mtv-games
Latest
Mad Catz re-releasing Rock Band 3 with its peripherals
When our review called Rock Band 3 "the only rhythm game you'll ever need," we didn't know it'd be taken quite so literally. Mad Catz announced today that it would be releasing a follow-up to the Harmonix masterpiece ... in the form of Rock Band 3. Yes, the peripheral powerhouse has taken over publishing duties and will put the game back on shelves this holiday season. The re-release may seem like an unconventional deal (and it is) but it's easy to see the logic. For starters, the game's original publisher, MTV Games, doesn't exist any more. Plus, Mad Catz is getting more involved with the publishing world and is already the official manufacturer of Rock Band instruments. Mad Catz says it will bundle the game with its various instruments including the Fender Mustang guitar/controller hybrid, though not the drum kit as far as we can tell. We're also looking into platforms -- thus far, we know only that Mad Catz has a publisher license agreement for Xbox 360. We've reached out for comment and will let you know what we hear back. Update: For the moment, 360 is the only platform Mad Catz will confirm the rerelease for. Specific bundle details are still to come.
Deadliest Warrior: Legends to pulverize PSN on July 26
Deadliest Warrior: Legends may be old (spiked) hat for Xbox 360 owners, but for those of us with access only to a PS3, the game has yet to arrive. That's all about to change, as 345 Games tells Joystiq that its latest release will head to the PlayStation Network Store on July 26, pointy blade-equipped staff and all. Like its XBLA launch, Deadliest Warrior: Legends will run you $10 when it arrives in the coming weeks. No explanation was offered for the disparity in launch between 360 and PS3, but we're told Sun Tzu sends his sincerest apologies.
Harmonix on the state of post-MTV Rock Band DLC
In a new interview with Game Informer, Chris Rigopulos, VP of strategy and business development at Harmonix, addresses the state of downloadable content for Rock Band now that the studio is no longer under MTV. Rigopulos said that Harmonix has "effectively severed all ties with MTV, and all proceeds from Rock Band belong to Harmonix." He explained that music selection for the Rock Band series had been a "collaborative effort between Harmonix and MTV," noting that most of the downloadable tracks we've seen this year were selected before Harmonix was sold by Viacom (last year). This month's downloadable tracks, said Rigopulos, will be the "first glimpse" at the music the company has secured without MTV. Rigopulos doesn't expect any "dramatic changes" to the music selection process, though he cheekily added, "I doubt you will see any more SpongeBob SquarePants packs." Rigopulous also discussed the overall success of Rock Band's DLC enterprise, noting that the series recently surpassed 100 million song downloads.
Harmonix says it had to 'carry' MTV's publishing operation
In a recent interview with Industry Gamers, Harmonix VP of Product Development Greg LoPiccolo remarked on the studio's time under the MTV Games banner. Though he explained he harbors no ill will towards the team's former publisher, he said MTV didn't have "a big enough publishing organization to achieve economies of scale." He added, "They had us, but essentially our games had to carry the entire publishing infrastructure of MTV games which was not particularly efficient." LoPiccolo said he's grateful for the partnership, explaining, "When they bought us we were a little developer and in collaboration with them we achieved a lot." Despite MTV's help in turning them into the studio they are today, LoPiccolo explained he wasn't worried about the two parties' split. "I think one of the things we've demonstrated to the world at large and to ourselves is that we have a demonstrated ability to make good stuff," he added. "And I think we had a confidence that somebody would see that and have that perspective."
Rock Band 3 price drops to $20
Harmonix has announced that the price of Rock Band 3 (game only) has dropped down to $20 on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii -- great for starving, wannabe musicians looking to jam to The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations." Or, you know, any of the other 82 songs available on the disc. You can find the game for the reduced price right now on Amazon, Best Buy and GameStop -- or you can head into your local brick-and-mortar if you're looking for that immediate rock fix.
Report: MTV Games shut down
MCV has reported that MTV Games has officially closed its doors. The site reports that MTV Games' international office was closed on Wednesday and "only a handful of financial staff remain in the New York office to collect or reconcile any outstanding receivables." The news comes in the wake of the recent sale of Rock Band and Dance Central developer Harmonix. MTV Games parent company Viacom is currently involved in an ongoing legal battle with Harmonix. The developer accuses Viacom of avoiding the payment of performance-based bonuses, a claim that Viacom denies. We've reached out to MTV for comment. [Update 2/7: We heard back from an MTV spokesperson, who told us, "MTV Games has ceased its publishing operations but has not been completely dissolved." Huh, wonder what that means. We'll let you know if MTV suddenly becomes more forthcoming.]
