Uh-oh.
For all the champagne toasts that are no doubt going on over at Take-Two Interactive and its subsidiary Rockstar Games over the grand launch day of Grand Theft Auto IV, there's a bit of a dark cloud brewing.
According to a post on CNET News.com sister site GameSpot, there's a brouhaha afoot in GTA IV forums all over the Internet because of some players' complaints that the game is freezing up on them.
As GameSpot's Brendan Sinclair points out, it was only a month ago that another one of Rockstar's games, Bully had freezing-up problems. Now, with reports of crashes with GTA IV, mostly on the PlayStation 3, but also on the Xbox 360, one has to wonder if perhaps there's someone in Rockstar's QA department that's not doing their job.
Other recent hit games, of course, have also had quality problems. You might recall that some players of Guitar Hero III had problems with their guitar controllers.
So one thing that will certainly help Take-Two and Rockstar get through this relatively unscathed--assuming the reports of GTA IV freezing up are real--is if they react quickly and solve the problem and reach out to their users. If they don't, it won't look good.
I got a hilarious e-mail this morning from video game giant Activision touting the tremendous sales of the latest iteration of its hit franchise, Guitar Hero.
The subject line of the e-mail began, "Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock earns $115 in first week."
After I got through blinking a few times to make sure I was reading it right--I was--I looked into the body of the e-mail and saw that, yes, the company had left out a rather meaningful word: "million."
'Guitar Hero III' netted opening week sales of $115 million, the biggest first week in Activision's history.
(Credit: Activision)So, no, Guitar Hero III didn't sell two copies in its first week. It actually did rather spectacularly, netting the highest opening-week sales for any game in Activision's history, with a total of $115 million in revenues.
That's not bad, though it does pale slightly in comparison to the opening day sales of $170 million for Halo 3, a statistic that Microsoft touted as the single-biggest opening day in entertainment history.
Whatever. It's pretty clear that Guitar Hero III did pretty well, and kudos to Activision, RedOctane--the Activision-owned studio that published the game--and Neversoft, the developers, for that.
I interviewed Dusty Welch, RedOctane's head of publishing today, and the Q&A will be posted within a few days. Please stay tuned for some interesting reading about Welch's thoughts on Guitar Hero's heritage, its future, its place in the market, and lots more.
Here is why Guitar Hero III should change its name to Conrad I: because Conrad puts the rad in Conrad.
[Via Digg.]
If you're one of the millions of people who have shed your dignity to rock out to Guitar Hero and you've been waiting to find out what songs would be included in Harmonix Music System's forthcoming Rock Band, wait no more. I've got you covered.
(Credit:
Amazon)
We're talking dozens of hit songs here, and mostly not the sound-alike covers included in many of these kinds of games.
The track list starts with the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, continues on with David Bowie's Suffragette City, the Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go, Metallica's Enter Sandman, R.E.M.'s Orange Crush, Radiohead's Creep, and many others.
All told, the game will include 58 songs, most of which are the original versions.
Rock Band is slated for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 20, and for PlayStation 2 on December 18. And with Guitar Hero III just now hitting the market, be prepared for bars all over the world to be taken over by a new round of head-banging air guitarists whaling away on OK Go's Here it Goes Again.
God help us.
On Tuesday night at an event space across the street from the Jacob Javits Convention Center, DigitalLife convention parent company Ziff Davis Media held its press kickoff event, but it might as well have been a Guitar Hero III party.
Members of the media could obtain their semi-coveted credentials; New York City technology commissioner Paul Cosgrave gave a brief talk officially designating September 24 to 30 as "Digital Technology Week"; and a set of "Hot Five" featured products--Trend Micro's Internet Security Pro, electronic music company M-Audio, the HD DVD Alliance, the Ford Sync voice-activated in-car entertainment system (a project in conjunction with Microsoft), and the latest Guitar Hero video game title from Red Octane--were given the opportunity to show off their wares before the actual convention started.
That was key. At an event with 60,000 expected attendees, many of the 200-plus Digital Life exhibitors would jump at the chance to show off a piece of hardware or software for a few dozen journalists and analysts in advance.
Cosgrave, however, was all about business. Apologizing for the presence of a whole host of other conventions clogging the city's streets, Cosgrave quickly admitted that "the U.N. (General Assembly) kind of preempted us," and instead chose to focus on a few municipal initiatives that he considered highlights of the city's role as a technological innovator: the 311 non-emergency hotline, the NYC TV media initiative, and the current plan to wire the New York subway system with cell phone access.
