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Licensing indeed at fault for Singstar delay
The delay of SingStar is due to exactly what we expected: song licensing issues. Outside of SCEA, Sony has assigned a release date of December, but SCEA isn't going to pin that date down for the American release. The reasoning was not told in detail, but 1UP caught a quick chat with SCEA's marketing VP Peter Dille to see what was up. Should that even count as a pun?Dille elaborated on the licensing issue a little bit more, assuring fans that Sony wants the online marketplace completely stocked with a plethora of songs upon release. "It'll be a disc-based product and that'll be a great experience in and of itself, but obviously we're equally if not more excited to deliver content via the PlayStation Network and have consumers experience new songs that way. We want to make sure we get it right and consumers get that full experience. I don't think we'll be talking about a huge delay, but it's something we had to push back a little bit." So expect a release early next year, then? Hopefully there will be a respectable amount of singing to be had!
White PS2 with Singstar hitting store shelves
The venerable PlayStation 2 just turned seven years old, and getting all dressed up for the occasion -- that hot Ceramic White slim PS2 Singstar bundle we saw a while back should be hitting stores this weekend, with availability everywhere by November 4, according to Sony's PlayStation Blog. The $150 bundle includes Singstar Pop, a matching white DualShock 2, and two microphones -- just the thing to spice up those holiday parties.Read -- Singstar bundle info on the PlayStation BlogRead -- PS2 turns seven
SingStar Bollywood shuffles into Europe this Friday
Eurogamer reports that SingStar Bollywood will hit European store shelves this Friday. Lucky for some of you, the game features phonetic English lyrics so gamers don't have to learn Hindi in the next three days. If you've never been treated to an over-the-top Bollywood production, we have some toned-down examples after the break along with the song list for SingStar Bollywood.The term Bollywood typically refers to a part of Indian cinema best known for elaborate musical numbers involving massive choreography and catchy tunes. This is certainly another gem in the increasingly diverse SingStar pantheon. Now we wait for the announcement of a SingStar Swedish Folk edition ... actually, seriously now, a pure ABBA SingStar would be amazing.
SingStar goes into "further testing" limbo
November 13th was the release date for SingStar. Not anymore! In fact, forget about release dates for a while, especially in regards to SingStar. The PS3 version supposedly needs further testing and as a result, a release date has been removed from the title. As discussed in our upcoming podcast, we believe the SingStore is at fault -- that, and the planned Home integration.Sony said they want to make the PlayStation Network experience "as rich, simple and accessible a SingStar experience as possible." With that idea, it's implied that the problem does lie with the SingStore as well as licensing issues with music. We'll report more on the delay and let you know when a release date is given as soon as we're given the information. Until then, just slap on a CD and sing in the mirror.[Via Joystiq]
SingStar PS3 can't find the stage, release delayed
Karaoke lovers who had Nov. 13 circled on their calendars for the next-generation of SingStar to arrive -- um, just ignore that announcement was ever made. SingStar PS3 has been delayed and is currently residing in limbo until further notice. Sony told GI.biz that the game needs further testing and no specific "release period" will be given.Reasons for the delay are not given, but the prominent theories are licensing issues and PSN problems. Sony says this delay will give them more time to test the SingStar PSN content "to ensure that it is as rich, simple and accessible a SingStar experience as possible." Don't fret Euro SingStar faithful, by the time the PS3 version comes out you'll be able to purchase a cheaper PS3 model and play all your PS2 SingStars on it too ... oh wait, no you won't. Oh well, there's always the SingStar PS2 bundle.%Gallery-1946%
White PlayStation 2 appears in upcoming holiday SingStar bundle
It always feels good to do a bit of catch up with Japan, even if we are a couple years behind the times. This time we're getting in on the "so 2005" ceramic white slim PS2 fad, but lucky for us in North America, Sony's tossing in an attractive SingStar bundle all for a perfectly reasonable $150. Included in the box is SingStar Pop, two mics, and of course the white PlayStation 2 and matching DualShock. You can score the bundle this November.[Via Joystiq]
White PlayStation 2 bundled with SingStar and mics for $150
