Activision may have a slight problem on its hands what with Guitar Hero: World Tour not selling too well. The latest numbers, as one analyst from Electronic Entertainment Design and Research has interpreted for us, suggest that Guitar Hero sales may have peaked. (Please note the distinction between Guitar Hero and “music games;” no one is saying that music games are dead.) This is the bad news, as articulated by the analyst: Currently, we expect unit sales to decline by more than 50 percent series-over-series for November. This is coming off the October month where series-over-series units declined by more than 60 percent. A couple reasons for this, maybe. (Who knows for real, in other words.) One is that Rock Band 2 has been reviewed more favorably than GH:WT, suggesting that it’s the better game. (Doug essentially says the same thing in his comparison between the two.) When forced to chose between the two (“you can only have one game this year for Christmas, son, seeing as though mommy and daddy are out of work now”), the rational person is going to pick the better game. Let’s not forget that many stores were selling Guitar Hero 3 cheaply on Black Friday, which could have eaten into GH:WT‘s sales. It could also be that GH fans put a premium on guitar play rather than the whole “we’re a fake band, together!” camaraderie of GH:WT. → Read More
Short Version: As music games go, both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour are impressive, fun, and either would make a great addition to any gamer’s lineup. But which one is best for you? → Read More
http://static.escapistmagazine.com/media/global/movies/player/FlowPlayerDark.2.2.4-tm.swf?1.1?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CplayList%3A%5B+%7B+%27url%27%3A452%2C%27linkUrl%27%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com%2Fvideos%2Fview%2Fzero-punctuation%2F452-Guitar-Hero-World-Tour%27%2C%27linkWindow%27%3A%27_top%27%2C%27name%27%3A%27Guitar%2BHero%2BWorld%2BTour%27+%7D+%5D%2CsplashImageFile%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.escapistmagazine.com%2Fglobal%2Fcastfire%2Fsplash%2F452.jpg%27%2CshowVolumeSlider%3Atrue%2Cpid%3A%27html_test%27%2CinitialScale%3A%27fit%27%2Cloop%3Afalse%2CautoPlay%3Afalse%2CautoBuffering%3Afalse%2CusePlayOverlay%3Afalse%2CautoRewind%3Atrue%2CbufferLength%3A15%2CmenuItems%3A%5Bfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Cfalse%2Ctrue%2Ctrue%5D%7D Spot on, as usual. Well, except for the all the bibbly-babbly about Australia residents not getting Rock Band soon enough. Everyone knows that Australia isn’t somewhere you live – it’s somewhere you fly to every few years for snorkeling and koala petting. (Man, I miss Australia.) → Read More
Just in time for the holiday rush, Harmonix has announced that they’re slashing prices on RB SE bundles for all major platforms. PlayStation 2 and Wii owners can pick up the bundle for $99 while the Xbox 360 and PS3 bundle will retail for $140. How much were these things before? → Read More
This is a silly, nigh inaudible video of some Harmonix developers playing Rock Band. They mostly stink, I think—I’m not a Rock Band or Guitar Hero connoisseur—but as Kotaku points out, it’s hard to fault Harmonix completely. First of all, this video was taken at the Nottingham GameCity3 event, whatever that was—it’s fair to assume that they all had a few beers in them. Unless you’re James Hetfiled in the late 1980s, you shouldn’t be mixing alcohol and guitars. Second, the girl isn’t even an employee of Harmonix; it’s former Edge editor Margaret Robertson. That’s no slight against Edge, mind you, but her awful playing is in no way Harmonix’s fault. Third, why hasn’t anyone made a Hop-Hop Hero Hip-Hop Hero (I leave the typo there to encourage you kids to stay in school, forever if at all possible) game? You’d think the big game publishers would be all over that. → Read More
Everyone’s favorite third-party peripheral company, Mad Catz, is getting in on the Rock Band craze. Early next year, the company will begin producing a bass guitar and a “portable percussion set” for the Wii version of the Rock Band franchise. I’m not sure how well a bass guitar would go over (not saying it won’t) but the idea of some sort of foldable, collapsible, hide-able version of the drums would be much appreciated by my wife. Apparently the Rock Band drums with the duct-taped bass pedal “don’t look cool” in the middle of our living room when we have company over. → Read More
