A new Call of Duty game release is expected every year, making last week's news that, yes, 2012 will see a new game in the series come out no real surprise. With Infinity Ward and Treyarch continuing to alternate releases, this year is Treyarch's turn to bring out a game. At this point we don't know any of the specifics, but it's looking increasingly likely that it will be a direct sequel to Black Ops, at least in terms of naming.

After previously acquiring Black Ops-related domain names (from BlackOps3.com up through BlackOps6.com), Activision reportedly got its hands on BlackOps2.com not long ago. The domain acquisition on its own didn't seem like a confirmation that Black Ops would receive a follow-up; many companies purchase domains in order to simply have their hands on them so others cannot profit on their intellectual property. Other times it's done to avoid embarrassing situations where a URL based on a game's name cannot be used to promote the competition -- a situation Activision found itself in last year when ModernWarfare3.com was home to a site knocking Call of Duty and encouraging visitors to pick up Battlefield 3. Activision decided to take action against the domain owner in an effort to acquire it, which it managed to do successfully. The entire situation could have been avoided had it simply registered the domain sooner, so BlackOps2.com falling into the hands of Activision seemed insignificant on its own.

For Valentine's Day we examined 35 reasons why we love games, but we're not done expressing our affection yet. Prose alone couldn't handle out boundless adoration; we had to make a video. Watch as we discuss our personal favorite reason to love.

Responding via Twitter to a question from another developer, Prey 2 lead graphics programmer revealed that publisher Zenimax forced developer Human Head to cancel all talks relating to the game at this year's Game Developers Conference. "Yes, Zenimax forced us to pull all Prey2 related talks from GDC. I'm pretty devastated by the news. This was to be my first conf talk." He explained over a series of tweets. "We are trying our hardest to get the decision reversed but for now all 3 are canceled." The tweets caught the eye of fans who pressed for more information, "Thanks all for the kind words. Needless to say this not a good day for me." explained Karis before stating that he couldn't answer many of questions coming from inquisitive followers.

Anyone who has ever invested themselves in a project can empathize with Karis. GDC presents a unique opportunity to really show off everything a developer or team accomplished over the year. As rewarding as giving a demo to fans or press can be, only the audience at GDC can truly grasp many of the complex technical accomplishments found in games and the effort that went into them.

Between DICE taking place last week and Tim Schafer successfully turning to Kickstarter to fund a Double Fine-developed graphic adventure, there has been a lot of talk recently about the role publishers serve in the videogame industry. There is the belief among many people that publishers do little more than stifle innovation, a suggestion Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg takes issue with.

During a panel at DICE, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter made the case that today's publishing model isn't good for for the industry. Publishers are opposed to risks and many shy away from bringing out games unlikely to sell millions of units, he said, also adding, "We are getting fewer choices as consumers because financial guys are taking over. Financial guys are making the decisions."