When Harmonix released the first Guitar Hero on the PlayStation 2, many rhythm game fans wondered exactly how the company would fare once Konami’s legal team smelled the patent violations in the water. Harmonix was noticeably quiet on comparisons to Konami’s Guitar Freaks franchise, clearly an influence on Guitar Hero, but no indication that any bad corporate blood between the parties was ever publicly evident.
For the release of Guitar Hero III, however, we’re starting to see some evidence of the licensing of Konami’s patents for the ultra-successful Activision franchise, now at developer Neversoft. Gamasutra’s Simon Carless explains the relationship between multiple parties, including one that, oddly enough, was originally in an MTV branded product, not unlike the upcoming Rock Band.
A fine piece of investigatin’ by the gang at Gamasutra.
Exploring Guitar Hero III’s Patent Secrets [Gamasutra]
Tonight’s, tomorrow morning’s, episode of Game Head will be packed to the gills with details on the upcoming Simpsons game, including a sit down in The Simpsons writers’ room at Gracie Films with Matt Selman, Time Long and Matt Warburton to discuss the more than 8,000 lines of talk that went into making the game funny.
More importantly, perhaps, the show will be premiering the first footage of EA’s Dead Space.
Former Harmonix employee and one-time PlayStation 3 developer Jason Booth has posted a harsh evaluation of Sony’s latest console, refuting claims that PS3 developers are “lazy”—resulting in ports of Xbox 360 games that often perform worse than the original—and attempting to “explain exactly why ports to the ps3 will never be as good as their 360 counter parts, and why most ps3 exclusives will likely continue to suck.” Oh, boy, this should be good. Booth does his best to pick apart what seem like hardware advantages, mainly the Cell and Blu-ray, and how they may wind up being nothing but hindrances.
He echoes Gabe Newell’s assessment of the PlayStation 3 hardware at certain points, writing that “code needed to make the PS3 work is most likely only useful to you on the PS3″ and that the reasons for dedicating the effort to optimizing the hardware are dwindling. He means the fact that PS3 sales are in the basement.
Booth later writes that “Sony let their hardware be designed by a comity [sic]of business interests”, dooming it to third place in the current generation forever.
As merely a consumer, not a developer, it’s certainly difficult to disagree that the current third-party offerings on the PlayStation 3 are disheartening. Games perform worse, they’re often delayed and they are often devoid of features their predecessors or Xbox 360 counterparts ship with.
PS3 misconceptions and spin [Blog of Booth - thanks, Scott!]
We’ve already proven that the collectible cards for The Eye of Judgment are easily copyable, but some Japanese 2channel message board posters have an even lower tech solution for skirting card security. Allegedly, some DIY PlayStation 3 owners have created their own fake cards without requiring an original scan nor access to special inks, generating them with Photoshop or simply drawing out the basic identifying shapes by hand with a couple of coloured felt-tipped markers.
Unfortunately, the west coast office has no access to a copy of The Eye of Judgement with which to test this out. It’s actually I’m quite interested in pursuing, as I asked the game’s North American producers just how they had planned to circumvent card copying and cheating at E3 earlier this year. They didn’t seem the slightest bit concerned at the time.
Given that one of their revenue streams may be drying up, should guilt-free players opt not to drop $US 15 on theme packs or $US 4 on booster packs, we wonder how concerned they are now.
Thanks for the tip, macavity.
Wow, the Guitar Hero site went live earlier today and already it’s packed with the sort of scores I’ll never be able to achieve. The top Xbox 360 Rocker tops the charts at more than 27 million as of this writing.
The site also shows the top song of the week, automatically tracking which game songs get played the most, as well as Online Tournaments, Local Events and of course tons of forums. It looks like a pretty robust site.
When SNK Playmore announced a World Heroes compilation for the PlayStation 2 in Japan, it didn’t necessarily cause a flood of tips to the Kotaku inbox. When we found out that it was dubbed World Heroes Gorgeous, however, the air raid sirens at the top of the tower whined for hours. When the internet was alerted, we were surprised to learn that, despite how you might feel about the World Heroes series of Neo Geo fighting games, everyone loves stuff that’s gorgeous.
Today, thanks to a tip from Jacques, we can prove commenter Scuba Steve wrong. The World Heroes comp is coming stateside, sadly devoid of its flamboyant superlative. SNK Playmore of the US of A has added the insipidly safe World Heroes Anthology… zzzzz… to its list of upcoming projects. Sorry, SNK, but unless we’re promised something fabulously sassy and brassy, we’re just not interested.
In Development [SNK Playmore USA]
One of our tipsters, who happens to work at national music retailer Guitar Center and will remain anonymous, let us know recently that his employer will be one of the many retailers stocking Activision’s fake guitar playing game this holiday season. It appears to be the megastore’s first attempt at selling video games, understandably, but, based on the pics we’ve been sent of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock arriving at the stock room, they’re not just dabbling—they’re buying in big amounts. The game also gets the front page treatment on GuitarCenter.com, with only the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 versions appearing to be stocked.
It looks like an interesting experiment for Guitar Center, one that might have great crossover potential in-store. It will also surely push the number of times the question “Why don’t they just play a real guitar?” is asked well into the billions.
The week in Super Smash Bros. Brawl news wasn’t full of bombshell announcements, but it did see some rather curious revelations. From the appearance of King Dedede from the Kirby series and the inclusion of a Nintendo DS themed stage, the week was full of low-key, but high-interest news for fans. You may recognise many of these Dojo Dump items from throughout the week, but a refresher won’t hurt will it? One warning, though. This week’s Zero Suit Samus pic count is a depressing zero.
We’ll find a way to soldier on. To the Dump with you!
Another (week)day, another dollar. Another weekend? More time in comfy pants, showering at two in the afternoon, brunches that weigh in at 1600 calories—all part of the Good Life. The icing on the lazy cake is hours upon hours of time spent “wasted” gaming. Me? I’ll be group-gaming with some Zack & Wiki: The Quest For Barbaros’ Treasure in between bouts of BioShock. I’m a little late to the party on the latter, as I’ve just recently become the proud owner of an Xbox 360, but the former was snatched up day one. And for $40! I had no idea it was so moderately priced.
I’ve also got a mummy costume to throw together, the walking undead to my better half’s ancient Egyptian-themed slutty get up. Plus, pumpkin carving! Oh yeah!
In the comments, let us know not only what your gaming plans are, but what this weekend’s Halloween party situation is like. Be safe!
The Penny Arcade folks today announced the dates for next year’s Penny Arcade Expo, set once again in the Washington State Convention and Trade Center.
The show will take place from Aug. 29 through Aug. 31 with attendance expected in the “forty-seven million bajillion” range, slightly up from the 37,000 that made it to this year’s fourth annual show. Exhibitor packets are available now and attendee registration is expected to open up in January.
I really missed not going this year. I decided, instead, to hit up Leipzig with Mike and Mark and then get really really drunk and sing Hungry Like the Wolf on stage in front of one German guy. Next year I’ll either be repeating that or maybe I’ll kick off a cross-country caravan of readers and PAX attendees to Washington State. Haven’t decided yet. If only I could buy high quality German beer at PAX, then I would be set.
