Monthly Archives: July 2009

MTV plans to launch a Rock Band Network that will enable any music artist, whether signed, unsigned or emerging to be included in Rock Band.
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Currently in closed Beta MTV plans to go into open Beta in August and opening it via an online store on Xbox 360 before year’s end, separate from the current Rock Band store.

Eventually, it will also be made available via PSN and Wii.

“We’ve figured out how to make it so anybody who owns and controls masters and publishing can put music into ["Rock Band"] at their own pace,” says MTV Games senior VP Paul DeGooyer. “We’re talking about a set of serious professional tools to allow people on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny with respect to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store.”

Rather than deal with Harmonix, artists and labels will submit songs to freelance Harmonix-trained developers who will prepare the tracks for the game, and labels can also hire trained developers or existing employees to do the work in-house.

Songs submitted are to be reviewed to check for playability, inappropriate lyrics, copyright infringement before being released and artists can set their own price and receive 30% of any resulting sales.

Gamers will also be able to demo 30-second samples of each track.

Sounds great.

More over on Billboard.

The Philadelphia Inquirer has chastised Infinity Ward for the functional night vision goggles included with Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition.

According to the piece, some people would not be responsible users of such equipment.

“I would say 99.9999 percent of gamers who buy the Prestige edition will have a blast with these new goggles, innocently playing around at night with them.

“Yet, it is also like giving away a free race car with Gran Turismo or Forza – someone is going to cause a highway wreck. In Modern Warfare 2′s case, I shudder (just a bit) to think of someone, who may have a hard time with reality anyway, donning these goggles for real mischief or even worse.

“Infinity Ward should know better. They are great at fake realism. One of the best. This maybe be crossing that line, however.”

Via GamePolitics.

Next week’s dose of Rock Band tracks will include Kings of Leon, Rancid, Rise Against and one track from Lush on July 21 and 23 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Each offering is available in a track pack for the usual 440 MS Points ($5.50/£3.75) or individually for 160 MS Points ($1.99/£1.36).

Here’s what you’ll get:

• Kings of Leon – Crawl, Molly’s Chambers, Sex on Fire
• Rancid – Last One to Die, Ruby Soho, Time Bomb
• Rise Against – Prayer of the Refugee, Re-Education (Through Labor), Savior
• Lush – Sweetness & Light

Also, on July 23, PSP users playing Rock Band: Unplugged will get the Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones”, and
Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back In Town (Live)” for $1.99 each.

Microsoft has decided to shut down its user friendly development program Popfly.

Released two years ago, the program enabled people with little or no programming experience to create games.

Come August 24, folks will be asked to direct themselves to XNA or Kodu.

Via Kotaku.

Atlus launched a teaser site which stated that come July 24 a reveal would be made.

On it, a scrambled image appears. It’s basically blue blocks where you run your mouse over them and it shows an image underneath with Japanese Kanji popping up here and there across it.

At one point, apparently, the image in its entirety was shown because Kotaku got a good look at what could be a big hole in the middle of Antarctica.

Atlus must have fixed this because it’s back to the way it was before the snafu – but not before the source code revealed: Shin Megami Tensei: STRANGE JOURNEY 10.08.

This could mean a release date of October 8, August 10, August 2010, or who knows. Decryption gives us headaches.

Hit the links and see for yourself.

During his talk at Develop, Denis Dyack stated that gameplay is not everything when it comes to developing a title, and the aesthetic value must be considered an integral part.

Basically, games are art.

“Gameplay is not everything,” said Dyack. “If you look at the most popular games today, they are far more narrative-focused. If games are to follow the trajectory of films, then the dominance of gameplay will diminish in place of an increased focus and importance on gaming’s stories and the ways in which they are told.

“It’s an unpopular viewpoint. But I don’t believe that gameplay is the most important aspect to games. I have a theory: that engagement is greater than or equal to art plus story plus gameplay plus audio plus technology. It’s all of these things combined, and one is not more important than another.

“While I think that narrative is going to become more and more dominant, possibly superseding gameplay, narrative is not the be all and end all.  However, I think we will move towards a place where games can be a success because of more than just their gameplay, because of their music, their internal architecture and so on.

“That video games are art is quite obvious to me. The new synthesis is interactivity and gameplay. Instead of moving pictures, that which movies brought to art, we now have interactivity as the glue that brings together all the previous artistic elements.

“It’s ridiculous to claim that video games aren’t art because they speak the language of film. I would encourage us to apply filmic technique to our creations. If you can replicate these techniques extraordinarily well, then your game will resonate with people on a deep level.”

Via GameSetWatch.

Codemasters has released the firsy in-engine footage of Ashes 2009, what with the Ashes being on at the moment, and all that.

Watch it on EGTV.

It’s got official players in it, throwing balls and each other. Some batting occurs.

It’s out on August 7 for Wii, PC, 360 and PS3.

Virtual Console saw the release of its 300th game this week, and to mark the occasion, Nintendo has released the following games for your virtual pleasure.

• Smash Table Tennis (600 Points)
• Musha (900 Points)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A Dark Lord (1,000 points) for WiiWare
• A Little Bit Of Puzzle League (500 Points) for DSi.

