175 Million Call of Duty Games Sold to Date, Still Fewer Than GTA

With $11 billion in total lifetime revenue, the Call of Duty franchise is one of the biggest in all of gaming. But how many copies of the series have been sold to date? Activision clued us in today, announcing via a new infographic that, since the series debuted over a decade ago, it has sold 175 million Call of Duty games.

By comparison, Take-Two's Grand Theft Auto series has sold more than 185 million copies.That comes out to around one copy sold every two minutes, Activision said.

Other franchises to have sold more than 100 million units include household names such as LEGO, Mario,Pokemon, Need for Speed, Final Fantasy, and FIFA.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has sold 60 million Halo games while Konami has shifted 33 million Metal Gear Solid titles, according to each publisher's latest count.

Going back to the Call of Duty infographic, over 100 billion multiplayer matches have been played so far, while players have chucked more than 300 billion grenades. On top of that, players have earned 579 billion in-game awards, which is more than five times the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy.

The next Call of Duty game, in development at Black Ops creator Treyarch, will be released later this year. Activision announced the title during an earnings call earlier this year. Little is known about the game, but Activision historically blows the lid off new Call of Duty games in May, so gamers may not have to wait much longer to learn more about it.

Sony Offers 10% Discount Code for NA PlayStation Store Purchases this Weekend

Sony Computer Entertainment America just announced on the Official PlayStation Blog that a new promotion is offering a 10% discount on one purchase on the North American PlayStation Store.

Receive 10% off one transaction made on PlayStation Store on PS3, PS4 or the online store (store.playstation.com) between 3/26/2015 at 12:00 noon PDT and 3/30/2015 at 12:00 noon PDT. Does not apply to transactions made on PlayStation Store on PS Vita, PlayStation TV, PSP or in-game. Some exclusions apply, including PS Plus memberships, subscriptions, game pre-orders, PS Now content and rental video content. Code must be redeemed at checkout and discounted transaction completed before 3/30/2015 at 12:00 noon PDT.

Neverwinter Available for Pre-Loading on Xbox One

Free-to-play MMORPG Neverwinter will be releasing in just a few days for the Xbox One, but if you’re really looking forward to it and want to get playing from day one then you’ll be able to pre-load the game from today.

Actually, you’ll be able to pre-load it right now at this very moment, if only you weren’t sat at your computer reading this.

How much precious hard drive space does it take up? It’s actually not all that bad coming in at 10.5GB, though expect that to rise with future updates, patches and the like.

Neverwinter actually released a couple of years ago for the PC platform where it received mostly positive reviews, so here’s to hoping that Xbox One players will find the same joy when it releases on March 31st.

Bear in mind, to be able to play through the Dungeons & Dragons adventure you will need an Xbox Live Gold subscription, so if you intend to get your magic on with Neverwinter you’d best make sure your account is up to date.

Halo Online First Trailer

Windows 10 build 10041 are now available

Microsoft released the latest version of its Windows 10 Technical Preview – build 10041 earlier today to those testing it on the ‘Slow ring’ of its Insider program.

It also pushed out a trio of updates to users on the ‘Fast ring’, who first got access to 10041 last Wednesday.

Microsoft also promised that it would release the ISO files for its latest build alongside its Slow ring deployment and now they have made good on their promise.

The ISOs for build 10041 – which Microsoft is also calling its ‘March Update’ for the Technical Preview – are available to download right now from the Windows Insider Program site.

HTC One M9+ on 8 April China and perhaps elsewhere

HTC have kept a version of its One M9 in cartons. The firm is expected to present its One M9 "More" on April 8 on the occasion of a conference.

And if the HTC One M9 was only the appetizer of the Taiwanese firm? This would seem to be the case, since HTC has published on his Weibo account (Chinese Twitter) an invitation for an event to be held in Beijing on April 8. It shows what appears to be an HTC One M9, but slightly different from the model thatwe were testing recently . 

The words " More than One "will also leave little doubt about the fact that we will have a new product in the range One. Note that the image sensor is different from the current M9. You can also see the end of a second lens above. The "camera duo" of the HTC One M8 so would make his return on this new product. 

