The Beatles are arguably the most iconic band of all time. For years, music lovers around the world have flocked to the band’s music to raise their spirits and hearken back to better days. With the release of The Beatles Rock Band, gamers are given the unique opportunity to step foot in the virtual shoes of a Beatle and follow their path of success through a portion of their catalog. The result is a terrifically fun, albeit short gaming experience that should not be missed.
I caught a few minutes of a blurb on Bloomberg about Viacom banking huge on the The Beatles: Rock Band release this week. You can catch it here. MTV Games is a subsidiary of Viacom and they are expecting to make their year on this one title. As the video says this is expected to turn around last months 46% slump in sales. That is one hell of a turn around for one title.
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There are more shows on MTV besides spoiled teens running around spending their parents money and interning at fashion magazines. MTV has their “True Life” series which portrays people of a certain disposition in a “real” fashion. MTV did a special called, “I am a Gamer” which highlighted the lives of a Golden Tee player, a gaming clan,the world’s best Unreal Tournament player, and the world’s best Pac-man player. You know, the bad guy from “Fistful of Quarters”. He makes hot sauce and has long hair. We think he is kind of a jerk.
Anyway, MTV is casting for this show. Who knows, it may get you laid. Maybe. Here is the link. Show up and get your 15 minutes of fame. All of those hours you spent playing Diablo II need to count for something, right?
Another rapper has decided to challenge all gamers. 50 Cent has had a chance to play Blood on the Sand, since he is the star of it after all and has decided that he would like to challenge any of you out there to beat him at his own game.
“I actually had the opportunity to play it, and I’m pretty good at it,” he said. “If anybody out there wants to create a challenge or wants to bet some money online, we could play the game right now.”
Now, I have no knowledge as to how good 50 Cent is at games in general, but if I had to venture a guess I would say he is just average. I would like to take this opportunity to call on all gamers, any gamer for that matter, to take on 50 Cent and destroy him in this game. Maybe that would finally put this whole silly “rappers vs. gamers” thing to rest. Playing games is nothing like rapping because gaming requires at least some talent. Yeah, I went there.
If any one is interested 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand is due for release in January and it has also been revealed that there are 19 exclusive tracks included in the game.
[Via MTV Multiplayer]
MTV’s Rock Band Battle special airs today at 1:00 P.M. ET/PT and if you missed that one for whatever valid excuse you have, it airs again at 6:00 P.M. ET/PT. The show will be hosted by comedian Dan Levy with actress Carrie Keagan taking on co-hosting duties. The one hour special will have five Rock Band groups competing head to head for prizes.
No information is given on how the groups were chosen to be contestants on the show but by the looks of things I doubt they were chosen by tournament style elimination, though I could be wrong. The contestants will be scored on how well they play the game and how well they impress the audience with their stage presence.
The winning band will walk away with some pretty nice equipment:
I already know that I could take any one of these bands on all by lonesome so just send me a single prize and we can call it even. Thanks MTV.
We finally have some positive financial news coming from the game industry, sort of. When MTV acquired Harmonix it seems they placed a few incentives into the deal. Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy received 150 million dollars last quarter and will receive another payment in 2009 which will exceed 150 million dollars. That’s over 300 million dollars just in bonuses for the hard working founders of our beloved Rock Band franchise.
MTV’s parent company, Viacom released a statement explaining why they are paying Harmonix so much money even though they as a company are performing poorly financially,
“We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high, but it’s based on what they have achieved,” Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew told Bloomberg. “If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that’s ok.”
I applaud you Viacom for taking the high road unlike most giant corporations and giving back to your employees just like you promised.
[Via Gamesindustry.biz]
It has happened. The Beatles will finally be gracing a rhythm game next Holiday season (that’s 2009 folks). Harmonix/MTV Games and Apple Corp, the company that represents the Beatles, held a conference call this morning to announce the joint venture.
The details are slim for now, but we know it will be a full game based on The Beatles’ music. You’ll be able to follow the band from their humble beginnings all the way through the huge hits. It’ll have the Rock Band feel, so gameplay-wise, I wouldn’t expect anything crazy. All your instruments will work, so don’t worry about having to buy new gear.
Getting to hear it all go down live this morning was pretty fun. I was really hoping to hear “and you’ll be able to download Beatles tracks in Rock Band this week”, but I guess we’ll have to wait a while. It’s gonna be awesome either way.
To say that I’ve been addicted to Rock Band since its release last Holiday season would be an understatement. I hit up the drums on a regular, almost daily basis and have bought more DLC than I care to mention. When Rock Band 2 was announced, I got all giddy like a school girl. New songs aside, the enhanced Tour mode and other additions tickled my fancy. Did it all pan out as well as it sounded? Short answer: yes.
Let’s get this out of the way: it’s still Rock Band. The tweaks and updates aren’t Earth-shattering and the game still plays like the original, which is in no way a bad thing. Presentation is almost identical, with the exception of a slightly different combo meter (it’s tilted in so it looks like it’s flat along the note chart). You have some new options available when creating your character as well, but otherwise, the game looks the same as the first incarnation. Quick Play song selection has also been tweaked to look more like the Rock Band Store, showing the difficulty ratings of each song as you go scroll though the lists. For some reason, though, it only shows your highest score for each track and not the number of stars you’ve achieved, which makes it difficult to keep a running tally of how many Gold Star songs you’ve completed.
Remember that debacle we talked about this morning with Konami putting restrictions on reviews of Metal Gear Solid 4? Adam Sessler of G4’s X-play got to speak with Stephen Totilo about how the all is going down. Check out from the mouth who broke the story.
According to a source at MTV, Microsoft has been working on motion controller similar to Wii remote since last summer.
It’s said that the project is being led by Rare as they create a unified interface and look for the controller. No other concrete details are known, however MTV’s source sketched out what the controller looks like.
How many more types of controllers does the Xbox 360 need? I have wired and wireless controllers as well as Big Button Pads for Scene It. Now we’re going to need Wii Remote style controllers too? No word on how the motion controls will interface with the Xbox 360. But I can tell you this, I have no more room another sensor bar on top of my TV.
Thanks to EHT for sending this in!
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