütal Legend with EA, and over DJ Hero with Scratch developer 7 Studios.

As it happens, the full story has yet to emerge, and we will bring it to you as details come to the surface. In the meantime the only real clear detail is that the issue is a reminder that the game industry is a business, and as Gamasutra writer Leigh Alexander puts it, “when success is high, the stakes get higher.”

According to an interview with website UGO, God of War III director Stig Asmussen wanted to cut the topless ladies from Kratos’ latest outing. Asmussen asserted they needed a purpose beyond eye candy.

“It was more a debate between me and several of the story writers,” said Asmussen. “I was like, ‘I’d rather not have it in there at all.’”

In previous games, the scenes were used to establish Kratos as a “man’s man” who got what he wanted. Feeling as if the team would take heat whether they included the nudity or if they didn’t, Asmussen decided that they’d keep the scenes but with added gravity.

“We make it more than it’s been in the past, but we also give it more of a purpose,” said Asmussen. “It’s not just you going in there, finding some corner and having sex with somebody. It’s something that guides you through the story. You get information and more than just a fluff moment.”

So as it happens, the new mini-game apparently involves Kratos, “a goddess and a couple other people.”

[Source] UGO

So SemiSecret, the developers of the surprise Flash and now iPhone hit Canabalt had a game put together before that, by the name of Gravity Hook – described as a mix of Bionic Commando and Peggle.

Well, it’s being remade for the iPhone, but you can play it right now in Flash.

It’s been overhauled in every way from graphics to sound to controls, resulting in a better looking, better sounding, easier to play experience, and it’s just as addicting as Canabalt.

It’s got a release date of “soon,” but in the meantime you can play it all you want online. Check it out!