If to believe in the rumors that lying around on the web, it would be the HTC One M9 "More" (or M9 +), a slightly larger variation than the flagship. It would have a 5.2 inch qHD screen (2560 x 1440) and embark Mediatek a high-end chip. Once on the market, the new terminal could thus serve as true flagship.Hopefully it is proposed here. 

Halo returns to PC Freetoplay game available exclusively in Russia

Well, this isn't quite the glorious return of Master Chief that some have been hoping for. Halo Online is a new, PC-exclusive, free-to-play online shooter that will launch this spring in Russia. According to Halo Waypoint it's multiplayer-only, and uses a heavily modified version of the Halo 3 engine that's specifically optimized to run smoothly on lower-end PCs.

Halo Online takes place on a secret UNSC space station called Anvil, where Spartan IV soldiers train and test experimental technology. It's being developed by Saber Interactive, a Russian studio that previously contributed to Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary and Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and it will only be available in Russia: The FAQ says it's "tailored for Russian gamers," whatever that means, and while the possibility of a wider release isn't dismissed outright, "any expansion outside of Russia would have to go through region-specific changes to address player expectations."

I would guess that those "expectations" relate first and foremost to the use of the aged Halo 3 engine. It might be a smart way to attract new fans who aren't necessarily dedicated to being on the cutting edge of PC hardware, but it may not fly as well in markets where sub-par visuals can be the kiss of death. The FAQ also states that Halo Online was "built from the ground up specifically for the PC," and that there are no plans to bring it to the Xbox One. The closed beta is scheduled to take place this spring, but a launch date has yet to be announced.

Twitch suffers security breach, resets all passwords

An ominous-sounding message on the official Twitch blog warns that "there may have been unauthorized access to some Twitch user account information."

"For your protection, we have expired passwords and stream keys and have disconnected accounts from Twitter and YouTube," reads the statement. "As a result, you will be prompted to create a new password the next time you attempt to log into your Twitch account. We also recommend that you change your password at any website where you use the same or a similar password."

The exact nature of the breach isn't known, but Twitch said it would contact affected users directly with additional details. We've reached out for more information.

Update: Twitch has declined to comment, but VentureBeat has acquired a copy of the email sent to users affected by the breach.

"We are writing to let you know that there may have been unauthorized access to some of your Twitch user account information, including possibly your Twitch username and associated email address, your password, the last IP address you logged in from, limited credit card information (card type, truncated card number and expiration date), and any of the following if you provided it to us: first and last name, phone number, address, and date of birth," it says.

"PLEASE NOTE: Twitch does not store or process full credit or debit card information, so your card number is safe. While we store passwords in a cryptographically protected form, we believe it’s possible that your password could have been captured in clear text by malicious code when you logged into our site on March 3rd."

And again, for emphasis: If you use the same password on other sites, save yourself the potential headaches and heartache, and change it everywhere.

YouTube will relaunch its livestreaming service to focus on games

Following its failed attempt to acquire Twitch last year, YouTube is reportedly renewing its efforts in the livestreaming space. According to anonymous sources speaking to The Daily Dot, YouTube is in the process of sourcing and acquiring talent in its efforts to relaunch YouTube Live, the company's existing livestreaming service.

Noting that YouTube has already recruited around 50 engineers with experience in the space, one source said Google (which owns YouTube) is doubling down on its livestreaming efforts. "[That] is a pretty big statement of intent," the source reportedly said. "The time is right as well, with Twitch moving into other areas such as music and so on. Google doesn't want to be too far behind in the arms race.”

Meanwhile, The Daily Dot's source says that "gaming and esports" will be the main motivator behind the relaunch of YouTube Live. "There’ll be huge opportunities for established streamers and organizations soon and I would say that the record numbers of esports viewers are only going to grow when Google start promoting and partnering with these events.”

Google backed off from its Twitch acquisition last year amid reported antitrust concerns. Now Amazon owns the streaming behemoth, having spent more than $1 billion on the site. Little wonder then, that Google has advanced plans to strike a counterattack.