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The many hats of Demiurge Studios
Shoot Many Robots is Boston-based Demiurge Studios' first original game, and my hands-on with it at GDC was the first time that anyone at the developer ever gave a press demo. Studio head Albert Reed was, unsurprisingly, excited to delve into the studio's origins. "We got our start doing mods for Unreal Tournament. It was me and two other college buddies doing mods in the frickin' computer cluster at Carnegie Mellon. I'm not kidding!" Reed told me before showing off Shoot Many Robots last week. "Then one thing lead to another and those companies that were licensing Unreal Engine started hiring us," Reed added humbly. It turns out that the folks hiring Demiurge were developers like Gearbox Software, Irrational Games, BioWare, and Harmonix. "We did some work on the first level -- the lighthouse and that sort of descent into Rapture," Reed told me, casually explaining that his studio clandestinely assisted with one of gaming's most iconic openings: the beginning of BioShock.
Music game sales continue plunge down the charts
If this sounds like a familiar tune, it is: Music game sales have plummeted for a second-straight year. But this year, the tune is way more off key. According to analysis by Gamasutra, which looked at the period from January through October in each of the past three years, music game revenues in the U.S. have taken a phenomenal nose dive from an epic height of $1.6 billion in 2008 to where they've landed today: under $250 million for the year. "Short of a Christmas miracle," concludes analyst Matt Matthews, "music games won't break $400 million for all of 2010." Ohhh ... so that's why Viacom's hawking Harmonix.
Viacom loses less on Rock Band year-over-year
It seems Viacom's striking fewer sour notes this year, with operating profits up $789 million -- good for 14 percent -- in its Media Networks division (the umbrella its video game business is under). According to the mega-corp, gains are due in part to lower losses from the Rock Band franchise. You know, we dinged Green Day: Rock Band for being a less lavish production than its Beatles-based predecessor, but it seems that (from a big picture perspective at least) the scaled-back approach and getting out of the instrument biz is paying off.
Review: Green Day: Rock Band
Kerplunk: A Play in One Act Lights up. We're in a mid-size sedan somewhere near the middle of the country where friends Seth and Frank are road-tripping to an annual combination conference and competition for the best air guitarists, air drummers and karaoke singers: The Ruby Bridge Concertition. Seth: [polishing off the last bite of a drive-thru roast beef sandwich] Some guys are just in it to pick up chicks at the bonfire or to meet C-Diddy, but the one thing I really can't wait for? Frank: The Concertition? Seth: Hell yes, The RB Concertition! Hours and hours of every decent air musician on the planet rocking until their air calluses bleed? Don't mind if I do. I always liked it when they did a bunch of different bands, but the all-Beatles thing last year? Ho-lee shit, that made a believer outta me. Frank: Dude, didn't I tell you? I saw a rehearsal for this year's show! If you thought The Beatles thing was sick, wait until you see what they've got this year. All night and all morning you're going to be feasting your fingers on the one ... the only – Seth: Tell me! Frank: GREEN DAY! Seth: [a long pause] ... What, are you f**king with me? %Gallery-87997%
Keyboards teased for Rock Band 3 in Green Day demo
Dookieheads (that's what Green Day fans are colloquially referred to, right?) who downloaded the two-track Green Day: Rock Band demo from Xbox Live Marketplace today (gold subscribers only) found a little bonus waiting for them when they exited the demo: The teaser image posted above. Alongside the series' four iconic instrument logos is a whole new symbol, which seems to indicate that keyboards (or perhaps ... keytars?) will be added to Rock Band 3. You can check out the demo, which includes the songs "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Welcome to Paradise," to see the teaser firsthand, and to start imagining all the wonderful implications a Rock Band keyboard might have. [Thanks, Neil] Xbox.com: Add Green Day: Rock Band demo to your Xbox 360 download queue
Harmonix polling fan interest in future Rock Band titles
How do you feel about Led Zeppelin getting their own Rock Band title? Maybe you'd be happier with Pink Floyd or The Eagles? Perhaps U2? Yeah, none of those sound particularly enthralling to us either. Thankfully, Harmonix gave us the option to write in our own choice (Flock of Seagulls, duh!) for a possible future artist-specific Rock Band title via a recent poll offered on the developer's forums. Not interested in more one-group/artist RB titles? That's also an option! Harmonix explains the poll as a way to interact with its community and solicit fan response to future titles that are being considered. "With the release of Green Day: Rock Band just a few days away, we wanted to take the opportunity to ask all of you to tell us about which other artists you might want to see as the focus of future artist specific games." As you might imagine, though, the company says it's not planning on making any of these games for sure just yet. "This survey isn't a guarantee that Harmonix is going to make games based on any of these bands, but community feedback is and always has been absolutely invaluable to us in determining our focus within the world of Rock Band as we move forward." We're holding out hope that a group of hardcore Scott Stapp fans aren't secretly plotting to overwhelm the poll with requests for Creed: Rock Band. [Via Blast Magazine]
