Posts Tagged ‘rumor’

Looks like we may already have an update as to what songs we can expect to be seeing in Green Day: Rock Band.  Sent to me from @toymachinesh, and posted on Scorehero.com is the image above, which looks to be like a Canadian scan of Green Day: Rock Band for the Wii. (ESRB rating, French description markings… hence, Canada.)  There are 22 songs listed, which means there are 25 still not listed.  Click on the image above for a higher res image, but here’s the tracks that are listed on the back of the game:

• 21st Century Breakdown
• American Idiot
• Basket Case
• Before the Lobotomy
• Boulevard of Broken Dreams
• Brain Stew
• Chump
• Geek Stink Breath
• Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
• Holiday
• Homecoming
• Horseshoes and Handgrenades
• Jesus of Suburbia
• Longview
• She’s a Rebel
• Song of the Century
• St. Jimmy
• The Static Age
• Wake Me Up When September Ends
• Warning
• Welcome to Paradise
• When I Come Around

Big shout out to @BrittenKinley for sending this my way.  From a Green Day site down in Brazil comes this little morsel.  Could this be the cover art for the forthcoming Green Day: Rock Band game?  Or could this be a fairly decent photoshop?  I could use the help of you Rock Band sleuths out there… real or fake?

UPDATE: Hey, what do you know… I was right!  Here’s the official box art: Xbox 360, PS3, Wii

[Huge thanks to @BrittenKinley!]

Yes, I know... Photoshop is not my strong suit...

It sure has been an interesting 2010 so far.  A few weeks ago, we learned about some not so good news for both the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises, and last week came comments from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick that he wishes he also acquired Harmonix when he obtained Red Octane and the rights to Guitar Hero.

Well, now it looks like some franchise mix-up speculation has begun, and frankly, I’m surprised it took so long.  Up until the end of last year, it was not uncommon for the two franchises to take friendly potshots at each other.  When comparing in-game features, or set lists, or even financial results, comments were being spun (or outright lied about) on how one respective franchise was better than the other.  In comes 2010, and as some doomsayers have said, the music gaming genre is dying.  Granted, I’ve got a vested interest to the contrary, but I believe in the down economy, newer casual gamers were less likely to invest $250 on a shiny, new bundle than in previous years.

But with the bad financial news, it appears that both franchises are preparing for the future.  While I think if the Rock Band Network is successful, it has the potential to establish itself as a new, potentially permanent, form of music and media interaction.  And Guitar Hero doesn’t seem to be preparing for the future, as much as bracing for it.  With much of the attention on music gaming being negative thus far, it appears that a truce has been established between the two tribes, but why?

Now the folks at Kotaku have found a new blog post where speculation has begun as to what the future looks like for the franchises… from a potentially mutual perspective.

Here’s a quick summary:

1. MTV Games wants the “platform war” to end.
2. EA is unlikely to extend the distribution agreement with Viacom/Harmonix when it expires at the end of fiscal year 2011.
3. Viacom is trying to reclaim $150 million it paid to Harmonix employees based on 2007 performance.
4. Viacom wants to pay lower royalties for music included in Rock Band (3 and 4 combined: Viacom is making much, much less money from music games than they thought they would).
5. Bobby Kotick said that Activision made a mistake not partering with Harmonix.

Excellent hypothesis, and like I said before, I’m surprised this wasn’t posited earlier.  But unfortunately, I submit a different theory of what I envision happening…

Viacom purchased Harmonix for MTV Games, and whether they may not have been as financially successful as they intended, Rock Band does have the potential for excellent synergies with MTV and VH1, so I don’t see Viacom selling Harmonix anytime soon.  And for Viacom, the majority of the sunk cost for Harmonix is there, so a long term relationship has the potential to outweigh the short term growing pains.  Activision on the other hand doesn’t seem as confident as it used to be in Guitar Hero.  For all intents and purposes, Neversoft and Red Octane have been sacked, and the future of the franchise is being put on the shoulders of the JV team, Vicarious Visions.  If the varsity squad, Neversoft, couldn’t beat Harmonix, I have a tough time believing VV will, but nevertheless, the franchise according to Activision still has a future, for now.  According to some wordsmithing by Viacom, Rock Band’s DLC model seems to be successful, but not successful enough, however is arguably better than Guitar Hero’s DLC platform.  With Rock Band’s DLC platform to increase greatly once the RBN store goes live, I can only assume that Guitar Hero would like to have a piece of that action.

