Thank you for your loyalty, support, and participation in the GamePro.com community. At noon on December 5, 2011, the U.S. version of GamePro online will shut down as an independent site. GamePro will become part of PCWorld.com (http://www.pcworld.com/gamepro) offering gaming news, reviews, and how-tos from the PCWorld team. Thank you to the entire GamePro staff for their hard work and dedication.

GamePro’s probably best known for the colorful pseudonyms its writers used and the cartoon-face icons that accompanied game reviews. The magazine helped established the voice of video game culture, giving players a place to read about the individuals and creative process that remained mysteries even as the games industry rose to pop culture prominence. Many talented critics and journalists have contributed to GamePro’s pages through the years and its death silences a significant outlet for those of us who care about video games and how they’re thought about.

World of Warcraft has been perched high atop the massively-multiplayer throne for seven years now, but is about to get its first serious dose of competition when the Electronic Arts-published Star Wars: The Old Republic launches. While it’s not really a shock to learn that some folks have already indicated that they’ll be leaving Azeroth for a galaxy far, far away, a new survey indicates that WoW could shed anywhere between 900,000 and 1.6M players when the lightsabers start swinging.

According to Develop, a survey of nearly 400 online WoW customers indicated about 50% of them planned to purchase The Old Republic. In light of those results, Lazard Capital Markets downgraded Activision Blizzard’s stock from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral.’

However, it’s worth noting that the very same survey indicated that 33% of WoW players said they’d re-subscribe to the game upon the release of the upcoming Mists of Pandaria expansion. People love pandas.

The stock rating downgrade also follows the news that Wow’s subscriber base is down about 800,000 users in recent months, as well as news that majority shareholder Vivendi “shed thirty million of its shares in Activision Blizzard, reducing its stake to 60 per cent,” last week.

All this aside, World of WarCraft still has more than 10 million current subscribers.

Source: Shack News 

Featuring an original score, Sumthing Else Music Works has released Saints Row: The Third- soundtrack which was produced and composed by Malcolm Kirby Jr. Here is a little about Malcolm and his inspiration for the soundtrack from the press release. Saints Row: The Third is out now.

Composer Malcolm Kirby Jr. “I am a huge fan of both Saints Row and Saints Row 2 so when the opportunity came to score Saints Row: The Third I was ecstatic. Saints Row: The Third is such an insane game and everything is just pushing it way over the top. This type of thinking and attitude definitely influenced the diverse nature of the score/soundtrack.”

As a prolific live musician Malcolm Kirby Jr. has performed and recorded with artists such as The Campbell Brothers, Fred Wesley, Lenny Castro, Kenny Wollesen, Tommy Campbell, The Respect Sextet, Steve Gadd, John Medeski, Terrence Howard, Will Bernard and many others. In addition to performing worldwide, Malcolm Kirby Jr. has composed music for the films “Cop Out”, “The Love Guru”, “Brooklyn’s Finest”, TV shows such as “CSI”, “Numb3rs”, “Pimp My Ride”, “Medium”, “Law and Order” as well as video games.

Malcolm Kirby Jr. describes the different music styles heard in Saints Row: The Third, “Each gang has its own theme and the textural characteristics are completely different for each, ranging from menacing orchestral to gangster hip hop to heavy metal. I think the biggest challenge was coming up with themes of completely different textural styles and making them still feel related and unified in the context of the game which was also the most enjoyable aspect of scoring Saints Row: The Third. Volition and THQ have such an amazing vision for this game and it is truly an honor working with them.”

Assassins Creed Revelations and Halo: Combat Anniversary highlights our release schedule this week with Assassins Creed: Reveltionas releasing on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with the PC version delayed until November 29th, 2011. Here are some other releases headed to store shelves.

