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'Dance Central' arrives on Oculus this spring
You might have felt like you had cutting-edge moves when you boogied through Dance Central -- thanks to the Kinect -- on Xbox 360, or when you downloaded it on your Kinect-less Xbox One. But soon, you'll be able to tear it up in virtual reality. Harmonix is bringing Dance Central to VR this spring. It'll be available on Oculus Rift and Oculus Rift S, and it's set to be a launch title on the forthcoming Oculus Quest.
Dance Central Spotlight shines September 2
Dance Central Spotlight electric slides through the interwebs into Xbox One on September 2. The core Kinect-required game, which includes 10 songs, will be $9.99. After that, there are another 50 songs to choose from, some of which were also revealed today. The game will be playable for the first time this weekend at San Diego Comic-Con. We've listed the 10 songs included with the game and those available for download after the break.
Harmonix reacts to Kinect-less Xbox One in tweets, statement
Harmonix is the studio behind Xbox One Kinect game Disney Fantasia: Music Evolved, plus Xbox 360's Dance Central franchise, which also relies on Kinect – so Microsoft's announcement of a Kinect-less Xbox One hitting the market for $100 cheaper in June could have a direct impact on how Harmonix does business. Today, we see two reactions from Harmonix: gut and official.
Study: Dance games help bladder control, urinary incontinence
Dance games can help you burn off calories, lose unwanted weight, tone your muscles and teach you some sweet moves to bust out at the next wedding you're invited to. According to a study published in Neurology and Urodynamics, they can also help women with urinary incontinence. Slap that on the next Just Dance game, Ubisoft. Canadian and Swiss researchers wrote that 24 women over the age of 65 experienced a "greater decrease in daily urine leakage than for the usual program (improvement in effectiveness) as well as no dropouts from the program and a higher weekly participation rate (increase in compliance)" over the course of 12 weeks. The researchers did not specify which game was used in the study, and the game itself isn't as crucial to the results as the fact that the participants were engaged in a physical activity. That being said, a Zumba game is more cost effective than a Zumba membership enrollment, and we'd dare say that dancing games can be pretty fun. Maybe that's why participants kept ... well, participating.
Harmonix sites attacked, go down for the weekend
Harmonix notified registered users of RockBand.com and DanceCentral.com that its servers will be down for the weekend due to an apparent attack from an outside source. The developer disabled passwords for all Harmonix site accounts as a precautionary measure, and will require users to reset their passwords when the sites are live again.The email sent to Harmonix site users noted that "at this time, we have not found that any of our users' information has been published or misused. None of our sites maintain any credit card information, social security numbers, or financial account numbers for any of our users."The person behind the attack on Harmonix's sites might not have been a fan of Don McLean, the "American Pie" artist featured in the final piece of weekly Rock Band DLC.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Harmonix has 'three and/or more' new games in the works, and none are Rock Band or Dance Central
There's kind of a lot of stuff going on at Harmonix Music Systems. At least according to Harmonix director of communications and brand management John Drake, who teased a variety of new "Triple A IPs" that the studio has in the works – beyond Dance Central 3 and Rock Band Blitz. "Dance Central and Rock Band are kind of our big established IPs. And man oh man are we working on multiple – like, more than two – new triple A IPs, right now that we can't talk about at all," Drake said on the latest Harmonix podcast.He got even more specific, pointing out that "none of them are Rock Band or Dance Central titles," nor are they re-releases/new versions of Frequency or Amplitude. "It's not a previous game. It's not Led Zeppelin Rock Band. This isn't – I'm not talking about Rock Band 4. I'm not talking about the next Dance Central game. I'm talking about new, crazy stuff."And not necessarily music stuff, either, at least not in the strictest sense. "Some of them are music games, some of them are not full-on rhythm action games. Some of them are brand new things that we created from our gut and brains here at Harmonix. Some are things that we're expanding the universe of," Drake detailed.Though not much concrete information was doled out, Drake was a bit more clear about when we'll hear more. "Crazy stuff to talk about hopefully next year," he said. He worries that one of those projects is more prone to leaking than others, as "There's a lot of people working on one of them." Harmonix? Leak? Never. And it's always possible we'll hear more about those next Dance Central and Rock Band games sooner than the mystery stuff. "There may be some more Rock Band or Dance Central stuff in the works too," he said. The future is unknown.
