DJ Hero is a video game that was made by FreeStyleGames and Activision. The game features a turntable with buttons that acts as the controller. The objective of the game is to “scratch” and mix music when in order to match the beats. There is music and avatars in the game featured that include Eminem, Jay-Z, DJ Shadow, Z-Trip, DJ AM, Cut Chemist, J.Period, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, and Daft Punk. The game is actually dedicated to DJ AM who passed away earlier this year.
Eminem and Jay-Z both worked as consultants for the game. In return the gaming companies dedicated an edition for the two rappers called the Renegade Edition. The Renegade Edition features unreleased singles and tracks by the two rappers. Above is a video of Eminem behind the scenes discussing the game.
Courtney Love is a musician and a widow. Her late husband Kurt Cobain was the lead singer of 90’s rock group Nirvana. At the age of 27, Cobain shot himself. Cobain and his wife were both struggling with drug abuse at the time of the incident.
In the video game Guitar Hero 5, an avatar that resembles the late Cobain appears to be singing the tracks of various artists including Bon Jovi. “FOR THE RECORD I DID NOT APPROVE KURTS AVATAR FOR GUYITARHERO5. i think Kurt would despise this game alone let alone this avatar,” tweeted Love.
However game company Activision said that it was “great to work with [Love].” They even added that Love even gave them photos and videos to use for the game. Love even picked the wardrobe and hairstyle. Love denies this saying that it is the fault of Dave Grohl and Activision. Grohl is the former drummer of Nirvana and currently plays for the Foo Fighters. Love said that she and Cobain Enterprises plans to “sue the shit out of Activison.”
Guitar Hero 5 hit the shelves about 10 days ago in the U.S.. It will be releasing in Europe today and Australia on the 16th.
This November, Activision Publishing Inc. will be releasing the game Band Hero. Band Hero will include acts by Taylor Swift, No Doubt, Lily Allen, Jackson 5, and The All-American Rejects.
Two of Taylor Swift’s latest hits “Love Story” and “You Belong With Me” will be used in the video game. Taylor Swift’s participation in the game was announced recently. In the above video, you will learn how Activision designs the stage and performers for the game.
Activision Blizzard has reported their Q2 2009 reports earlier this week. The reports were as Wall Street expected. The revenue guidance for 2009 lowered from $4.3 billion to $4.05 billion due to the delay of titles Singularity and StarCraft 2. Analysts were expecting $4.9 billion in total revenue for the year.
Revenue for the quarter was $801 million which is what analysts were expecting. EPS was $0.08 and analysts expected $0.07. Revenue was generated by strong sales in titles such as PROTOTYPE, Guitar Hero World Tour, Call of Duty: World at War, and the Wolverine line of games.
Slapstick actor Jack Black is playing the character of Eddie Riggs in a video game called Brutal Legend. The trailer above look amazing, but this game will be fighting a legal battle to make it to the shelves.
Game development company Activision is suing another game company called Double Fine Productions Inc. in order to try and stop the release of Brutal Legend. Brutal Legend ended up being developed by Electronic Arts. Activision’s lawsuit was filed against Double Fine in Santa Monica, California. Double Fine then offered to have Brutal Legend developed by EA. Brutal Legend is expected to be released in October.
Jack Black plays a heavy metal artist that is transported into a fantasy world to fight evil. EA has been marketing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in LA. Activision paid Double Fine $15 million to build the game. Double Fine missed a very important deadline and then requested an additional 9 months and $7 million to finish the game off.
Activision and Double Fine tried to negotiate a way to keep the game on track, but an agreement wasn’t ever made. Activision stated that they had never released the rights to the game Brutal Legend and Double Fine improperly gave it to EA.
“Hey, if Activision liked it, then they should have put a ring on it,” retorted Double Fine President Tim Schafer. “Oh great, now Beyonce is going to sue me too.” Activision claims that they are suffering “irreparable harm” if they lose the game. EA did not have anything to say about the matter quite yet.
DJ Hero is going to be one of the most exciting games to play when it launches. Jay-Z and Eminem have agreed to have their beats and names used in the game and the controller pictured below feels like a real turntable (pictured below). Now there is an official trailer for the game and it is embedded above. I need to get myself this game when it comes out.
On October 13, 2009 Activision will be releasing a new game called Tony Hawk: Ride. This game will have the option to buy a motion sensing skateboard.
The price of the motion sensing skateboard will cost about $119.99 and will have a built in accelerometer along with other sensors. For all of the levels, the skateboard controller is able to detect hopping and direction changes.
