Category: News (Page 107 of 108)

Jackson’s Death Will Not Affect Beatles Rock Band

July 9, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

It’s no secret that Michael Jackson owned more than 250 Beatles titles, so his death poses some interesting questions concerning licensing. The big one on our minds: How will Jackson’s death affect the release of the upcoming Beatles version of Rock Band? The answer: it won’t.

Harmonix, which develops the Rock Band franchise, said Jackson’s death will have no effect on the game’s release – even the track list will remain unaltered.

Though there’s been some rumor that Jackson and former Beatle Paul McCartney had a bit of a tiff about the music, McCartney says it’s not true. In a statement on his website, Paul says the two simply drifted apart over the years. Here’s the full statement:

Some time ago, the media came up with the idea that Michael Jackson was going to leave his share in the Beatles songs to me in his will which was completely made up and something I didn’t believe for a second.
Now the report is that I am devastated to find that he didn’t leave the songs to me. This is completely untrue. I had not thought for one minute that the original report was true and therefore, the report that I’m devastated is also totally false, so don’t believe everything you read folks!
In fact, though Michael and I drifted apart over the years, we never really fell out, and I have fond memories of our time together.
At times like this, the press do tend to make things up, so occasionally, I feel the need to put the record straight.

Sounds like good news all around…oh…except the Beatles still don’t own their music.

News, Previews

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Not Everyone Hates the PS3

July 8, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

With Sony’s CEO weighing in on the PS3 price cut rumors, it’s hard not to focus on all of the people begging for it to happen and how unhappy they are with the platform. Well not everyone is as riled up as Activision. In fact, some folks, some very important folks, are actually enjoying their PS3 development.

The good tidings come from none other than BioWare, famed developers of Mass Effect and the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins. In fact, it’s DA:O they’ve been having so much fun with. Talking to videogamer.com, the DA:O team called developing for the PS3 “exciting,” and said they’re “really pumped” to be working with the platform. Sounds a little contrived, but they get more specific as the article goes on.

It’s funny, we had extra graphic memory left over on the PS3. We were like, wow! So we actually started putting some of the audio bits in there and stuff. It’s a function of effort. Overall, pretty happy with how it’s turning out.

With all the bad news spewing forth about PS3 development, it’s nice to see a little good in there, especially if you’re a PS3 owner.

News, PS3

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Tecmo Koei Joins the PS3 Price Cut List

July 8, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

This headline may be a bit misleading, since there really is no list, and even if there was half the interested world would be on the thing. Still, Tecmo Koei has gone public with concerns about PS3 prices, and they aren’t the first.

CEO Kenji Matsubara told CVG this week that “from a publisher’s point of view we would welcome a price cut for PS3 and we are waiting, definitely.” He also said he asks for the price cut whenever pricing comes up with the Sony reps with whom he deals. As more developers and publishers go public with price concerns you have to wonder when Sony is going to listen. It’s obviously getting harder and harder to justify developing for a console that has the lowest installed base of its generation yet remains at such a high price.

For now, Sony doesn’t want to do anything. Today, Howard Stringer said his company’s decision to maintain the price of the PS3 comes down to pure logic. “I (would) lose money on every PlayStation I make – how’s that for logic,” he told press at the Allen & Co. conference in Idaho.

Fine logic for now, Mr. Stringer, but you’ll probably lose your job if game developers drop your platform.

News

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WoWPals Helps You Find Local Players

July 7, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

I spent a couple years as an officer in a fairly serious raid guild. Most of my guildmates were from other states, and for some reason we had a boatload of Canadians. I picked my server mostly at random, based on population stats and the fact that it was PvP. It might have been nice, though, to have a way to locate players around me and see where they played. Come to think of it, that also may have been a terrifying experience, but for the sake of argument, let’s pretend it would have been…neat.

A couple guys from Israel have recently launched “WoWPals,” a site that helps you find and connect with local players. For the most part I do think this is a great idea. As fun as WoW is, it can be easy to neglect physical relationships in lieu of the virtual type, which have their own value. By using the service, local players can connect and potentially even plan to spend some time away from the computer.

I’m not entirely sure why the developers went with “WoWPals.” It’s bad enough trying to explain to people that you’re playing WoW tonight instead of going out. Try explaining that you’re going out with friends you met on WoWPals.com. That one’s sure to get some laughs.

For the record, wowconnect.com redirects you to a singles site, but wowtown.com simply seems to be parked. The domain couldn’t be that expensive, right?

News, Websites

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Eidos Officially Becomes Square Enix Europe

July 7, 2009 / Jeff Morgan

You may have heard news regarding Square Enix’s recent acquisition of famed publisher, Eidos. Well today it became official, with a full dissolution of the Eidos brand and the birth of Square Enix Europe. It’s an underwhelming name if you ask me. I hope they change it.

The new company is basically Eidos vets, with some European sales and marketing folks from Square Enix land. CEO Phil Rogers was picked to head the new branch, which is nice considering the route other mergers have taken of late. Stateside, Eidos’ North American marketing, sales and distribution operations been given to John Yamamoto, who heads our own Square Enix division.

Even though they decided to let the top dog from Eidos keep his position, some other folks won’t be so lucky. “Unfortunately we are expecting some jobs to be impacted directly by this in both Europe and North America,” an Eidos spokesperson said. “We are hoping to minimize this wherever possible and offer support and advice to any employees directly affected.”

Best of luck to the folks who will be searching for new jobs. Coming from a place like Eidos, it shouldn’t be too tough to get something together.