Green Day: Rock Band more familiar to 'core audience' than The Beatles, MTV Games says
The Beatles are a tough act to follow. And so, several weeks from the release of Green Day: Rock Band, publisher MTV Games has some promoting to do. MTV Games GM Scott Gutherie recently explained the reasoning behind picking the younger, less "classic rock"–oriented band for its next single-act music game following The Beatles: Rock Band. "We were pleased with the performance of Beatles: Rock Band, but we were expecting higher sales," Guthrie said. "Our core audience of 16- to 34-year-old males are much more familiar with Green Day music than The Beatles." Targeting the core gaming audience with a band active during their lifetimes certainly seems like a sensible business move, though it does signal a move away from the kind of market expansion MTV and Harmonix were attempting with Beatles. However, Guthrie's suggestion that "Green Day probably has a much higher awareness than perhaps The Beatles did" seems like a stretch. Everyone knows The Beatles. The clear market advantage that the Green Day game does have is the benefit of being compatible with Rock Band's existing and ever-growing library, as its tracks are exportable (for a fee) to Xbox 360 and PS3 hard drives and playable in the main iterations of the series. Though Guthrie didn't say as much, it's possible Beatles sales suffered because the game was a standalone project, which didn't mesh well with the Rock Band ethos and its core demographic. %Gallery-87997%
Green Day: Rock Band Achievements walk a lonely road
So, you not only want to play Green Day: Rock Band, you want to be the best at playing Green Day: Rock Band? You want some metric by which to measure your Billie Joe-bility against that of your friends and colleagues? MyGamerCard recently got its hands on the list of Achievements for the game -- which will presumably double as the Trophies, though we don't yet know which precious metals each task falls under. Check out the full list of trials posted after the jump!
No DLC for Green Day: Rock Band
We hope that Dookie, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown are your favorite Green Day albums, because that's all you're getting in Green Day: Rock Band. Speaking to Plastic Axe, Rock Band project lead Chris Foster revealed that Green Day won't receive any DLC beyond the 21st Century Breakdown tracks that are already available on the Rock Band store. According to Foster, Harmonix has crafted "sculpted experiences for every single song" complete with specific animations. Unlike the dreamscapes of The Beatles: Rock Band, the work that's been done on other tracks can't simply be reconfigured for Green Day. As such, Foster said that the team decided instead to focus on rounding out 21st Century Breakdown with the already available tracks, which will feature their own motion capture, assets and bonuses that fully tie into the game. Maybe not the best news, but it's not like the band sings about the boulevard of fulfilled dreams, does it? [Via 1UP]
Full Green Day: Rock Band track list revealed
Over the past few months, we've received a handful of confirmations of tracks appearing in Green Day: Rock Band, but Entertainment Weekly's Music Mix blog just got its hands on the whole kit-n-caboodle. You can find the game's full 47-song track list just past the jump. Looks like we're in for sizable chunks of American Idiot, Dookie and 21st Century Breakdown, with light smatterings of Warning, Nimrod and Insomniac. The songs will be split among three different venues signifying different periods during the band's career. The American Idiot tracks are played at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, where they recorded their live DVD Bullet in a Bible. More than a dozen tracks will be played at the Fox Theater in the band's hometown of Oakland. Finally, songs from Dookie will be played at the "Warehouse" -- a mock-up of the "house parties and squats" at which the band got its start. Also, if you're laughing because we wrote "dookie" and "squats" in the same sentence, then congratulations, you're eleven years old. [Thanks, Jake]
Green Day: Rock Band features all of 'American Idiot'
In a recent interview with G4TV, Harmonix's Chris Foster revealed that Green Day's dumbest album will be featured in its entirety in the band's upcoming dedicated rhythm game. Yes, Green Day: Rock Band will feature all 13 tracks from the rock outfit's 2004 album "American Idiot," which features the song "American Idiot," which starts, "Don't wanna be an American Idiot." We know there are plenty of youngsters who prefer "American Idiot," but we'd much rather hear that all of "Dookie" or "Insomniac" would be included in the game. Or all of "Vox Humana." Which -- nope, wait. Yeah, that's Kenny Loggins. We mixed up Green Day and Kenny Loggins again.