What are your thoughts on the price of the controller? As a skateboarding enthusiast slash gamer, do you think you would spend that much on to play the Tony Hawk game?
Dan Rosensweig is the former COO of Yahoo! Inc. and former President of CNET. Now Rosensweig is getting into gaming by joining Activision Blizzard Inc. to head up the Guitar Hero franchise. Rosensweig quit Yahoo! in 2006 after working there for five years in product development and marketing. Rosensweig left around the same time Terry Semel did.
Coincidentally Activision’s current CEO Bobby Kotick served on the Yahoo! board of directors up until last year. When Rosensweig left Yahoo!, he worked at Quadrangle Group. Quadrangle is a private equity firm based out of New York. Rosensweig was the Silicon Valley representation of the firm.
Rosensweig’s responsibilities at Activision will be to maintain the whole Guitar Hero franchise. The franchise was put together by Activision’s Red Octane unit and Neversoft studios. Guitar Hero has had three blockbuster games in the franchise, but some analysts believe that the growth for music games may be slowing down. Rosenweig needs to make sure Guitar Hero does not become obsolete.
“With a platform and content that universally engages a wide range of audiences, Guitar Hero has incredible growth potential,” stated Rosensweig. “I look forward to continuing to develop Guitar Hero into an even more successful enterprise.”
Call of Duty, published by Activision, is a first person shooter game that is similar to Unreal Tournament and Quake. In the fifth installment of the war game, Call of Duty: World at War, the player is involved in World War II.
Since Call of Duty is rated T, it is recommended only for teenagers and above ages should play it. Hugh Spencer, a concerned parent took a rather unorthodox approach when choosing to allow his son to play Call of Duty. He had his son Evan research the Geneva Conventions and vow not to violate it when playing this game.
“I asked Evan to google the Geneva Convention. Then he had to read it and then we had to discuss it. This we did. So the deal is that Evan has to fight according to the rules of the Geneva Convention. If his team-mates violate the Convention then play stops and Call of Duty goes away for a while,” stated Hugh.
What is your opinion about Hugh’s approach here? Leave a comment.
Google Android has received the exclusive rights to distribute Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile. T-Mobile will soon be launching applications within the Android Market that will be available for a cost. Currently the applications available in the Android Market are all free. It is not specific whether GHWTM will be available exclusively for Android or if it is a specific version of the franchise.
According to a press release for T-Mobile, “gamers will use the G1’s sensitive touch-screen to play along with 15 rock classics including Deep Purple’s ‘Smoke on the Water’, Guns’n'Roses’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’. There’s also a bonus song available every month, and users can log on to guitarheromobile.com to create their own rock star persona.”
Other games that are on the way for Google Android include Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Tetris, and Monopoly. Guitar Hero is developed by Neversoft and published by RedOctane and Activision.
Vivendi Games announced Sunday it was acquiring controlling stake in Activision by purchasing 1.7 Billion in stock. In whole the deal is reported to be worth 18.9 Billion.
This makes Blizzavision (Not their real new name, but should be) bigger then Electronic Arts. Which has long touted itself as the Biggest Publisher of Video Games in the World. I remember that well because it was on every other piece of orientation material they handed to me when I began working there. I’m not working there anymore.
Even though this deal means a lot more oomph as far as marketing and product property goes. I’m not sure it’s going to mean it’s as powerful as EA for awhile. EA being brought up to it’s size from the beginning as one large company acquiring allowed it to absorb the data, technology, and human resources in a more clean manner. When working at EA I used to spend hours after work looking at documents in their knowledge database that they made available to all employees from different studios. These were on varying topics and most were particularly in depth.
The amount of information available was staggering. Not only from all the studios but backwards in history too. I came across a document that explained sprite sizing and how to simulate speed with only 2d graphics routines written by one of the graphic programmers for Road Rash 3 for the Sega Genesis! That game came out in 1994 but this relic of a document was alive and accessible in their system. It was like Google for game creation. On top of that, if I read something which I didn’t understand, I could easily contact an individual on the team if not the very individual who wrote the document for clarification. As most game teams have someone who still works at EA. This sort of organization and accessibility can only come from a lot of effort over time. I don’t know if this can be achieved by a merger of two huge players. Not in the near future by any means.
Blizzavision may have the large size now but internally I’m curious how they’re going to tie things together so this merger has positive benefit as they move forward.
Vivendi Games announced Sunday it was acquiring controlling stake in Activision by purchasing 1.7 Billion in stock. In whole the deal is reported to be worth 18.9 Billion.
