Games

Activision Blizzard, Inc., announced today that Call of Duty: Black Ops II has crossed the $1 billion mark in worldwide retail sales, according to Chart-Track retail customer sell-through information and internal company estimates. Illustrating the strong appeal of interactive entertainment to audiences worldwide, the game achieved this milestone in just 15 days after its launch on November 13, 2012. Last year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare3 reached $1 billion in retail sales in 16 days. The box office record set for feature films in 2009 by “Avatar” was $1 billion in 17 days.

That’s one popular franchise.

The Steam game client and download service now supports a full-screen mode called “Big Picture,” better for users who have computers hooked to a TV.

Creatorverse is a new 2D physics game and toy for iOS from the makers of Second Life.

Vectex Regeneration, a recreation of one of the 80s’ coolest home video game systems, is coming to iOS later this week.

Rhett Allain uniquely deconstructs Rovio’s latest hit game, “Bad Piggies.”

Peter Cohen takes a look at Sid Meier’s Railroads! game at Macworld.

Israel’s top anti-rocket ace was a Warcraft junkie.

The latest “Call of Duty” videogame had worldwide sales of more than $500 million in the first 24 hours of its release, a new record, game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc said on Friday.

People said the pressure was on Call of Duty after Halo 4 saw $220 million in sales on launch day. I guess Activision responded.

Peter’s talking up Mac games at the monthly BMac user group meeting in Cambridge, MA tonight (Wednesday) at 7PM.

Action-shooter “Halo 4,” released last Tuesday, is on its way to reaching $300 million in global sales in its first week, making it the biggest launch in the decade-old Halo franchise’s history, the company said.

I love my Xbox, but never got into Halo. Still this is one product in Microsoft’s arsenal that is hugely successful.

Dragon’s Lair, the legendary laserdisc video game of the 1980s, is now available for purchase from the Mac App Store.

Colleen Lachowicz, a Democratic candidate for Maine state senate, won her seat despite an attack ad portraying her as out of touch with reality for playing World of Warcraft.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has been released for iOS. Get on it, bronies and pegasisters!

Michael B. Farrell for the Boston Globe (via Gameindustry.biz): Despite the recent setbacks, the video game industry in Massachusetts is growing fast. The sector directly ­employs at least 2,041 people at 112 companies, according to a September survey by Massachusetts … Continued

Wreck-It Ralph is the latest movie featuring video games as a central plot point. Peter Cohen and the TechHive crew listed out some of their other favorites (and least favorites).

Ngmoco’s CEO and COO (and co-founders) have left the company.

Social gaming giant Zynga has laid off more than 100 workers and plans to close two studios in Japan and the US.

Very few players of free-to-play social games go back to them after the first day, a new study finds.

GOG.com, online purveyor of vintage computer games, has begun Mac support with 50 titles, promising many more in the future.

The legendary carnage racing game Carmageddon is available for download, and it’s free for the first day.

Sega’s legendary Dreamcast console game Crazy Taxi is now available for iOS.

Finnish developer Supercell says it’s making $350K a day from its two iOS games.