Jimi Hendrix Makes Guitar Hero World Tour

In the race for best rock simulation, Activision has pulled out a legend and brought to their franchise. Jimi Hendrix will play a role as an in-game character along with a couple tracks you may have heard: Purple Haze and The Wind Cries Mary.

Not only did Activision solidify Jimi Hendrix in their upcoming title, but they’re promising downloadable content from the legendary rocker. Who will Harmonix/MTV get in response to Hendrix? Well, they do have Bob Dylan, another exceptional and extraordinary artist.

JIMI HENDRIX TO MAKE VIDEO GAME DEBUT ON GUITAR HERO® WORLD TOUR

Video Game to Feature Music and Likeness of One of Rock’s

Most Influential Guitar Legends

Santa Monica, CA – July 21, 2008 – The iconic legacy of late singer/guitarist Jimi Hendrix continues in the upcoming Guitar Hero® World Tour video game from Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVID).  One of the most creative and influential musicians of the 20th century, Hendrix will be featured in the game as a playable character, along with two of his most recognizable master tracks, “Purple Haze (Live)” recorded in 1969 at the San Diego Sports Arena and “The Wind Cries Mary.” Additional exclusive songs from the legendary artist will follow as downloadable content.

“Guitar Hero games have become the virtual rock stage for the industry’s most beloved artists and Guitar Hero World Tour continues that tradition by honoring the great Jimi Hendrix and celebrating some of his greatest work,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Activision Blizzard. “His presence in the game will serve to satisfy multiple generations of his fans and Guitar Hero devotees, as well as create new fans by reintroducing his genre-defining guitar style through the unique Guitar Hero experience.”

Guitar Hero World Tour is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.  The Wii™ version is being developed by Vicarious Visions.  The PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system version is being developed by Budcat. The game is not yet rated by the ESRB.  For more information on Guitar Hero World Tour, please visit www.guitarhero.com.

About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision, Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision Publishing maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea.  More information about Activision Publishing and its products can be found on the company’s website, www.activision.com.

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This week’s major news includes:

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The Question of the Week is “What was the first videogame periodical or site you enjoyed?”

Microsoft Says Blu-ray Holds No 360 ValueMicrosoft Says Blu-ray Holds No 360 Value

Rumors float around the Internet questioning when Microsoft will ship a Blu-ray enabled Xbox 360 or add-on device like they did with the, now failed, HD-DVD. At CES 09 Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division, says this request is “way down the list.”

Mr. Bach had some great selling points as to why a Blu-ray player has little value in the world of Xbox 360. The primary reason, of course, being the Xbox 360 developers cannot take advantage of Blu-ray as a development platform for games. This was the price Sony, or the consumer, paid to own a PlayStation 3 since all games are printed on the media and are, in effect, Blu-ray “capable.”

We say capable because not all (any?) PlayStation 3 games currently make full use of the Blu-ray media. Many games will reprint the game on the media for optimization purposes, fill the game with international voice overs for all countries or, otherwise, stuff the media with something that will serve a useful purpose. Sony has near-future-proofed their device by giving game developers years of growth in terms of utilizing the Blu-ray capacity.

Microsoft chose to take the smaller old-style DVD format for games and media. Adding the HD-DVD didn’t add a large deal of risk because, as we saw, they can discontinue the model and not change their core gaming demographic. We still laughed a bit at them, but that was where it ended. Bach also said that it’s not really a great economic time to push a new 360 SKU on potential customers with additional cost just for Blu-ray movies playback.

They could add Blu-ray game development support as well but that would just alienate the “28 million Xboxes” they have already shipped.

“OK, let me get this straight: I’m going to add something to the product that’s going to raise the cost, which means the price goes up, consumers aren’t asking for it, and by the way, my game developers can’t use it.” (gamespot)

Of course, the first thing that came to our mind was “well, you did it for HD-DVD, how is Blu-ray different?” The key areas we can think of really come down to Blu-ray is a Sony technology and they are a direct competitor and, to top it off, HD-DVD allowed them to fight against the PS3 at the media level of the industry. They minimized the risk by making the product a secondary add-on device and, if HD-DVD had won, they’d have the winning format already under production (still not for games).

It seems Microsoft has changed their battle plans a little. They started out talking up the media aspects of the 360, using Media Center, renting movies and TV shows and had the HD-DVD as a subproduct. Today, they’re investing in Netflix for media and everything else favors the games.

Which is fine, we like games.