Xbox 360: Kung Fu High Impact, Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat, Pictionary: Ultimate Edition, Rapala for Kinect, Halo: Reach — Anniverary Map Pack, Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL, uDraw Studio: Instant Artist, Need for Speed: The Run, Jurassic Park: The Game, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Rayman Origins, Kinect: Disneyland Adventures

PlayStation 3:  LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition, Dynasty Warriors 7: Xtreme Legends, Pictionary: Ultimate Edition, Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat, Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL, uDraw Studio: Instant Artist, Medieval Moves: Deadmund’s Quest,   Need for Speed: The Run, Jurassic Park: The Game, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Rayman Origins, BurgerTime World Tour

Nintendo Wii: Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, Zumba Fitness 2, uDraw Studio: Instant Artist, Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion XL, Fishing Resort, Need for Speed: The Run, Rayman Origins, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games

PC: Magicka Collection, Rochard, XIII Lost Identity, Need for Speed: The Run, Jurassic Park: The Game, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Saints Row: The Third, Rayman Origins

3DS: Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy, Super Mario 3D Land, Shinobi, Need for Speed: The Run

Did you ever think it wouldn’t? Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 which launched worldwide this past Tuesday has sold more then 6.5 million units in the US and UK alone in 24 hours.

It is estimated the game has a sell through of $400 million according to Charttrack and retail customer sell-through information. According to Microsoft, after just two days, the number of gamers playing simultaneously on Xbox ®  Live ® set a new peak concurrency record.

Separately, Activision announced this morning that in support and gratitude for the efforts of American servicemen and women, this Veterans Day it donated $3 million to the Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit, public benefit corporation that seeks to provide job placement and training for veterans.  This latest donation will be added to the $2 million that Activision has already donated to the Endowment, which has provided more than $1.5 million in grants and scholarships to veterans’ organizations across the US since it was conceived by Bobby Kotick in November of 2009.

We have our copy of Modern Warfare 3 and you can expect our full review soon.

THQ has announced that the upcoming release of Saints Row: The Third will be getting a ‘Season Pass’ for its upcoming downloadable content. The season pass will set you back 1600 MSP/$20 and is a 15% discount on the regular price. It will include 3 mission packs and 1 content pack.

Genkibowl VII (January 2012)
The Wide World of Genki takes over Steelport for a sporting tradition totally and utterly unlike any other.

· Gangstas in Space (Winter 2012)
The Saints go intergalactic in this science-fiction misadventure.

· The Trouble With Clones (Spring 2012)
Copy-cat killing at its finest.

The pass also comes with Nyte Blayde pack which includes a new car, motorcycle, and a pair of outfits all under the influence of vampires.

Saints Row: The Third releases on Tuesday.

Via Joystiq

Looking forward to battling it out as either the epic Joker or Batman gangs in Gotham City Imposters? Warner Bros Games has officially revealed the release date.

The game will launch on January 10, 2012 on Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network and Windows PC.

Sledgehammer Games’ Glen Schofield has taken to Twitter to ask Call of Duty fans to support Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3on Metacritic.

“I don’t usually do this but, if u like MW3 go 2 Metacritic.com & help our user score,” writes Schofield. “It’s suspiciously low. Be honest but help if u agree.”

Modern Warfare 3 is attracting a torrent of user scores of zero across all three platforms. The current user score (out of 10) is:

2.7 on Xbox 360
2.0 on PS3 and
1.5 on PC.

Ouch.

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft MMO has shed 1.1 million subscribers in the past six months, the developer has announced. As revealed in an investor call earlier today and reported by Massively, player numbers have fallen 10 per cent to 10.3 million compared to 11.4 million in May this year. CEO Mike Morhaime explained that most of that decline was seen in the East.

It’s been a year since the last major expansion, 2010′s Cataclysm, helped boost numbers. The next add-on, Mists of Pandaria, is yet to be dated.

It was good news on a company-wide level, though. Activision Blizzard saw profits for the quarter nearly triple from $51 million this time last year to $148 million.

Source: Eurogamer 

Today, Ubisoft confirmed what many probably already knew. Another Assassin’s Creed title is planned for 2012. Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemot, reassured shareholders there would be plenty of Desmond in our lives.

