Rated by ESRB: World in Conflict: Complete for PC

Mon, Aug 18, 2008

As you can no doubt see immediately above, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board has today rated World in Conflict: Complete for Windows PC. This is notable for two reasons:

1.) We’ve never heard of a WIC game with the subtitle “Complete,” and unless you’re privy to a host of information we’d kill for (and/or frequent European e-tailers), neither have you.

2.) While gamers have been waiting for the World in Conflict: Soviet Assault console titles (and PC expansion), developer Massive Entertainment is being sold off as part of Activision Blizzard’s restructuring, and studio president Martin Walfisz has confirmed that Soviet Assault will not be published by Activision. But here, the ESRB lists Vivendi Games as publisher for “Complete.” What could this title be?

We’ve reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment. In the meantime, you can read our entirely unconfirmed theory right after the jump.

World in Conflict had been planned for console release for quite some time, but as far as we knew the original release slated for Fall 2007 was going to be a straight port with specialized console controls. Sometime before February 2008, however, it was decided that the game would be revamped with all-new content. This would perhaps compensate for the console delay, but PC owners wouldn’t be forgotten; they were to get the same new content in the form of an “add-on.”

For some time now, the console release and the PC ‘expansion pack’ have been bunched together by the media under the subtitle Soviet Assault, but it’s important to note that the console versions were being developed in conjunction with Swordfish Studios, another Vivendi developer on the Acti-Blizz chopping block.

While Walfisz’s assertion that Activision owns World in Conflict implies that that the publisher would have no legal difficulty resuming the project (this trademark notwithstanding) there might be at least logistical difficulty in jump-starting development on a joint console project with neither studio available to assist. However, in April IGN reported that the PC “add-on” was actually going to be a re-release of World in Conflict with the Soviet Assault content woven right into the existing campaign — and we think Complete is the moniker for that much-less-ambitious PC project.

European e-tailors are pegging Complete’s release date as late October/early November, so we expect a press release will clear things up relatively soon.

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