Beefy Rock Band 3 title update does away with the eyebrow of death
Harmonix has been hard at work on a major title update for Rock Band 3 -- today, we finally get a look at the fruits of the studio's labor. The update -- which is live now on Xbox 360, and is expected to drop on PS3 within the next 24 hours -- addresses a diverse load of problems; for instance, pausing the game too many times while playing a song disables scoring, which prevents players from using the pause-rewind feature to artificially boost their scores. Also, that Stage Kit you dropped a Benjamin on a few years back? The game now supports it in a limited capacity. Our personal favorite patch is one that fixes a crash that cropped up whenever the player chose a "particular eyebrow asset," which, henceforth shall be known as the "eyebrow of death." Sadly, that power has been extinguished by the update, and now rests solely in the forehead of Mr. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Check out the full list of updates after the jump!
Wii Rock Band Network releases to stop next week
All Rock Band Network tracks are available for purchase through the Xbox 360 Rock Band games, and Harmonix periodically dumps some popular tracks from the DIY authoring service onto the PS3 and Wii games as DLC. Next week's set of RBN songs (after the break), however, will be the last to make the trip over to Wii. "With the smaller online install base, limited demand for releases so far and the significant amount of work it takes for our producers and audio team to convert and process these additional tracks," Harmonix's Aaron Trites explained in the weekly DLC announcement, "we're no longer able to continue submitting RBN content to the Wii." That's not the end for all downloadable music on Wii, however: "regular Wii DLC, and RBN releases for the 360 and PS3 will continue uninterrupted."
Rock Band Weekly: Johnny Cash, free Rock Band track pack
The next Rock Band DLC update will include a track pack from the legendary Johnny Cash and a free pack of various artists for Xbox 360 and PS3. The Cash bundle includes classics like "I Walk the Line" and "Folsom Prison Blues," while the free pack includes tracks featuring RBN and Harmonix go-to bands like Bang Camaro and The Main Drag. The update will be available next week on Xbox 360 and Wii, while the PS3 update will also include last week's DLC, which was not added due to the holidays.
Harmonix retains IP rights to Rock Band, Dance Central
Yesterday's Harmonix announcement of re-independence from global media conglomerate Viacom left questions hanging about the intellectual property rights to the studio's two main franchises. Joystiq has been informed by sources that Harmonix will "own the IP rights" to both the Rock Band and Dance Central franchises after the split, meaning it can continue to create new installments if it chooses. We've also been informed that the developer's DLC support of both titles will continue "unaffected by the sale" and that its distribution relationships with EA and Mad Catz for the Rock Band series, and with Microsoft for Dance Central, also remain "unaffected." What we currently understand of the situation, from sources involved, is that Viacom and MTV Games providing licensing muscle isn't as necessary as it once was -- before the music genre became established over the past few years. It appears relationships have been set that now allow Harmonix to license music for its games without the aid of Viacom.
Rock Band dev Harmonix breaks from Viacom, goes independent again
Guitar Hero and Rock Band creator Harmonix announced this morning that it's splitting with parent company Viacom and "returning to our roots as an independent and privately owned studio" -- investment company Columbus Nova helped purchase the studio and formed Harmonix-SBE Holdings LLC. Before we tell you anything else, know this: As promised, "the DLC schedule marches on for Rock Band, we will continue our support of previously released titles," wrote Harmonix PR rep John Drake in a statement on the Rock Band forums, "and we're hard at work on some unannounced projects that we think you're going to be pumped about." The terms of the sale were not disclosed in the official announcement from Viacom, but the publisher has been looking for a chance to sell off Harmonix since at least mid-November. In the eyes of Harmonix, the partnership is ending amicably, with Drake adding, "Viacom and MTV Networks have been an amazing home for us over the past 4 years. It's where we launched both Rock Band and Dance Central, worked with The Beatles, Green Day, AC/DC, The Who and thousands of other artists. We want to take a moment to thank everyone in that organization who helped make these awesome games possible."