Rock Band 3 to have vocal harmonies, Harmonix (accidentally) confirms
At Harmonix's PAX East 2010 panel, five Rock Band designers answered questions from the audience for "An Awkward Hour" with one major stipulation: No questions about Rock Band 3. However, when an audience member inquired whether Green Day: Rock Band songs would still have harmonies when imported into RB2, Harmonix Project Lead Chris Foster began listing off the games with harmony support. "We've said Rock Band 3 would have harmonies already, right?" Foster asked his fellow panelists, who responded with a booming, "No!" Foster clammed up without revealing more details about Rock Band 3's harmonies (or even answering the attendee's original question), only mentioning, "It's been nice working at Harmonix." (We think he was joking about that last part.)
Harmonix gets its 'Brain Stewed' by Green Day: Rock Band
The one track we were most looking forward to from Green Day: Rock Band was, of course, "Brain Stew/Jaded" from the outfit's 1995 album. It's a powerful, triumphant tune -- and, apparently, it's also super hard. The Harmonix crew attempted the song during last night's "Rock Band Bar Night" event at GDC, and -- well, it ended in tears. Or rather, jeers. You can check out some off-screen footage of their tremendous failure above, or footage of them actually playing the game past the jump. To be fair, the drummer didn't see the flurry of notes coming at him, due to his attempt to refresh himself with some libations. You know who else was enjoying a few beverages? The drunk dude who kept trying to throw the devil horns up in front of our camera while we were filming. Really, drunk dude? Really?
Green Day: Rock Band releases June 8 worldwide
That's right, folks -- Harmonix has just revealed that Green Day: Rock Band will be available for all come June 8 on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Up to 6 players (3 mics; 3 instruments) will progress through the career of the trio, unlocking collectible images (more than 100, apparently) and some 40 minutes of "rare and unreleased" footage from interviews, outtakes and performances along the way. As alluded to above, GD:RB will also sport the same vocal harmonizing feature that made The Beatles: Rock Band such a delight for mic hogs and comes loaded with 47 Green Day tracks, including "Brain Stew," "Jaded," "Hitchin' a Ride," "American Idiot," "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Oh, and if you're looking to export these tunes, worry not: all 47 tracks are fully exportable to a console hard drive and playable in Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and the recently announced Rock Band 3. The export fee is $9.99 via Xbox Live or PSN. The export features is not available for the Wii system. Additionally, if you've picked up the six Green Day tunes already available as DLC, you can play them in the new game with added harmonies, "unique" visuals and more "exclusive archival material." Green Day: Rock Band will be available as a standalone game for Xbox 360 and PS3 for $59.99, while Wii owners will get a bit of a price break at $49.99. A special edition Green Day: Rock Band Plus will also come to Xbox 360 and PS3 for $69.99 and includes fancy packaging, an "export" feature (we assume, a voucher to export the disc tracks to the hard drive) and the six previously released Green Day DLC tracks. Update: The GameStop pre-order bonus for the standalone game is an export voucher (for Xbox 360 or PS3). Essentially, pre-order GD:RB from GameStop, and you can export all 47 tracks to your console hard drive for free. %Gallery-87997%
Report: Jimi Hendrix getting Rock Band treatment [update]
While Activision may be moving away from heaping artist-centric Guitar Hero games on the market, it appears Rock Band is sliding in there to fill the void. According to a story in the L.A. Times, Jimi Hendrix stepsister Janie (who also controls his estate) says that a Rock Band game based on the legendary guitarist is slated to arrive before year's end. We know that the officially announced Green Day: Rock Band won't be the only franchise release this year, so Hendrix: Rock Guy is definitely a possibility. But the mainstream press is bad enough about confusing Rock Band and Guitar Hero that we'll hold off on placing our pre-orders until we've heard something official. Wow, either the L.A. Times is wrong or Slash is wrong. Whoever wins, we lose. [Update: We just heard back from a Harmonix spokesperson, and there isn't a standalone product in the works. The official statement: "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."] [Via Billboard; thanks, TheWeaponeer]
Harmonix cooperatively developing Green Day: Rock Band with Demiurge, MK12, others
MTV Games has confirmed that Harmonix is working on Green Day: Rock Band. The reiteration follows the widespread misinterpretation of a Demiurge Studios designer's personal blog post, specifically this line: "Not included in the [VGA] announcement was the fact that Demiurge Studios was working on Green Day: Rock Band." A spokesperson for the publisher told Joystiq in a statement, "Green Day: Rock Band is being developed by Harmonix in partnership with Demiurge, MK12 and others." This is not Demiurge's first time working with Harmonix on Rock Band: the studio had also previously worked on the Rock Band Country Track Pack and the Rock Band Metal Track Pack.