“There will be another great full-fledged Assassin’s Creed title next year,” Guillemot said. “It will be another major release and we will be communicating more about it in the coming months.”

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations will conclude Ezio and Altair’s story line. Assassin’s Creed 3, which I assume this next title will be, will focus on Desmond and his struggle to defeat the Templars in a modern day setting.

Revelations will be released on November 15th. Ready for more assassination goodness?

See it streamed live via Youtube. If you’re in the UK and can’t make it to tonight’s midnight launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, then you can head on over to Youtube to watch a live stream. Here is some information so you can be informed of the event.

The high voltage action kicks off on Monday 7^th November at 7pm as guests arrive on the ‘green’ carpet. Three dedicated roaming crews, hosted by well-known TV presenter Rick Edwards, Graeme Boyd aka @AceyBongos from Xbox LIVE^®  and YouTube super user DaveyBoyz, will stream a wealth of content including:

-          Sledgehammer and Infinity Ward developer interviews
-          Content from No.1 selling UK artist, Example
-          Celebrity interviews
-          Live coverage of the pan-European Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Championship powered by Xbox Live
-          Live coverage of the pan-European celebrity multiplayer tournament
-          Interviews with UK MP team Infinity- runners up from the CODXP global competition
-          Live link ups with Berlin and Paris launch events
-          Midnight store opening coverage with all the fans

You can check out the live stream over at this link here: http://www.youtube.com/codmw3launch

While Back To Karkand isn’t arriving until December, DICE decided to throw a new trailer our way to help us visualize what it will be like to compete and play on some classic Battlefield maps.

If you purchased the Limited Edition of Battlefield 3 at release, you’ll get these maps at no extra charge which also include 10 new weapons and 4 new maps.

2k Sports announced today that the new cover guy for next years MLB 2k12 release is Detroit Tigers pitcher, Justin Verlander.

Justin Verlander is a leading candidate for the Cy Young Award as well as the American League MVP after this past season.

“It’s a dream come true to be on the cover of Major League Baseball 2K12,” said Verlander, who pitched the second no-hitter of his career this season. “I’ve worked closely with 2K Sports on the MLB 2K series since 2007, and I couldn’t be more excited to continue my relationship with such a great baseball game.”

Only the thirteenth pitcher in baseball history to throw multiple no-hitters and the first Detroit Tiger to win 20 games since 1991, Verlander pitched the Tigers to an AL Central title and into the 2011 American League Championship Series. Verlander is favored to win the American League Cy Young Award for pitching excellence during the 2011 season, and could even become the first pitcher since 1992 to win the Most Valuable Player Award.

MLB 2k12 will release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.

It appears that copies of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 have been spotted early in Kmart stores around the country (USA). If you manage to get to a Kmart before stores took away the stock, you might be able to get your hands on a copy of Modern Warfare 3 a full 5 days early.

But what is the most ridiculous part? Copies of the game have already been posting up on eBay for ridiculous bidding prices.  It appears some of the listings are being taken down by eBay. However, one copy of MW3 sold for US $1,725.00 and you can only imagine if someone is actually going to pay that cost just for a 60 dollar game. How crazy is that? Other listings include the game at a price of 500 dollars as “Buy it Now”  or more. Is eBay spotting these and taking them down?

What’s even more funny is the comments in the Product Reviews of this listing. People are already writing “reviews” of the game and one kid claims to have gotten an early copy thanks to his dad working at Nintendo? I mean really? What a crazy world we live in.

Ubisoft announced today that a new Tom Clancy title is in development and it is none other then a Rainbow Six title. The new title is called Rainbow Six: Patriots.

“Terrorism has evolved, and so has Rainbow 6. In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, all the team play, tactics, and realism that fans of the series love have been coupled with an exciting new narrative direction,” said David Sears, creative director at Ubisoft. “This adds an unprecedented level of humanity that will make Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots an extremely tense and immersive experience.”

In Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots, Team Rainbow faces a new and very real threat called the “True Patriots,” a highly-trained, well-organized revolutionary group that claim the American government is irrevocably corrupted by greedy politicians and corporate special interests.  The True Patriots will do whatever it takes to reclaim their country.  Playing as Team Rainbow, players will face critical scenarios that will require them to make tough ethical decisions in order to stop this new breed of terrorists.

In addition to the immersive single-player storyline, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6 Patriots will introduce a huge variety of new innovative co-op and multi-player experiences. Players will be rewarded for working as a team and mastering the game’s new features that enhance communication and tactical execution between teammates. Success will come from a mix of split-second decision making and working to coordinate attacks against the enemy.

Game Informer gets call and has the cover story in the upcoming December issue.

If you’re headed out to the North East, don’t forget to stop by the Penny Arcade Expo which takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. Next spring, the expo is at it once again from April 6th-8th. Pre registration is now open and you can take advantage of discounted ticket sales before the event.

One day passes are going for $35 and 3 day passes are going for $65 USD. Don’t forget to buy your tickets as they will most surely sell out as we get closer to the event. Plan ahead early! it’s PAX so it’ll definitely be fun with all the gaming and table top games you can enjoy with other gamers to enjoy it with. Penny Arcade has even made deals with local hotels so that you can book your room or rooms if you’re going as a group so you can take advantage of the discounted rates.

If you’re looking to dress your Avatar up on Xbox Live, you have some Skyrim items now to take a gander at. Here is a list of the items now available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

Dragonborn Armor – 400 MSFT points | $4.99

·         Dragon Bone Armor – 400 MSFT points | $4.99

·         Mage Robe – 320 MSFT points | $3.99

·         Dark Brotherhood Armor – 400 MSFT points | $4.99

·         Dragon Bone Helm – 240 MSFT points | $2.99

·         Dragon Prop – 240 MSFT points | $2.99

·         Elder Scroll Prop – 240 MSFT points | $2.99

·         Magelight Prop – 240 MSFT points | $2.99

·         Stormcloak Helm – 240 MSFT points | $2.99

·         The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Premium Theme – 240 MSFT points | $2.99

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim releases on 11.11.11 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

This week on the Nintendo Download, its a kid oriented week. Balloon Kid from the original Game Boy makes its debut on on the Nintendo eShop for Nintendo 3DS.

For Wii Ware (Nintendo Wii) we have the release of Gnomz: Welcome to the world of Gnomz, an exciting new arcade fighter for the WiiWare service. Battle in 25 action-packed arenas and discover magical power-ups, flying elephants, rainbows and glowing reindeer.

Only for Nintendo DSi and Nintendo 3DS you’ll see the releases of 1950s Lawn Mower Kids and House M.D. Episode 4: Crashed.

You can also check out with your Nintendo 3DS The Legend of Zelda: Main Theme Melody on Nintendo Video

A new video from Bethesda Softworks is a new extended trailer for the behind the scenes documentary which is available in the collectors edition of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

The documentary details never-before seen behind the scenes footage, along with interviews from the Bethesda crew, to take you from concept to sketch and creation. You’ll learn various different insights into the game and how the world was made.

The Elder: Scrolls V: Skyrim will be released on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on November 11, 2011.

Trendy Entertainment announced today that Dungeon Defenders has sold 250,000 copies across all platforms. It appears that 200,000 copies were sold on PC while the other 50,000 copies were split between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 releases.

For console players, Trendy has announced free weekly community events to celebrate the milestone. According to the description gamers will get an opportunity to play special events with the developers and have a chance to win unique loot.

The listing of the events can be found on the wallpapers which fans can download here: http://click.icptrack.com/icp/relay.php?r=33031207&msgid=457037&act=NVJP&c=275324&destination=http%3A%2F%2Fmirror1.trendyent.com%2Ffiles%2FPR%2FCommunityEvents.zip

Dungeon Defenders is a hybrid RPG/Tower Defense game brought to you by Trendy Entertainment and is available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Steam (PC).