Three new apps support console games from iOS
As if there aren't enough apps that supplement or promote console games, here are three more that have appeared recently. First up is Dragon Shout (free), the Skyrim-mapping app that was released a few weeks ago. It's quite handy, and players can use it to find almost anything in the vast and wonderful world of Skyrim. By the way, if you're a real Skyrim fan, check out our list of 5 apps for Skyrim. Harmonix has released Dance Central 2 Dance Cam (free), which works with Dance Central for Kinect to record players dancing in real life, and then turn that clip into a music video. It's not a port of Dance Central, but a fun bit of promotion. It comes with seven song clips you can dance to, if you don't have the full game around. Finally and as promised, Activision has released official apps for the Call of Duty Elite program, which let you check your CoD scores, standings, and messages from your iOS device. It's interesting to see how these developers have responded to iOS. Instead of porting terrible versions of high-definition games to Apple's devices, they've used iOS to promote their console titles and provide some extra functionality, which customers associate with the bigger brands. Yes, Dragon Shout is unofficial, but we assume the folks at Bethesda would shut if down if there was a problem.
NPD: Sales of dancing games up 326% over last year
In the US, dancing game sales are up 326% percent year over year, the NPD told the LA Times. That's for the 12-month period ending October 31. Compare that with overall game sales, which rose 3%. Of course, at the end of October last year, Just Dance 2 had only started selling. Since then, it's been doing very well for itself, and has been followed by several spinoffs, including Just Dance Kids (and its sequel!), Michael Jackson: The Experience, The Black Eyed Peas Experience, Just Dance 2 Summer Party, and, of course, Just Dance 3. Too damn many Just Dance games can't claim all the credit for the growth in dancing-machine sales. Dance Central is at somewhere over 2.5 million units, and it's been followed by a sequel; Zumba Fitness has been a phenomenon, and Sony's Everybody Dance is also available. Update: corrected Dance Central sales figures.
How Dance Central saved Harmonix
In 2010, the music-game bubble had burst and Harmonix was on the verge of shutting down; its parent company Viacom was trying desperately to sell, but no company was buying. And then Harmonix dropped Dance Central. Today, Dance Central is the second-best-selling game on Kinect, having sold more than 2.5 million copies -- and from that, Harmonix expects to report $100 million in revenue for 2011, its most profitable year ever. Downloads are a large part of Harmonix's turnaround. It's sold about 100 million songs as paid DLC since 2006 for all of its titles, including Rock Band. At only 200 employees, $100 million isn't too shabby, and with two new titles in the works, Harmonix expects to double its profit in the coming years. Kinda makes you want to get up and dance -- no, wait. That's the fire ants.
Buy Dance Central or Kinect Sports sequel, get original for half off on Amazon
If you're looking into jumping into either the Dance Central or Kinect Sports franchises sequel-first, Amazon's offering you a chance to catch up on your back catalog for peanuts. For a limited time, if you buy Dance Central 2 or Kinect Sports: Season 2, you can get their prequels for half-off.
Dance Central puts its whole catalog on sale
How do you know when you've been at this job too long? We always hoped we'd sense it, that we'd have some sort of signal when it's time to hang up our blogging spurs, and we think it's finally come. Because when we read about the entire Dance Central catalog going on sale in honor of Dance Central 2, here's (no lie) the first headline that came into our heads and refused to leave: "Boogie on a budget." Boogie. On. A budget. You can see all the details of the sale (which continues to Nov. 5) right here. You can see us performing every Tuesday (lasagna night!) at the the Saint Anne's Home for Retired and Destitute Bloggers.
Dance Central adds Pussycat Dolls, Rupee and Timbaland
A trio of fresh songs awaits your bouncing booty in Dance Central. Harmonix has made available three new songs at three bucks a pop each today: "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls (featuring Busta Rhymes), "Tempted to Touch" by Rupee and "The Way I Are" by Timbaland (featuring Keri Hilson and D.O.E.). Of course, being a blog that prides itself on masterful use of the English language, we're trying our best to ignore the title of that last song.