Green Day: Rock Band won't be the only Rock Band in 2010
Some were disappointed to find out that Harmonix's follow-up to The Beatles: Rock Band was Green Day: Rock Band. MTV Games' Paul DeGooyer says the band was heavily demanded on the official Rock Band forums and added that a dedicated game would "satisfy a good amount of the constituency." DeGooyer, perhaps attempting to appease naysayers, also told Newsarama.com that "it's of course not going to be our only game this year." So what is this mystery Rock Band game that DeGooyer is referring to? Most likely, it's the inevitable-but-not-quite-officially-announced Rock Band 3. While The Beatles and Green Day will take advantage of vocal harmonies, it seems Harmonix has other significant updates to make for the Rock Band platform. "As efficient as digital distribution is, there are still things that are much more efficiently delivered as a disc. In terms of major upgrades, I mean. That said, we haven't announce any formal plans for a sequel game ... yet." Of course, we could be wrong about this whole "Rock Band 3" nonsense. Perhaps Harmonix will make our dreams come true with their real secret project: Jonas Brothers: Rock Band.
Spike VGA 2009 Wrap-up: The awards, the trailers, the premieres
As you can probably tell by looking at our front page, last night's Spike Video Game Awards show was a pretty prolific source of gaming news. From the big reveals of games like Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2, to new trailers for Crackdown 2 and Halo: Reach, to ... well, the actual awards, it was a pretty busy night for all parties involved. We've collected all the stories, trailers, and winners of each award in this post to prevent you from hunting through our archives -- or our hateful, hateful liveblog -- to find what you're looking for. You'll find them all listed after the jump!
Green Day: Rock Band trailer unveiled, songs will be exportable
One of the least surprising "World Exclusive" reveals during last night's Video Game Awards show was the unveiling of Harmonix's next single-band opus, Green Day: Rock Band. In case you missed out on the late-to-the-party announcement, you can check out the debut trailer after the jump. If you don't feel like watching a streaming video at the moment, we'll summarize: It looks a heck of a lot like when you play those Green Day DLC songs on Rock Band 2. The MTV Games press release that landed in our inbox shortly after the trailer aired contained one particularly interesting piece of news -- unlike The Beatles: Rock Band, all of the tracks in Green Day's outing will be exportable to the core Rock Band games. In addition, all the Green Day DLC released so far for the music platform, as well as the three 21st Century Breakdown tracks that will hit this Tuesday, will be compatible with Green Day: Rock Band. No release date has been given thus far, but the presser specifies that its coming to the Wii, PS3 and 360.
MTV teases 'Green Day Rock Band' [update 2]
Update 2: Yeah, it's real. Check out this clip from the VGAs to see the eyeliner-wearing band's big announcement. Update: We also spotted some of the trailer during the "Rehearsal Sneak Peek" video over at Spike, which Geoff Keighley followed up with "You gotta tune into the VGAs to see the announcement of the next Rock Band game." Sure sounds like a full Rock Band game to us! While perusing the internet today, we happened upon a particularly interesting video of Green Day performing "American Idiot" on MTV.com -- though rather than the usual real-life version of Green Day, Rock Band avatars of the group took the position, followed closely by the logo you see above. Is it a full standalone Rock Band game with Green Day? Is it a really robust downloadable content pack? We'd bet our bottom dollar that we'll find out in a few hours when the Spike VGAs start. As per usual, we've fired off an email to MTV Games and Harmonix to find out what's up in the meantime. Check out the full video after the break. [Via Jared Rea's Twitter]
