This Week in GEEk

Update on Last Week’s Column

Less than 24 hours after Ubisoft released “Silent Hunter 5,” its Digital Rights Management (DRM) was cracked by a group called Skidrow. Ubisoft claimed that the cracked versions were incomplete, and according to users on shady software pirate sites, there are problems with playing some missions.

That’s still record timing, especially for a brand new DRM system, and it proves that pirates will be able to enjoy DRM-free versions of Ubisoft games while legitimate, paying consumers will be left holding the bag.

Valve Steals Hearts of PC AND Mac Users

Valve has been slowly trickling out information concerning the next “Portal” game leading up to an official announcement March 5. PC gamers with the game “Portal” installed found a curious update last week.

Gamers who replayed the 2007 title were greeted with a new game within the “Portal” main story. Radios were hidden throughout the maps for players to find, and then bring to a specific point on the map where the light would turn green and a hidden message would come through. A few of the messages were Morse code (one of which even spelled out another Morse code message phonetically. The end result was “LOL”), while others were sharp, loud indecipherable screeches.

Clever and extremely nerdy forum-goers recognized those sounds for what they were: slow-scan television signals – a process developed in the ‘50s for radio operators to broadcast images to one another. Hidden in the images was the phone number to an old-fashioned dial-up text-based BBS system.

This is why PC gamers loves Valve.

Soon Mac gamers will love Valve, as well. In the weeks leading up to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Valve has not-so-subtly hinted at the announcement of the release of their Steam digital distribution platform for Apple’s OSX.

Valve’s VP of Developer Marketing Doug Lombardi said they will be porting a number of their most popular games to OSX.

Though no specifics have been given about which games will be ported, the promotional images distributed on the Internet include images from “Left 4 Dead,” “Team Fortress 2,” “Half Life 2,” and “Portal.”

Activision Gives Security Guards a Call to Duty (Get it?)

There has also been some shocking news coming out of Activision and “Call of Duty” developers Infinity Ward.

G4 was the first to report the news March 1 that a number of security guards appeared outside Infinity Wards’ offices and refused to disclose their reason for being there.

As it turned out, Infinity Ward President Jason West and CEO Vince Zampella were both dismissed by Activision, which owns the studio.

In an SEC filing Activision turned in that day, it was revealed that the company was investigating the pair for insubordination and breach of contract.

Activision claims West and Zampella were holding meetings with rival publishers, while West and Zampella have filed a lawsuit against Activision seeking $36 million in unpaid royalties for “Modern Warfare 2,” as well as control of the “Modern Warfare” franchise.

If their lawsuit is successful, West and Zampella could put an end to the “Modern Warfare” series, or take it with them to a new studio and publisher.

Rumors abound about why exactly Activision wanted West and Zampella gone. In an analysis for Gamasutra, Leigh Alexander wrote, “Another source with knowledge of the situation tells Gamasutra that although Infinity Ward is only about 75 developers strong, Activision brass demanded layoffs at the studio anticipating a refusal — which they received, potentially opening the door for Activision to use that refusal as a way to launch a breach suit that would help it escape its contract.”

Alexander also reports that Infinity Ward’s contract with Activision would have allowed the developer to begin work on a new IP following the release of “Modern Warfare 2.” Activision, on the other hand, was eager to get another “Modern Warfare” title on shelves following the record-smashing performance of “Modern Warfare 2.” In its contract, only Infinity Ward can develop “Modern Warfare” games.

CEO Bobby Kotick is famous for his ruthless approach to video game publishing. During a 2008 conference call with shareholders, Kotick explained the reason they ditched a handful of nearly-complete games from Vivendi during their merger. They dropped games that “don’t have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises.”

Basically, if they couldn’t cheaply churn out another rehash every year, Activision wanted nothing to do with it. That’s why they now have three studios in their company working on new “Call of Duty” games.

Speaking at a Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco in 2009, Kotick famously said, “The goal that I had in bringing a lot of the packaged goods folks that we brought into Activision 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games. I think we’ve definitely been able to instill in the culture the skepticism and pessimism and fear that you should have in an economy like we’re in today.”