Now, I’ve always compared the RBN to iTunes in the way it provides content, and for my hypothesis, it still provides an excellent comparison.  Similar to iTunes, you can only play Rock Band DLC within the Rock Band franchise.  But what if iTunes was threatened with a dwindling market?  Do you think they would open up their iTunes store so that users of non-Apple branded devices like the Zune could purchase and use content?  Is it possible that in the future, Rock Band DLC could be cross-platform compatible?  To take it a step further, could both franchises create exclusive, yet cross-compatible content?

I don’t think the idea is that crazy.  Although we have two different engines, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are already capable of playing a different drum track based on what franchise’s drum peripheral is connected to the console.  And this way, you could still remain loyal to your favorite franchise, but not miss out on the other’s tracks.  If Rock Band and Guitar Hero both get the rights to a particular song, think of the efficiencies gained if only one programmer has to chart the song, instead of two companies!  If you could buy Guitar Hero games (which had exclusive content to the franchise) and export them to Rock Band, and vice versa, it’s a win-win for all parties involved.  Imagine playing Metallica and Van Halen in Rock Band, or Green Day (and possibly even Beatles) in Guitar Hero.

Where does EA fit in this?  It is still unknown, but I don’t think joining up with your competitor makes the most sense just yet.

So… Will this format war end the same as the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD war, with a definitive winner and loser, or will it continue as an two-party market for the foreseeable future?

So by now we all know that Green Day: Rock Band is official. A live Pearl Jam project was teased last year, but no official details have been announced. There have also been rumors about separate projects for The Who, U2, and Pink Floyd.

Now, we have a rumor coming out of the LA Times that, according to step-sister Janie, Jimi Hendrix may be getting his own Rock Band project due out by the end of the year. No other details were mentioned in there piece, but with at least one song in Rock Band (“Fire”), it makes it easier to believe there may be more tracks coming, due to licensing issues.

Janie signed an agreement which migrates the rights to his catalog from Universal Music to Sony, who vowed to make his music “available through every type of media.”

UPDATE: According to a spokesperson from Harmonix (via Joystiq):

While we have not made any official announcements regarding Jimi Hendrix and Rock Band, we are excited to say that we are in discussions to bring more of his music to our platform. Stay tuned.

…You know the rules… sound off in the comments below…

[via LA Times]

Sorry I can’t be a little more sure about this, but David Coverdale, lead singer of Whitesnake, dropped the less-than-franchise-definite bomb on Blabbermouth.net recently when asked whether we could see any Whitesnake songs in our favorite music game.

Yes.  I recently approved a couple of songs, “Here I Go Again” and “Still Of The Night”, for inclusion in both games. I can’t remember which one, tho’… You shall have to wait and see. Sorry it took so long.

Oh, please, please, please let it be Rock Band!  I still remember “Here I Go Again” coming out right around the time that I… well… I was becoming a man.  Thank you, Tawny Kitaen (and I’m not taking about that terrible home video show you co-hosted with Dave Coulier).  I know it’s dated now, but when that came out… wow.  The video (see below) doesn’t age that well at all, just like Tawny Kitaen, but you young kids need to understand that this is all we had when we were growing up in the 80’s.

[Blabbermouth.net via Destructoid]

There’s been no official word out of Harmonix about the official release day for Green Day: Rock Band, but video game retailer Gamestop may have spilled the beans on when we can expect this on our next gen consoles.  Right now, Gamestop is listing Green Day: Rock Band releasing on Tuesday, June 1st.  I know Gamestop has inadvertently done this before, but sometimes they’re aren’t always right.  This would make sense, however.  It would be the perfect time for the game to come out, with all kids being home from school for the summer (which is arguably their target demo for this game).  Gamestop is also listing the price at $59.99 for the Xbox 360 and PS3, and $49.99 for the Wii.

Does any of this info (particularly the price) change your purchasing decisions?

[via Gamestop - Thanks to @BrittenKinley for the tip!]