With the aging PlayStation 2 platform having no trouble besting its big brother in sales every month (not to mention the Xbox 360), Sony has their eyes aimed squarely at the one home console that everyone seems to want: the Wii. This November, they're giving the normally black or silver PS2 a Wii-styled whitewashing, controller and all, and jamming a copy of casual supergame, SingStar Pop, along with two mics into the box. And exactly how much would you expect to spend on this incredible bundle? $300? No! $200? No!You'll get it all for the low, low price of $150 US ($160 CDN). With casual games like Buzz! and crossover hits like Guitar Hero, the PlayStation 2 SingStar bundle should prove to be quite an attractive option for those families hunting for the undoubtedly still-suffering-from-shortages Wii this November.%Gallery-6541%
PS3 first-party exclusives finally get EU release dates
It's been kind of hard getting Sony to nail down release dates for their upcoming stable of first-party exclusives, regardless of territory. Europe has really gotten the rawest deal though, with no confirmed release dates for any games period -- until now. Thanks to Gamer's Creed, Europeans finally know when they will be getting the first wave of mega-titles from Sony. Here's the list according to the scanned documents: Warhawk with headset: September 19th Heavenly Sword: September 19th Folklore: October 10th Lair: October 24th Eye of Judgment: October 24th Singstar: October The release dates are kind of lame in general -- with Europe getting titles between two weeks and a month later than Americans get them. At least PS3s are region free, so impatient Euros can simply just order them from an American store like this one (as used by Jem, our resident foreigner). Still, the release list has got to be frustrating for Europeans wanting for the summer game drought to finally end. [Via N4G]
SingStar goes hi-def to PS3 Nov. 13
Despite having the track list for a couple months now, we finally received a Nov. 13 release date for the PS3 version of karaoke torture device game SingStar. You'll be able to download songs beyond the tracks that come with the game and be able to upload your own horrors to the internet. Hmm, that gives us an idea for a new weekly feature.Of course, you can still play all your old SingStar PS2 games on your PS3, and Sony's still making new last-gen editions of the series like SingStar Rock Ballads. We'll have to find out if you can still upload videos of songs even if you play non-PS3 versions of SingStar. We could spend a whole afternoon with a tub of buttered popcorn just watching uploaded videos of people trying to sing Meatloaf's I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That). Life really is all about the simple pleasures.%Gallery-1946%
SingStar Rock Ballads ... what, no Journey?
After the SingStar fades and darkness has turned to gray. We'll be watching through windows, wondering if karaoke is still OK. All right, we will do anything for karaoke, but we don't do that. Oh no, no we won't do that. Sony has announced that the next title in their karaoke series will be SingStar Rock Ballads. Seriously, this is the most dangerous SingStar yet. Getting through SingStar Anthems is hard, but who's going to even stand a chance trying to do Meatloaf's I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do that). That's madness! No, it's Meatloaf.The list of songs (found after the break) is actually a fantastic mix of power and rock ballads that you'd only attempt to do with the windows rolled up in your car or when you know you're home alone. Roxette's It Must Have Been Love and Cutting Crew's I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight are just a few of the titles. Although, for all the good songs in this game, it is quite obvious that Journey is missing. Journey is not in a rock ballad karaoke game?! That's like peanuts being removed as an ingredient from peanut butter. It's just not right on any level. But we won't stop believin' in SingStar, we're gonna hang on to this feeling.
Devs hint at stand-alone SingStar application
In a recent interview with Joystiq at E3 the Senior Vice President of SCEA, Phil Rosenburg, made an interesting comment regarding the expandability of SingStar. When approached about a possible stand-alone downloadable application, like the Folding@Home client, Rosenburg said that they "showed a sneak peak of that really cool interface using the SingStore. And there's more coming. You might not be too far off."Whether this indicates the SingStore itself will be downloadable, or that further pieces of software are being released in the future for the SingStar platform, or even just a separate music download service, we're intrigued. We'll let you know as soon as we find out more.