The Beatles have licensed their songs to MTV Games, meaning we’ll all be doing our best mop-top impression in Rock Band soon enough. The deal, which the Wall Street Journal says will be announced officially later today, marks the first time the Beatles have licensed their music to any online entity. It’s not all wine and roses for MTV and Harmonix, though. The key Beatles demo is people aged 50-60—how many of those people play video games, let alone Rock Band? The challenge will be to convince the 11-year-olds currently “shredding” to Foo Fighter, Modest Mouse and Tenacious D that, you know, the Beatles are “cool enough” to be Rock Banded. You wonder just how Activision Blizzard will respond. I suggest they license music from the band Foundry. Pendulum was the sleeper hit of the 1990s. Video games, saving the music industry since 2005. UPDATE We just got the official word that the deal is done and goes into effect in 2009. So, a few months yet. → Read More
Oh. I see. Not to sound ungrateful but I kinda thought the whole “20 free downloadable tracks” for Rock Band 2 owners might have included at least a few somewhat well-known tracks. Well it turns out that those 20 tracks are actually preselected from what MTV and Harmonix are calling the “Emerging Artist Lineup.” On the bright side, they could very well be the greatest songs in the history of music. You never know. You… never… know. The tracks will be available November 4th. You can read the complete press release here, which includes the song list. → Read More
Wii owners will be happy to hear that Rock Band 2 will, yes WILL, contain downloadable content and online multiplayer features. IGN got a hands-on with the game and assures everyone that the Wii version of Rock Band 2 is NOT just a PS2 port but a full-fledged Wii version of the game. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that there will be a way to transfer Rock Band songs into Rock Band 2 on the Wii title. There’s also the 500 pound gorilla in the room that is the Wii’s limited storage. → Read More
If you’re like me, you opened Rock Band 2, rushed to the site to enter your registration code to get 20 free downloadable tracks, and were told to come back later. Well now is later. Being able to download 20 free tracks is still “coming soon,” but at least you can get your e-mail addresses registered and commence the process of waiting patiently. Rock Band 2 Registration [register.rockband.com] → Read More
The more I hear about the recently announced AD/DC Rock Band expansion, the less excited I am about it. After reading through the details unearthed by Variety today, my interest remains low. The New Details: Harmonix has exclusivity on AC/DC content indefinitely, after they’ve gone on the record as being against exclusive artist deals No character creation “There are some custom graphics,” but you don’t play as AC/DC No online play with the standalone disc Songs can be exported, for free, for play with Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Exported songs can be played online. It just doesn’t seem like there’s any reason to warrant a physical product. Nobody is going to go and buy a few hundred dollars of Rock Band instruments to play 18 AC/DC songs, so anybody who buys this will likely have one of the original games anyways. Not making this DLC is just an inconvenience. Maybe I’m crazy – Anybody out there getting antsy in the pants for this one? [Via Kotaku] → Read More
Here she blows; the premium Xbox 360 Rock Band drum kit from ION. It’s priced at $299, available now, and features four gum-rubber drum pads (read: quiet) and two cymbals with mounting arms. That’s right, two. You’ll have to purchase that third cymbal separately for $50. You can also add a second bass pedal for some double-dutch kick action or whatever you kids are saying nowadays. → Read More
This is kind of along the lines of the Onion’s World of World of Warcraft spoof, except that it appears to be real. According to a Craigslist post in the LA area, MTV is apparently looking for people to star in a reality show about Rock Band 2. So basically, a reality show about non-musicians with toy instruments pretending to be musicians. And with that, reality TV has officially hit rock bottom. And by “has officially hit rock bottom” I mean “will likely continue to decline in quality and original ideas while somehow rising in popularity for another 20 years until eventually every show on every channel is made up of half-ass contests where someone gets voted off at the end of the show interspersed with scenes of two girls in their mid-twenties arguing like middle-schoolers through forced teardrops and runny mascara about how they used to be friends but aren’t anymore.” The show will apparently be produced by Mark Burnett, the guy you should be mad at if you hate reality TV half as much as I do. [via Variety] → Read More