Dance Central choreography featured in fashionable Lanvin ad
Fashion gets fun in a new ad from Lanvin, featuring the song "I Know You Want Me" by Pitbull and uncredited choreography that should be familiar to anyone who has played Dance Central. We wanted to make sure we weren't seeing things, so we checked with Harmonix to find out if they recognized the choreo. "It appears to be a combo of moves from a few songs off Dance Central, so they must have had the models bustin' for a while," Harmonix's communications director John Drake told Joystiq. "It's pretty clear that everyone wants to play multiplayer in Dance Central 2, whether you're wearing sweat pants or couture fashion. Though you might work up quite a sweat doing full body choreography in the fall line." Yes, John. But we'd look fabulous doing it! [Thanks, Victor T.]
Dance Central sales step up to 2.5M, Kinect Sports kickin' it with 3M
Kinect Sports and Dance Central have reached 3 million and 2.5 million unit sales, Microsoft's Michael Johnson, global marketing director for Kinect games, told us at Gamescom earlier today. Dance Central has performed stronger in North America, while Kinect Sports has found a larger audience in Europe. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg called the two games Kinect's "breakout hits" for the publisher when he announced back in January that the titles had reached a million sales in the US. The Kinect device surpassed 10 million units globally in March. So, it probably comes as no coincidence that both franchises will receive sequels this year. Dance Central 2 talks to the hand this October, while Kinect Sports: Season 2 has a retail field day on October 25.
Three new tracks coming to Dance Central on August 16
Bounced your booty through the entire Dance Central catalog? Fret not, for Harmonix has announced three new tracks are headed to the game as DLC. James Brown's "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine, Pt. 1," Sean Paul's "Get Busy" and Lloyd's "Get It Shawty" can be downloaded for 240 MS Points ($3) each come August 16. These tracks are the latest in a slow trickle of DLC that has supplemented the game since its launch alongside Microsoft's Kinect peripheral back in November.
Dance Central adding Afrika Bambaataa, Taio Cruz, Trey Songz tracks
Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force's "Planet Rock (Original 12" Version)" will be available tomorrow for Dance Central. Be sure to grab a flattened cardboard box and prepare to become a breakdancing fool in your living room.
Dance Central tracks discounted on Xbox Live this week
Dance Central beats are price dropping until June 20 for Xbox Live Gold members. The "Dance Central Marathon Pack" for 1680 MSP ($21, 50% off) is the best deal for 14 songs. The Marathon Pack includes all the tracks from the four individually discounted track packs (1, 2, 3, 4) except for three: Missy Elliot's "We Run This," Sean Paul's "Temperature" and Chic's "Le Freak." If you've got your heart set on any of those three tracks, you'll have to pick them up in their respective discounted pack for 640 MSP ($7.50, 33% off). There are also some singles for 160 MSP ($2, 33% off) that are included in packs or individually. Yeah, it's about as confusing as learning to Bernie for the first time.
New 'Fergalicious' Dance Central tracks
Sick of 5-0 runnin' up on the block, informer? Then get fergalicious with a lapdance and three new Dance Central tracks, coming tomorrow.
Analysts consider dance genre 'bubble,' Ubisoft says more 'The Experience' games possible
Ubisoft's Just Dance and its successful clones like Michael Jackson: The Experience, along with Harmonix's Dance Central, have established the dance genre as a viable market for milking. Now the industry must play the delicate game of sucking the marrow dry without creating a zombie. Gamasutra hit up go-to industry analysts Michael Pachter and Jesse Divnich for their takes on the sustainability of the genre. Both analysts essentially characterized dance games as part of a bubble that is largely unaffected by critical reception (UK hit Zumba Fitness has a 43 on Metacritic). "In short, yes, the dance category is a bubble," said Divnich, "much like most things in entertainment." That doesn't mean that the bubble is about to burst -- or that the bottle of suds is close to empty. At least, Ubisoft is planning to keep on dipping in. The publisher's Tony Key teased that Michael Jackson: The Experience is "just the first 'The Experience' brand." He added that there's no reason why "another artist can't make a great dance game under 'The Experience brand,'" but didn't pitch any bright ideas. The Smurfs, anyone?
Dance Central adds Tone Loc, Dem Franchize Boyz, Justice on April 19
No "Funky Cold Medina" 'round these parts, just folks doing the "Wild Thing." Dance Central is adding three more pieces of DLC on April 19.