Rock Band Weekly: John Lennon's 'Happy Xmas,' Euro singles
Next week's Rock Band DLC celebrates the spirit of the holidays with John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" and the Caesars' "Jerk it Out." Check out all of next week's individual tracks after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: Billy Joel
Gawd bless Long Island boys and their capacity for spite, for without it we wouldn't be graced with Billy Joel's greatest hits as Rock Band DLC next week. The story goes that the piano man had his people open the conversation of being part of the video game after a critic noted such a thing would be a travesty. So, pour a bottle of red, a bottle of white, and rock out to the legend's greatest hits, because only the good die young. Also, just to test if we have Billy Joel powers: Heaven forbid anyone should ever make a new Freedom Fighters or Alpha Centauri, that would be a sin against gaming! Move on out past the break for the full track list.
Rock Band Weekly: Queen
Next week's Rock Band DLC will be two track packs that are all Queen. One pack includes some Rock Band 3 upgraded tracks from Lego Rock Band, along with some lesser-ish known ditties, while the other is an extrabonanza of the band's most popular songs (which you might already own) reworked for RB3. That means: harmonies! So, if singing like Freddie Mercury wasn't already hard enough, you're really gonna have to work as a team to nail those tracks properly. You are the champions, my friends. The full DLC track details are posted after the break.
Rock Band 3 title update fixes crashing, pause score exploit
At some point today, PS3 Rock Band 3 users will be prompted to download a mandatory title update -- the Xbox 360 patch is coming "in the near future". The first of two planned updates resolves some persistent glitches in the game, including freezes that take place during the amp loading vignette and when messing around with eyebrows in the character creator. " All eyebrows are now safe," the forum thread assures us. Additionally, an exploit where players could constantly pause mid-song to inflate score has been addressed in the update. Now any performance during a song that's been paused multiple times won't have its score reported. Also, we reluctantly point out that one of the more dreaded issues, the PS3 keyboard audio glitch, is not included in today's update. Harmonix has acknowledged the issue and is looking into a fix. [Thanks, Wes J]
Rock Band Weekly: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bad Company, .38 Special
So, next week's Rock Band DLC will include a Lynyrd Skynyrd track pack. Now, fun fact: Every time Lynyrd Skynyrd was typed in this post, I had to look up how it was spelled, out of some paranoid compulsion that I'd spelled it wrong. I wonder if "Lynyrd Skynyrd" is the music writer's version of the game industry's classic spell-anoia name: EA CEO John R-I-C-C-I-T-I-E-L-L-O. Accompanying the "Sweet Home Alabama" band, who apparently formed in Florida, are singles from .38 Special and Bad Company. The full DLC track details are posted after the break.
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.
Rock Band Weekly: John Lennon's 'Imagine' album
John Lennon's "Imagine" album will be next week's Rock Band DLC. The acclaimed set of songs joins the title track, which is one of the Rock Band 3 on-disc songs. The album's DLC launch comes about a month after the worldwide celebration of the 70th anniversary of Lennon's birthday. No need to imagine the album's track list, it can be found after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: Bee Gees, B.B. King, Procol Harum
Some big news hit developer Harmonix this week as parent company Viacom revealed plans to sell the company, but that shouldn't affect the weekly Rock Band DLC releases for the time being -- they're stayin' alive, stayin' alive. Next week's DLC offerings deliver a six-pack from the Bee Gees that includes several of the band's best-known hits. Accompanying the brothers as they deliver disco dreams are B.B. King and Procol Harum -- yeah, that's quite a combination. Now, jive talkin' turkeys, check out next week's full DLC track details after the break.
Rock Band, Dance Central DLC 'ongoing work' not affected by Viacom sale
After seeing this morning's news of Viacom selling developer Harmonix, many of you were concerned about the company's persistent work in supporting its products with downloadable content. Harmonix has responded to our inquiry, stating, "This morning's announcement does not affect the ongoing work at the studio as we continue to support our existing franchises, Rock Band and Dance Central. As stated earlier, Viacom is in discussions with several potential buyers and will continue to fully support the business until a sale is completed." The developer plans to continue answering outstanding questions on its forum on this thread. We also contacted Viacom and MTV Games regarding the status of the licenses for the music store and whether they'll transfer with Harmonix once the company is sold. A Viacom spokesperson informed Joystiq, "All we can say at this point is that Rock Band and Dance Central DLC will continue as planned and we will continue to fully support their releases." Update: Added Viacom quote.
