In the same vein where you heard unconfirmed details of Call of Duty 5, Guitar Hero 4, the next Tony Hawk title, and Forza 3, we've learned that the Wii might be getting the ultimate party game for pop culture and trivia fans, while a new superhero game is to be announced for the high-powered gaming platforms at present. But what's also interesting is that Microsoft has prepared their own game to rival that of SingStar, the so-claimed pet project of former Sony exec Phil Harrison, who's now pursuing broader market dreams at Infogrames. More at the full story.

A new neck slide guitar for Guitar Hero 4, a new board-based controller for an upcoming Tony Hawk title, and several possible box art designs for Call of Duty 5. These are the topics we'll be covering for now, in light of the recent info leak from Intellisponse. More details are available in the full article.

 Now that Activision's Tony Hawk skating franchise is facing stiff competition from EA's Skate, rumors are circulating that the publisher may want to innovate the series by giving the axe to the series creators. Is Neversoft out and is new dev Robomodo in? Details after the jump.

The latest news regarding the Vivendi and Activision merger has come in. It looks like the new company called Activision Blizzard has been given the go-signal by the European Commission. To find out more, head on over to the full article.

The Tony Hawk video game franchise is already a winner in itself, but Activision, Neversoft, and Tony Hawk still saw it fit to do some overhaul in the franchise's direction. Dubbed as the "Tony Hawk Innovation Plan," what can fans expect from this move? Read more in the full article.

In order to extend its success to 2008, Activision has several plans and a healthy line-up of games. Among its steps to make more money is innovating with Tony Hawk's Pro Skater to compete against Electronic Arts' successful Skate. Learn more about this at the full article.

Video Games Live, the premier video game concert event, is performing at this year's Video Game Awards from Spike TV. The event, which will mark the group's television debut, will be aired on December 9 at 9:00 p.m. The group will perform some hits from their world touring event and other new material. They will also be releasing their Greatest Hits album in the future.

Way back in the days before Tony Hawk became a household name in the professional skateboarding circuit, gamers had to settle for less glamorous skateboard sim video games. One of the better known titles back then was Konami's Skate or Die!, released on the NES 20 years ago.

Read more about this classic skater game in the full article!

When a gaming company manages to churn out a hit franchise, we'd most probably think that they hit paydirt, like what Activision did when they came up with the Guitar Hero series of games. However, the benefits of coming up with a great title may be a bit of a bane as well.

According to analyst Mike Hickey from Janco Partners, the emerging competition resulting from Activision's Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk franchises may prove to be "damaging for growth prospects".

Of course, when talking about Guitar Hero's and Tony Hawk's competition, it can only mean Harmonix' Rock Band (for the Xbox 360, PS3) and EA's Skate (also for the Xbox 360 and PS3). Hickey said that Rock Band may prove to be a compelling option in the console music gaming genre, which may eventually mean trouble for Activision itself.

Hickey said that analysts are expecting the Guitar Hero series to develop and evolve with the addition of new music peripherals in the near future, which will help the franchise in staying afloat in the midst of competition.

Pro skateboarder Tony Hawk was recently interviewed regarding the Nintendo Wii version of upcoming game Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. The game will be released this coming November 2 and will also be available on platforms Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation 2.

Tony Hawk shared that in all previous titles under his name, he is very much part of the development process and the same is true with Proving Ground. Hawk described his part:

I don't really have a favorite game because I feel like we improve on it each time... I'm there from the start, making suggestions, playing it all along, trying to figure out the best tricks to include, skaters, locations, challenges. Really, my main job is to keep it authentic.

Despite his real-life achievements, Tony Hawk said that he still finds enjoyment in playing video games as it let him do things he can't perform otherwise. "I will unlock my character and play him, and assign him tricks I can't do in real life, so I can watch myself do these tricks I could never ever do," Hawk added.

When asked the possibility of using Wii peripherals on Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, the skateboarder admitted that he feels like the Wii Fit Balance Board can offer a lot of possibilities and dimension to the game. However, those who would want to see this happen may need to wait for the next iteration:

I've seen a little bit of it. I think it's possible to incorporate the Wii Fit board into one of our games, but it would change the control scheme dramatically and we'd have to figure out how to make that work. So I don't know yet.

To read more about Tony Hawk and his plans for his career at this point (he will soon turn 40), click on the Read link below.