Joystiq interviews SCEA's Phil Rosenberg and John Koller
Phil Rosenberg (left), and PS Fanboy lead writer, Andrew Yoon (right) At E3, we had a chance to talk to SCEA Senior Vice President Philip Rosenberg and John Koller, Senior Marketing Manager of the PSP. We talked to these two Sony executives to find out more about Home, possible PSP integration with Home, the redesign, and more.The press conference was narrated through Home. Why does Sony believe Home is such an important part of the PlayStation family?Phil: That's a great question. Home for us is a way to engage all of our users in real community, but in a real 3D manner that gives them a place to meet and to share their successes or their failures and then jump into gameplay. It creates an opportunity for us to help engage them even more in our platforms. I think when you look at the interface -- like how a PSP pops up in Home -- our whole proposition is around the ecosystem of PlayStation. It's not just about one platform. If you're in the house, or away from the house -- no matter where you are, you can stay connected with your peers.
SingStar: providing unique PlayStation media
Why is there no video download service yet for PSP and PS3? In a recent interview with Joystiq, Engadget and PS Fanboy, Kaz Hirai noted that they need to provide a unique experience for PlayStation fans to interact with media. "I want to make sure that we are able to put a unique, PlayStation-esque way of presenting the music content, for example, to the PlayStation 3 users. Otherwise, we're just one of them," he commented."But its a part of the overall SingStar experience that you're downloading the music that so that is a kind of different experience than you would have for downloading music that's specific to the PS3 experience that you can't get anywhere else. That's the kind of thing i'm talking about, and therefore, in conjunction with Singstar, there is going to be music download obviously because we find something that's very PlayStation-esque. So I want to try to come up with something that has the same kind of different PlayStation experience for music downloads, if we're going to expand it to the PlayStation Network Store and also for video downloads as well."Sony is waiting for a "unique" way of providing video downloads, but we adamantly believe that consumers will love to have standard video service, akin to the one available on Xbox Live Marketplace. Isn't providing downloadable 1080p video differentiating enough? We think so. Read our complete interview at Joystiq.%Gallery-3205%
Developer's Studio: Sarah Stocker and Singstar
The PlayStation.Blog's "Inside the Developer's Studio" feature continues in its run up to E3. On the 3rd of July Seth Luisi showed off SOCOM: Confrontation and yesterday Sarah Stocker hyped up the soon-to-be-released karaoke sim, Singstar.Sarah discusses the Game 3.0 aspects of the game, including how the online catalogue is the first of its kind. She also mentions the myspace-esque My Singstar page, which all users will be able to upload video footage of their performances to. This game is going to be a great party experience once it's released next month and we're looking forward to seeing what more there is to see at E3.Read the full interview over at PlayStation.Blog and keep an eye on the ever expanding Flickr account.
The full track list for SingStar PS3 has been revealed!
Our parent-site Joystiq has posted that Sony Europe has finally confirmed the complete track list for SingStar PS3, due out in Europe later this Summer. The list is the usual mix of pop music commonly found on the SingStar releases, though the quality seems skewed a little higher than normal. As usual there's a sad lack of rap songs, but that's not a huge surprise considering past versions. Luckily, Sony is aiming to have over 300 songs available for download on day one, so there's always the hope that people with more specific genre tastes can find something to caterwaul to. Here are a couple of the highlights from the track list: Blink 182 - All The Small Things Britney Spears - Toxic Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. OutKast - Hey Ya Radiohead - No Surprises REM - Losing My Religion The Killers - Mr Brightside Weezer - Buddy Holly Check out the full list after the jump!
SingStar PS3 track list confirmed
The PlayStation 3's upcoming karaoke sim and potential torture device not only boasts the distinction of being the first announced "next-gen" sing-along-a-thon, but highlights Sony's intention of letting you piece together your own version of SingStar by purchasing songs from a robust online store. You're still stuck with the songs packaged on the game's starter disc though, and while several lists have been floating around the internet for some time, the final track list had not been confirmed until now. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has attested that the 30 tracks listed after the break (and originating from a promotional e-mail sent by a game distributor to retailers) will form SingStar's PS3 debut in Europe later this year. The songs destined to be mangled by your vocal chords include "Feel Good Inc." by The Gorillaz, "Losing my Religion" by REM and the somewhat insufferable "Beep" by the Pussycat Dolls. Mind you, "insufferable" is merely a matter of opinion -- far be it from us to question your enjoyment of modern music or the sound of a cat encountering a steam roller. UK retailers currently expect the SingStar starter disc to retail for £19.99, with a microphone bundle costing £39.99.%Gallery-1946%
Has Sony failed to understand the casual gamer?
