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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land Senior brand manager Lauren Faccidomo may be a capable bass player in the all-female Ramones cover band The Sheenas, but her performance on her own company’s “band” game, Rock Revolution, is… awkward. Faccidomo is most likely very thankful that her Rock Revolution misfire was comfortably nestled within dozens of exciting Konami announcements and that this particular embarrassment was quickly forgotten about.
Sorry, what’s that? This is how Konami wrapped up its press conference at E3? Oh. Oh my. Lauren, I have Jaime Kennedy’s phone number if you need someone to help you through this rough patch.
Konami, Konami…you have to try harder than this. With one major publisher already in and another getting ready to storm the rhythm band genre with drum sets that look like…well, drum sets, the best you can come up with is a rubber set with oddly shaped heads that resemble the old board game Perfection? The saddest thing about Rock Revolution is that if it had come out before the likes of Rock Band I would have absolutely loved it. Unfortunately the game company that pioneered the plastic instrument video game instead comes off like a second-hand copy.
Last night, word broke that Konami, publisher and developer of trailblazing rhythm games Guitar Freaks and Drummania, was suing Harmonix. The Japanese company claimed that the developer of Rock Band was in violation of three patents held by Konami, seeking damages (read: cash) and demanding that Harmonix and parent company Viacom cease the use of its inventions (read: more cash).
MTV News received a response from an MTV spokesperson on the matter — which, in my mind, was shouted across cubicles — who said the lawsuit was “extremely surprising”. The rep further noted that “successful products such as ‘Rock Band’ can often become targets for baseless litigation”. We agree, especially when the entity filing suit is showing up extremely late to the party with its own stillborn excuse for a rock game. At least those poor unfortunate litigation lawyers will finally get a few bucks coming to ‘em.
Further details on the suit at MTV News.
‘Rock Band’ Creators Sued By ‘Rock Revolution’ Publisher Konami [MTV News]
My frizzy-haired colleague Patrick Klepek may be hanging out with his brother on the Warped Tour right now, but he also managed to break down the competition between all the major music-based video games for MTV News today. It’s always a tricky topic for us because some people assume we’re biased. Trust me, we steer clear of insider info.
Klepek reports that Konami, makers of the upcoming Rock Revolution do not believe in proprietary peripherals.
“Compatibility is a big issue for music games”, Konami Digital Entertainment associate producer Keith Matejka told MTV News. “Peripherals are expensive for the user and they are expensive to produce. The existing peripherals all deliver only a slightly different gameplay experience. Different teams have varying perspectives on what should be compatible with each game. I think all guitar- and drum-based games need to be compatible with each other to some level”.
More Klepek goodness at the link, including some counter-arguments about why compatibility doesn’t make sense for the big publishers.
Side note: He reported in just to me that they don’t have real showers on the Warped Tour. Whoops! Now, I guess he’s reported that to all of you as well.
‘Rock Band’/ ‘Guitar Hero’ Rivalry Heats Up, Draws Third Competitor [The place that pays my bills]
Konami’s answer to Rock Band – Rock Revolution – is being developed by a playful blonde girl sticking out her tongue. Brighton’s Zoë Mode studio have been announced as the developers behind the latest ensemble rhythm game, set to go up against Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour in an all-out battle for the space in your living room reserved for plastic instruments.
Seems like everyone is jumping on the music rhythm game bandwagon these days and seeing as Konami was somewhat instrumental in starting the whole genre it makes sense that the would come out with their own answer to Guitar Hero and Rock Band. That answer is Rock Revolution. Rock Revolution is mainly centered around the drumming although there will be guitar and bass available as well. There were no guitars in evidence but they were keen to show off their drum kit which features a total of six drum pads and a pedal. They also made sure to show us how quiet the pads themselves were so we could avoid the problem of “annoying family and neighbours with the constant tapping. I’m sure I have NO idea what they were referring to with that…
