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Activision Boss Goes Toe-To-Toe With Record Label
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 11:20 PM on August 15, 2008
So Warner bros. think they deserve a bigger cut of Guitar Hero profits, do they? Over Bobby Kotick's dead body. The Activision boss has hit back at the music label's claims, telling them to not only pull their head in, but to cover their arses at the same time:
I think his view was ... that [Warner Music] should be compensated the way they might for a performance on iTunes. But this is an entirely different business that is very technically complex. We're going to favour those publishers that recognise and appreciate how much we can add value to their artists.
Lump it or leave it? Them's fighting words. Think Bobby's worried? No way. Bobby don't worry.
Kotick slams Warner Music [MCV] [Pic]
Yes, we know that LittleBigPlanet will let players slight stuff on fire and BURN THINGS. But that's just fire. What about other elements? Or the weather? According to Media Molecule's Mark Healey:
Odd. But different! Capcom have teamed up with Etchstar, a - would you believe it - etching company, to offer an etching service for your shiny, metallic objects. Ever wanted a Sagat iPod? You got it. A set of 
Lian-Li Industrial, an "executive upper-class aluminium PC chassis manufacturer", has whipped a proper PC-like casing for the much slimmer Xbox 360 console. The maker claims it reduces heating and noise issues. There's a 1500rpm rear fan to quietly draw heat from the Xbox 360's innards. It's also bigger: The Xbox 360 Arcade measures 295 x 100 x 80mm, compared to Lian-Li's case 415 x 250 x 160mm. The best part? Lian-Li says some "DIY knowledge for the transfer of components".
There are many, many ways you could tart up a dreary, Communist-designed block of old flats in Eastern Germany. You could knock them down, for starters. Or, if that's a little drastic, you could always give them a new coat of paint. Or you could overboard and cover the entire side of the building in a LittleBigPlanet motif ahead of the Leipzig Games Conference, which kicks off next week. Up to you.
Man, when I was a kid, there were some great prizes in breakfast cereal. Today? Not sure. But it seems like Kellogg's Canada is offering a Guitar Hero toy. There are four different ones. The Guitar Hero prizes can be found in Mini-Wheats, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Corn Pops and Rice Krispies. 
I was bitterly disappointed with Pro Evo 2008. Like Konami had dropped off a basket full of soccer-ball-shaped lemons, and I'd eaten every last one. And I wasn't the only one; the game sold well enough, but there was a general feeling that Konami hadn't taken advantage of the next generation of hardware like they could/should have. Heck, they even made some parts of the game worse, crippling the team edit suite. So they've got a lot to prove with the upcoming Pro Evo 2009! Let's see if they're doing enough, by taking a look at the new/improved features this year.
Microsoft today announced a deal with Warner Music that will see the label's music videos made available for download over Xbox Live. There's no mention of how much they'll cost, or whether they're in HD or not. Some of the first batch of artists featured will include Death Cab For Cutie, Flo Rida, Matchbox Twenty, Panic! At the Disco and T.I. Warner's Larry Mattera says of the deal:
While we've known that the character was on the roster since earlier this year, Capcom has announced that from today Akuma has entered the Street Fighter IV arcade fray. The boss character is limited to popping up in the single player mode apparently when there's a "strong" arcade player. Sounds like he's here to kick arse and take coins.
While Japanese game shops have been importing GTAIV since its US release, The Land of the Rising Sun should be happy to know that Grand Theft Auto finally has a Japanese release date for the Japan language version. GTAIV for the PS3/Xbox 360 will be released October 30th, and it will be priced at ¥8,390 ($US 76). Capcom will be doing the publishing honours.
Just in case you missed 
We heard 
Previously, 
You finish Metal Gear Solid 4, you get access to a screen where you can enter passwords. Indeed, we've 
Earlier, 
Just outside St. Louis, a man robbed an EB Games store a gun point (pictured). The man walked into the shop, picked out a game, and pulled a small handgun on the clerk. Here's the kooky part: He told the clerk that his family was being held hostage and needed a PS3 to set them free. Then, the man told the clerk to call the police after he left the store because his family needed help. Well, that's original. And crazy. 
Nintendo aren't happy! Sure, they're making buckets of money from the Wii and DS, but shit, they could be making more. So starting this Christmas, the company will begin targeting the Latin American market more aggressively, with a Spanish-language marketing campaign and an emphasis on what Nintendo feel are the region's genres of choice: sports and fitness games. Sadly, no mention of 
It's the stuff dreams are made of. Just about every single Sega game ever released (plus some bonus "competitor's" titles), all secretly tucked away in a forgotten room at Sega HQ. Yeah. They forgot about it. And don't even know how it came to be. If that doesn't sum up Sega in the 21st century, we don't know what does. Ah well, point is, it's here, enjoy it. Would write more, but having browsed the shelves for ten minutes we're feeling a little faint...