In a recent interview with GI.biz, Nintendo VP of marketing, George Harrison, said that Sony and Microsoft have both attempted to woo the casual gamer but both failed due to a lack of understanding of the casual gamer. Specifically, Harrison mentioned the Sixaxis as Sony's failure:"We can already see some of the things they've tried. For last year's E3, at the last minute, Sony rushed out their Sixaxis controller as an effort to respond to the Wii remote. We saw Microsoft roll out Viva Piñata as their killer app for the Pokemon set. And neither of those worked really well.It's true that Nintendo knows how to dominate a certain kind of casual gamer market, but it seems a bit disingenuous to be writing off the Sixaxis as a failed attempt to capture Nintendo's market share. Sony has never particularly positioned that motion-sensitivity of the Sixaxis as a lure to the casual gamer. They've marketed it as a feature that adds to existing games and allows you to do things you've never done before (see LAIR and Warhawk). It's true that they have utilized the motion sensitivity aspect of the controller to create more easily accessible games like Blast Factor, flOw and Super Rub-a-Dub, but unlike Nintendo, thats that's clearly not their whole focus.
Everybody hurts, everybody cries, SingStar 90s tracklist
Are you a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world? Well, if you think being filled with plastic is fantastic, then you'll be happy to know that SingStar 90s is coming to the love shack. The game popped up on a New Zealand store with an August 3rd release attached to it. You can't touch this compilation of the '90s most addicting, and therefore ultimately annoying, songs; full list can be found after the break. So, tell us what you want, what you really, really, want to see on this compilation if you notice anything missing from the '90s? Maybe they'll add it in the PS3 SingStar download service. There's always the debate between which is tougher: SingStar or Karaoke Revolution? Well, if you missed it the first time, our intrepid Kyle Orland reported on this a few months ago. Checka checka check it out!%Gallery-3496%[Via PALGN]
Nintendo Media Summit: Boogie hands-on (Wii)
The most pleasant surprise at this week's Nintendo Media Summit was the EA-developed rhythm/singing game, Boogie. I was pretty skeptical of the game from just the early screenshots that I had seen, and judging from the deserted EA booth, a lot of other people felt the same way. You'll understand then that I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying Boogie, not only for the gameplay but also the attractive and pleasant graphics. For those of you unfamiliar with the game, Boogie is one EA's attempts to cash in on two current crazes at the same time -- rhythm/music games and the Wii. It combines a rhythm-based dance game with karaoke (via an included microphone) and a host of likeable, wacky characters and they pull it off surprisingly well.Probably what impressed me the most about Boogie was the graphics; it had a really nice cel-shaded look to it, fantastic stages, and good animation. It was by far and away the best looking game at the show, with no other game except maybe Mario Strikers Charged coming anywhere close. The five different characters are attractively designed in a cartoonish way, and they're all well animated -- a key detail for a dancing game. The stages themselves were fairly small, but the backgrounds were huge and detailed. The forest stage in the below screenshots is probably my particular favorite. And the game gets extra points for being less aliased than any other title shown by Nintendo that day -- a huge plus for people bothered by the chainsaw-like jaggies on some other Wii titles (like me).%Gallery-3417%
SGD '07: New SingStar gallery shows off features, menus
While you can't expect a whole lot from a gallery for a game like SingStar, it does show how the game will present itself and the features available. From what we see in this gallery, the game looks like it will be very simple to navigate and have a lot of great features to take advantage of (let alone a huge library of music to download). What we noticed was the "rate the performance" feature, denoted by a ranking from one to five stars. It's interesting, but we'd like to see if once the PlayStation Eye hits, you can sing and upload your own little video as well. That'd be keen. Look for this game in October in North America, but a few months sooner in Europe.%Gallery-3205%