He then shifted his discussion to online security, an understandable topic for a government mouthpiece. "With that role (as a digital hub) comes a responsibility," he explained, "and that responsibility is in the form of cyber safety."
The first, and longest-winded "Hot Five" company representative to speak was Trend Micro North America President Lane M. Bess; the security company's new Internet Security Pro consumer software was, after all, the one that fit Cosgrave's theme of cyber-defense most closely. Trend Micro, he said, counts the New York municipal government among its clients.
Unfortunately, Bess was somewhat flustered at the lack of attention he was getting from the crowd. "There's more," he said with regard to his brief speech. "I know you want to get to that Hero Guitar thing. My son loves it!"
That just about summed up the evening. Although Red Octane's hot new game, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was only one of the companies showcased, it was clearly the one that everybody wanted to see. (The Ford Sync came in a distant second, to be fair.) Which led to not only a lack of attention toward the other "Hot" four, but also an overload of Pat Benatar's '80s hit "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" on repeat as members of the press crowded in to show off their shredding skills.
The DigitalLife convention kicks off at 1:00 p.m. ET on Thursday.
(Credit:
Activison)
The game responsible for getting more non-gamers playing (except perhaps Wii Sports and Madden) is Guitar Hero, an addictive mix of rock-and-roll karaoke and Simon Says. The concept is simple, strap on a vaguely guitar-shaped plastic controller, and press the brightly colored buttons in time to music note that float down the screen. That catch is that you're playing along with B and C-list classic rock tunes, and the better you play, the more songs you unlock.
Already a hit on the PS2 and Xbox 360, publisher Activision has to really come up with some new features to get fans to pony up for a third time. Guitar Hero III doesn't exactly break the mold, but adds just enough to keep dedicated fans coming back. Adding the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii to the mix opens the franchise up to new users who have so far been stuck watching from the sidelines (of course, PS3 gamers could get a third-party adapter to hook their guitar controllers up and play the first two games).
The 360, Wii, and PS3 versions come with a new wireless Les-Paul-licensed guitar controller, with swappable faceplates, while the PS2 version has a much less cool wired controller. Seventy new tracks are included, from Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones to Sabotage by the Beastie Boys. Many of the tracks will be by the original artists, rather than the cover versions found in the previous Guitar Hero games, which makes a huge difference
(Credit:
Activision)
A new online multiplayer mode lets you play against other shredders around the world, which is probably the most exciting new feature. The graphics have also gotten a major facelift, although honestly, everyone playing the game is too busy watching the notes fly by to pay attention to the pretend band playing on stage in the background.
After ruling the charts for so long, Guitar Hero III is about to have some serious competition. With EA's Rock Band, featuring guitar, bass, and drum controllers, along with a microphone, picking up some major buzz, it's going to be a real battle of the bands for faux rock games this holiday season.
If you're keeping score, here's a list of confirmed Guitar Hero III tracks. Activision is milking the publicity by releasing a few track names at a time between now and the game's fall release, but did reveal that Guns & Roses guitarist Slash will appear in the game as a boss battle.
A partial track list for the long-awaited third installment of Guitar Hero was released by Activision today.
As usual, the 11-song list offers a nice blend of time-tested rock anthems by the Rolling Stones, Fog Hat, and Alice Cooper, as well as new classics by the likes of the Beastie Boys, Weezer, and Smashing Pumpkins.
In keeping with the inclusion of a Spinal Tap song in Guitar Hero II, the new game will include a song by Tenacious D.
Notable is the fact that seven of the songs on the list are original recordings. In previous versions of Guitar Hero, most songs were cover versions.
Guitar Hero III will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and 3, and the Nintendo Wii. The game's release is slated for this fall.
Here's the 11-track Guitar Hero III track list released by Activision. Full coverage of the announcement is over at GameSpot. (By the way, be sure to check out our video of the Guitar Zeros, a San Francisco band that hacked Guitar Hero controllers to make them into real instruments.)
Original recordings
- Paint It Black (Rolling Stones)
- Cherub Rock (Smashing Pumpkins)
- Sabotage (Beastie Boys)
- The Metal (Tenacious D)
- My Name is Jonas (Weezer)
- Knights of Cydonia (Muse)
- Cult of Personality (Living Colour)
Cover versions
- Rock And Roll All Nite (made famous by Kiss)
- School's Out (made famous by Alice Cooper)
- Slow Ride (made famous by Fog Hat)
- Barracuda (made famous by Heart)
Related links
- prev
- 1
- next