Lots of people own Wiis. I own a Wii and maybe you do, too. And because so many people own Wiis, that means we get lots of Wii games. And let's face it, most of those games aren't very good. SEGA America honcho Simon Jeffrey puts it best: "Crap". But that doesn't mean the Wii is a lost hope! Not at all. Echoing what Jeffery 
In July, 
You buy PC games online, there's generally only one place you do it: Steam. So it's a pity that today's release of Bionic Commando Rearmed sees the game absent from Valve's service, after they and Capcom were "unable to reach mutually agreeable terms". Shame, but it's not a complete disaster. The game will still be available on Direct2Drive, and also from 
New game mechanic detected! At least, I think it's a game. You get a score at the end, so I guess it counts as a game even if it feels more like a sort of zen exercise you might do to calm the mind after post-traumatic stress.
The fine folks from National Console Support know how to force a post out of me. Take famous spacecraft from our favourite shmups, shrink them down to capsule toy sizes, then take dozens of high quality digital pictures with the macro setting on. Yes, 
And the Team Fortress 2 "Heavy Update" updates keep on coming. Those 
Meet the new boss. It's the same as the old boss, as the Nintendo DS reclaims its top spot on the Japanese hardware charts, dethroning the long-standing king of handheld sales, Sony's PSP. That's not the biggest news from this week's 
The Xbox 360 may have had a humbling hardware showing in July, according to U.S. sales data from the NPD Group, but the company as a whole seems quite pleased about the month in general. The first four paragraphs of its statement don't talk about NPDs at all, instead choosing to focus on its E3 showing and G4's G-Phoria Award noms.
The PlayStation brand had a pretty darn good month, as it continues to cool off from strong Metal Gear Solid 4 sales, with over 600,000 things named PlayStation sold in the U.S. last month. Sony Computer Entertainment America responded to those NPD figures today, citing "strong momentum" — one of our favourite intangibles — and flooding us with growth percentages.
And why wouldn't it be, honestly? The Wii outsold both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 combined, moving more than half a million waggle boxes out the door, bringing with it more Wii Fit boards than one is allowed to legally shake a stick at. It also shifted over 600,000 Nintendo DSs, no small feat.
US-based PS3 owners who were annoyed that Sony's PlayTV TV recorder won't be coming to NTSC-land can cheer up a bit. Sony has decided to redress the balance by making the PlayTV rubbish.
According to NPD figures, the video game industry racked up $US 1.19 billion in hardware, software and accessory sales in July. You could do worse, I suppose. Last year's take from the same month failed to crack the billion mark, but $US 446.9 million worth of hardware purchased by U.S. consumers and $US 591.1 in software, you make it close to a billion pretty easily. That $US 149.1 million in accessories just pushes you right over the edge.
Nintendo may have reigned supreme in U.S. hardware, but it's the Xbox 360 that enjoys the best selling software for the month of July, as NCAA Football 09 moved close to 400,000 copies on Microsoft's platform. Wii Fit wasn't far behind, as it helped 369,000-plus Wii owners become that much healthier.
Nintendo hardware absolutely crushed the competition in July, selling over 1.1 million units across the Wii and Nintendo DS platforms. That total Wii plus DS figure outnumbers all other competitors combined, as the NPD Group reports that all hardware sales saw a substantial drop from 
Electronic Arts announced today that it would be working with Grasshopper Manufacture, creators of distinctly Japanese fare like Killer 7, No More Heroes and Contact, on an untitled action horror game. EA Partners will publish the Shinji Mikami-produced, Goichi Suda-designed game on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii.
Electronic Arts has signed a deal with Epic Games to publish an as-yet untitled action game.
This week's North American PlayStation Store update is led (and dominated) by Bionic Commando: Rearmed. The high-def remake of the NES classic is now available for PlayStation 3 owners, bringing with it a demo, gameplay trailers, wallpapers and themes. The Store also got a kick in the pants in the game video section, with new (aka "new") trailers for Madden, Mirror's Edge and, unfortunately, Vampire Rain. For the full list, hit the jump. Or attach your bionic arm to the nearest hyperlink and swing past it.
If you missed Burnout Paradise on PS3 back in January, now is the time to get your open-world speed on as the racer hits the PlayStation Network.
Ladies and gentlemen, fire up the Creature Creator and prepare your finest penis-armed tripeds — Spore has left the building.
There's simply nothing else like Braid on the Xbox 360. Jonathan Blow's time-twisting puzzle game may look like a simple 2D platformer, with its numerous allusions to genre trailblazers like Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros., but its temporal puzzle mechanics and mature, powerful storytelling help it pioneer its own path. In Braid, our hero Tim embarks on a quest to right a wrong, rescue a princess and manipulate the fourth dimension in exciting, creative ways.
