More than two years after Infinity Ward founders Jason West and Vince Zampella first sued Activision, their case is finally set to head to trial on May 29. But before the case can be heard, documents have been released which shed light on some unsavory moves Activision made prior to firing West and Zampella in March 2010.

Prior to the start of the case, there have been some developments of note. Electronic Arts, the publisher of the game being produced by West and Zampella's new studio, Respawn Entertainment, was added in late 2010 as a defendant in Activision's counter-suit; Activision alleged EA conspired with the former IW heads to derail the Call of Duty franchise, among other things. Bloomberg reported yesterday the two publishers have reached a settlement, details of which were not made available.

Downloadable content has been one of the most popular trends this generation. Last year Activision tried to find out if a market exists for a subscription service for a non-MMO with Call of Duty Elite. As the latest numbers peg Elite subscriptions -- which cost $50 a year, or were free with Modern Warfare 3's Hardened Edition -- at 2 million, an audience does apparently exist that is willing to fork over money for more than just a la carte DLC. Electronic Arts is now rumored to be preparing a premium service for the Battlefield series which is said to be launching in only a few weeks' time.

Battlefieldo reported on Friday a "very reliable source" had shared with it a timeline for the forthcoming updates Battlefield 3 is receiving. In addition to a mention of a fifth expansion pack (beyond the already released Back to Karkand and the previously announced Close Quarters, Armored Kill, and End Game) is a strategy guide being released in June and, more notably, something called Battlefield Premium.

After Bethesda's open-world fantasy RPG Skyrim sold 10 million units, no one could blame Capcom for hoping there's room for more than just one fantasy RPG title about slaying dragons and saving the world. Dragon's Dogma represents a three year development cycle for the Japanese studio, with more than 150 developers plugging away at its design. With the game representing such a large investment, a lot is riding on how well Dragon's Dogma will fare at retail.

The ability to rent dedicated Battlefield 3 servers for use in the console versions of the game was a welcome addition back in March. Unfortunately, playing on these servers appears to have become the only option for playing online multiplayer, a development which understandably has fans of the game frustrated with Electronic Arts and DICE.

As outlined in this thread on the official Battlefield forums, many players are upset that EA- and DICE-operated servers have almost entirely disappeared. These servers were the only ones available prior to the rent-a-server option becoming available on consoles, and were to be complemented nicely by the new custom servers which allow for their owners to establish communities of sorts with rules, options, and admins they decide.

Feature

Re-Examining the Role of Digital Death

How death has evolved over the four decades of gaming.

By: Nickolai Adkins May 9, 2012

There is possibly no greater representative icon for the entirety of gaming than that of the game over screen. That negative void with stolid letters painted cryptically across; there is a certain mysticism surrounding the screen, the dark back corners of arcade holes that once used to thrive, and the natural competition to overcome the inevitability of failure that it represents.

Bore with the medium's creation in arcade cabinets and the surrounding culture that developed after their inception, the challenge of prolonging play time and avoiding inevitable failure in death became the central function for nearly every game created to date. In the form of a barrel throwing gorilla, the simple existence of a play clock, infinite and unseen pits that trail into the unknown below the screens of any number of platformers, or even in competition between players, video games have always been a participatory form of near exclusive survival.

BioShock Infinite was among the most anticipated games scheduled for release this fall. It's still shaping up to be one of the bigger launches of the year, it's just that year will be next year. Infinite's release was officially pushed back today from its scheduled date on October 16 until February 26, 2013. The reason for this is said to be because of a goal to make it as great as can be, and while I don't doubt there is a desire to do that, there may be other factors which contributed to the decision to delay the game's release by four months.

A message to fans from developer Irrational Games' creative director, Ken Levine, was distributed to the press and posted online today. In it he claims that, since announcing the October release date in March, the team realized "that some specific tweaks and improvements will make Infinite into something even more extraordinary. Therefore, to give our talented team the time they need, we've decided to move the game's release to February 26, 2013. We wanted to let our loyal (and very patient!) fans know this as soon as possible.

E3 is now less than a month away, and Microsoft is scheduled to kick things off with its annual press conference on the morning of Monday, June 4. With E3 being a gaming-focused event and Microsoft having already made it clear there will be no talk of a new platform during it, one might expect there to be a big focus on games for the Xbox 360. As the company has shown previously -- last year especially -- it's more than happy to spend its time in the spotlight talking up the kinds of games and features hardcore gamers do not want to hear about at the expense of core games. Unfortunately for those people, this year's show is not looking like it will be much different.

The big news during last year's media briefing was the announcement of Halo 4 and, by extension, a new Halo trilogy. Other gaming highlights included Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Minecraft as a 360 exclusive, Kinect voice controls for Mass Effect 3, and Kinect Disneyland Adventures. We also got a look at the new Call of Duty (which would be having its DLC come to 360 first, though this was nothing new), Tomb Raider, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (and its Kinect functionality, along with a promise of Kinect support in all future Tom Clancy games), and a few other things.

Gaming can be an expensive hobby, particularly if you're keen on picking up games as they are released. With your typical console game going for $60 at launch and there being no shortage of quality titles to play, those costs can quickly add up, making it difficult to keep up with the latest releases. But there are more factors than merely price which can make gamers hesitant to buy games when they first come out including a perceived lack of value, eventual complete/Game of the Year edition releases, and patches which make games into better experiences for those who opt against rushing out to a midnight launch.

1UP readers on Facebook and our boards responding to a question about purchasing games at launch offered up a wide variety of reasons for why they are not keen on always being early adopters. While there were those who do still buy games as soon as they are made available, a high percentage of answers indicated there are only a limited numbers of exceptions where they are willing to do so.

The plight hovering over the crazy, over-the-top antics of any Suda51 title has been the developer's inability to find a reasonably large audience willing to support his creations wholeheartedly. With last June's EA-backed Shadows of the Damned, the shooter crowd proved less-than-keen about going to Hell to save the hero's girlfriend, even if critics claimed it may be the best game the studio ever produced (1UP didn't, admittedly). Realistically, EA never expected the title to do Call of Duty numbers, but it's never a good sign when such a hyped-up game sells only 24,000 copies upon its release.

WB Interactive is clearly hoping to cash in on pop culture's renewed interest in zombies with the release Lollipop Chainsaw this June. The title falls almost a year to the day after 2011's Shadows of the Damned; and, for better or worse, WB Interactive seems to be taking the same approach in marketing Lollipop as EA did with Shadows last year.

Every videogame console manufacturer wants its system in the hands of as many people as possible. A larger install base means more people to sell games to, making it more attractive to publishers as a platform to bring games to, and both of those things equate to making more money. And with there now being many new ways of generating revenue -- Xbox Live subscriptions, downloadable content sales, dashboard advertisements -- it's easy to see why Microsoft in particular would be keen on making the Xbox 360 as desirable of a purchase as possible.

A price cut is one way to open up the system to a new market, although there are limits to the extent the price can be dropped -- not to mention a limit to how low Microsoft wants to take the price, given that it's selling better than the competition at its current price point. The company seems to have found a way to have its cake and eat it too, so to speak. The Verge reports Microsoft will make a 4GB Xbox 360 Kinect bundle available for only $99, albeit with a catch: It carries a two-year contract with a monthly fee of $15. Included with that fee would be a two-year warranty, a two-year Xbox Live Gold membership, "and possibly some additional streaming content from cable providers or sports package providers."