Activision Blizzard Pulls Out of the ESA

It seems that the folks over at ActiBlizzardSoft have decided to pull out of the ESA.  No official statement has been made over the decision to leave, but it follows shortly on the heels of Activision Blizzard pulling out of the E3 event in Los Angeles this July.

The ESA also works with the ESRB, although one would have to think that Activision Blizzard will continue to use the ESRB ratings system on their games.

One could speculate that Activision Blizzard felt that E3 and the ESA no longer served their best interests, as events like Tokyo Game Show or PAX work better for them and do not require large fees to show at.  We hope to have more info from the ESA shortly. 

via Joystiq

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Acti-Blizzard acquires Diablo3.com domain

Saw over on Destructoid.com that Blizzard has in fact obtained the diablo3.com domain from it’s former owners, now known as diablofans.com. In an open letter to their community, diablofans.com stated, “while Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn’t be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we’ve been waiting for all these years.”

Uh huh. Whatever. I do wonder how a new Diablo game would be received, seeing as how most of the Diablo talent left for Flagship Studios and Hellgate: London, not to mention that Blizzard must also bow before the imperial throne of Activision. 

The PC market has changed quite a bit. Crytek blames this on piracy (which I’ve addressed previously). Regardless of the cause, the PC market is not as fertile as it once was. I’m very interested to see how Starcraft II turns out, as I believe it will be a strong indicator of how successful a Diablo III could be. Both in terms of sales, as well as in terms of whether the title can stay true to the originals.

An Inner Look at Harmonix

Not a huge news story, but perusing the latest issue of Newsweek, I saw an interesting article that piqued my attention.  A small feature on Harmonix and their path to success.

It does not give any hints on their upcoming plans except the hint of a keyboard in the next version of Rock Band (seems natural, considering Rigopulos keytar band, Freezepop).  Anyway, take a stroll over to Newsweek.com to read the article and some fun insights on their view of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Signs and Portents: Aerosmith Songs Exclusive to Guitar Hero

It appears that Aerosmith songs will be appearing exclusively in Guitar Hero games - at least for now. This isn’t surprising with the upcoming release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, but it is definitely a worrisome occurrence. This may be the beginning of an exclusivity war between Activision and EA with regard to what bands appear in Guitar Hero and Rock Band. What will this change about each respective title, and what can gamers expect?

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Guitar Hero IV to Include Drums and Vocals?

According to Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, instruments other than guitars, as well as vocals, will be coming to future installments of Guitar Hero. There are also plans to include music from “local bands” depending on the region in which the game is released. He had this to say on the matter:

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Infocom “Lost Hard Drive” Reveals Hitchhiker’s Sequel and More

Anyone that remembers the heyday of PC gaming, will instantly recognize the name Infocom. Infocom brought us some of the greatest adventure games for many years until their demise in 1989. The greatest part about Infocom was the fact that their games were created, for the most part, without a single graphic. Yep, their specialty was text based adventure games, that would challenge your mind, and let you think up the scenery.

Next to Zork (and if you have no clue what Zork is, read here and then play it here), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was Infocom’s pride and joy. It sold the most of any game they put out next to Zork, and was routinely quoted as being one of the best book to game adaptations at the time. There was always rumor about a sequel being planned for Hitchhiker’s, but we never really heard much about it in the public, this being around 1986-89, so there was no quick access to the Internets to get the scoop on development. But as most would tell you, if you put something on a computer, someone else will find it later, and that has appeared to happen for the guys at Waxy.org

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Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Trailer Released

Activision released the first trailer for their upcoming title, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. The graphics look pretty decent, although not much of a step up from Guitar Hero III, but it was not expected to be. The character animations look really cool and it is nice to see the band move around the stage in a more realistic manner.

The trailer also confirms the use of other bands in the game. It has been mentioned that you will have some of the original Guitar Hero characters play a warm up set of two songs from bands that were influential to Aerosmith. Then you will play a two or three song set, if encores are included, with the main band.

All I can say is that I want to see Run DMC up on stage with Aerosmith, doing their joint version of Walk This Way.

A happy ending to the GHIII mono audio fiasco.

Here it is, via FedEx Home Delivery, a free Guitar Hero III Les Paul Guitar Controller faceplace courtesy Activision and RedOctane (Gold Eagle design, retail value, $14.99). It’s a fashionable little gift that serves as an apology for all the trouble we Wii owners had to go through to have our game replaced after the launch version of the game was completely botched. You know what? I feel much better about the whole thing, and I feel like Activision has done right by me. More than that, I feel like capitalism has done right by me. Let’s hear it for competition.

See also:
Gimped Wii version of Rock Band not even going to be worth it.

Gimped Wii version of Rock Band not even going to be worth it.

Maybe it’s the lack of a reasonable storage solution (can you play Rock Bank on the 360 Core?), maybe it’s the lack of a server-based online infrastructure. Blame it on Nintendo if you want, it doesn’t matter. The fact is that without even some small portion of the online functionality that the Wii version of Guitar Hero III offers, and without the downloadable content to extend the lifespan of the game, Rock Band on Wii really doesn’t make any sense, and is going to be lost in a wave of Guitar Hero sequels. Further, the five songs the Wii version of Rock Band will have over the 360 and PS3 versions seem more like an afterthought than some kind of consolation prize.

In case you don’t know what I’m talking about, the long-discussed Wii version of Rock Band (which came out last year for everyone else) has a date and and extremely spinny press release at the Rock Band website, in which online play is conspicuously absent. Follow-up questioning by others has confirmed that there will be nothing in Rock Band for Wii to make it worth buying.

Finally, the game appears to have the one issue that makes it an automatic no-sale for me: the guitar will not use a Wii Remote, which implies to me that I can’t use my Guitar Hero guitar to play the game. I’ve heard enough about how lousy that Rock Band guitar is, so no thanks. Too bad, guys. Late to the party and not even wearing pants. Maybe this game will launch without sound, so they can fall short of Guitar Hero III in one more area.

I’m upset. Oh, it’s coming in June, by the way.

Source: RockBand.com via Game|Life.

See also:
Rock Band Confirmed for the Wii
EA still not confirming, denying Rock Band for Wii.

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A Glimpse Into the Future of Rock Band

When Rock Band was first announced, I, like many others, was shocked and skeptical. The game concept made perfect sense as an evolution of past games created by the fine folks at Harmonix. However, the game was so ambitious that I was uncertain how it would turn out.

Thankfully, Rock Band blew everyone out of the water upon release. Now we have to ask ourselves what we can expect from the next installment in the series. What follows are some postulations based on hopes, dreams, and insight from Harmonix project leader Greg LoPiccolo in an interview with gamesindustry.biz.

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