Details for each title can be found over on CVG.

EEDAR’s director of analyst services, Jesse Divnich, has agreed with Michael Pachter that GTA V is a go, but that it will not be released in 2010 unless Take-Two wants to sabotage itself.

According to Divnich, Agent is scheduled to land in 2010 and a new GTA V would kill it.

“Rockstar North’s primary development team is currently focusing on two titles, GTA V and Agent,” Divnich told D’toid. “Given the delay of the original GTA IV, it would be difficult to conclude with certainty that the next installment will hit before October 31, 2010.

“Furthermore, Take-Two is already on track to obliterate our wallets over the next 12 months with BioShock 2, Max Payne 3, Borderlands, Mafia II, Red Dead Redemption, and Agent,.

“I do not see the financial need to stack their next fiscal year — ending October 31, 2010 — anymore than it already is. In addition, if Agent is released in 2010, I would expect it in the back-half, which if a GTA V was to hit store shelves plus or minus three months of that date, it could cannibalize sales.”

Makes sense, but still, this won’t be the last we hear on GTA V predictions we reckon.

Xbox boss Shane Kim has told Kikizo that Live is still on the way to mobile devices. Just in case you thought he’d forgotten.

“For us, it’s a matter of focusing on ‘when’, because if we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like… Project Natal,” said the exec.

“So we’ve chosen to focus on the living room experience from a hardware standpoint, if you will, but we’re building a service in Live that will… will extend to other platforms. No question about it.”

Microsoft announced Live Anywhere a million billion years ago. Actually, it was in 2006, but that’s in the same ballpark.

Hit the link for more.

Left 4 Dead’s been updated to include a lobby browser, as you can see here.

What does it do? It does this:

The lobby browser (under Play Online) will show you a list of optimal games available for you to join. The browser pares down the thousands of lobbies and games currently being played to show you the best list of games available to you.

Thanks, ShiroGamer.

And we’re off. Sony just confirmed a massive press conference for GamesCom. Details:

SCEE Press Conference – Tuesday 18th August, 18.00 – 21.00

We’re hearing that the firm has huge plans for the show, so you want to be watching very, very carefully. Price cuts? Slims? Doubleclick. Don’t fucking blink.

We’ll have the ultimate liveblog or die trying. So pumped.

EA’s fleshed out Brutal Legend’s multiplayer a little today, saying the system will provide four-on-four “skirmish” play.

From this PR:

Four-versus-four “skirmish” multiplayer marries action combat with a strategic unit-control mechanic. As the leader of one of the factions in the game, direct your armies in a Battle of the Bands where the trophy is survival, and even take your battle online over Xbox LIVE.

The last we heard of the game’s online compenent was as E3, when the following was released:

Online Multiplayer – Take the Metal madness online in Brütal Legend’s Multiplayer mode that combines action combat with a strategic unit-control mechanic that allows the player to direct their army in The Battle of the Bands, where the ultimate trophy is survival.

It’s all go. Happy Friday. Brutal Legend’s out this October.

Warner’s confirmed a September 25 release date for DS puzzler Scribblenauts, EG reports.

The game caught plaudits at E3 thanks to being something completely different.

Radical. Hit the link for more.

SCEE R&D boss Paul Holman told Edge at Develop this week that PS3′s upcoming motion technology will cause advancement in games thanks to its precision.

“I think we can just say that it’s very, very precise,” he said. “People are going to be able to take games in this space forward because of the precision aspects.”

Kish Hirani, head of dev services, gave an example.

“The classic example I give to people is that the most precise thing you can do is write your name using a [piece of] chalk on a blackboard,” he said.

“Try doing that with a mouse and it’s bloody difficult.”

More through there. Sony showed the tech in action at the UK conference yesterday.

Swedish metal band Opeth is to have its music included in a PSP version of Saints Row, according to this post on the group’s site.

“The game is expected to hit the streets around March 2010,” said the Nordic rockers.

The game’s unannounced. We’ve mailed THQ.

Engadget’s posted a huge amount of information on the upcoming Xbox 360 dashboard summer update, as seen here.

The download will include updates to account management, video display options, user ratings and tons more.

There’s too much to post here. Hit the link. The first official shots of the update – premium Avatar clothing included – were released overnight.

Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising will release on October 6 in North America, October 8 in non-UK Europe and October 9 in Britain, Codemasters said today.

The pseudo-sequel – that definitely isn’t an actual sequel, Mr Bohemia Lawyer – will be bringing its warriness to PC, PS3 and 360.

PR after the break.

More »

Eisner Award winning author Peter David has written the script to Epic’s upcoming XBLA platformer Shadow Complex, the developer’s confirmed.

David is best known for his work on comics, specifically on The Incredible Hulk.

He currently writes She-Hulk and X-Factor for Marvel.

More on Joystiq. The game’s out later this year.

Sony’s released a pay-to-play game to the Japanese PSN.

It’s a new version of Trash Panic, titled 100 Yen Gomibako, and and costs – obviously – 100 yen.

For that, you get to download the game and play it three times.

It’ll never catch on. Via Kotaku and Eurogamer. Thanks, Chris.