This week’s news includes:
Let us know what you think.
This week’s podcast has been seriously delayed due to Jonah’s computer going belly up, then having to deal with reinstalling everything. Not to worry, however, since everything on the old hard drive was saved, learn more at desky.com.au. If that weren’t enough, Jonah is enjoying his new Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition.
The news of the week includes:
If that weren’t enough, there’s about 30 minutes of outtakes we’re saving for the future as the gang talks about 2018. But that’s for an Outtakes episode.
The little DS title Guitar Hero: On Tour arrived with a hand-held attachment for playing guitar on the go. Some reviewers found it cramped, annoying and too damn small to really feel any comfort. Other reviews found it exciting, fresh and a break from standard DS games.
Reviews aside, 300,000 people are willing to bet money that the DS title was going to rock the house. The concept hit the mark for the DS because the game system is for on the go “touch and feel” style games; Guitar Hero: On Tour is definitely a touch and feel game.
Although we’ve not played it, we’re not too surprised that 300k people purchased the title, considering the install base for the Nintendo DS device itself. With such a large install base, even if only 25% of the target audience buys into the product they’ll be rolling in the dough.
Will this inspire a Rock Band style ‘drum game’ for the future from the Activision competitors or was this nothing but a fluke?
(Thanks, GameSpot)
Apparently Konami just realized Harmonix, MTV Networks and Viacom have made some game called Rock Band and want to take legal action. Konami has created some Japanese games involving karaoke called Karaoke Revolution. Why take legal action now?
Probably because Konami is working towards Rock Revolution, a title which puts together drums, vocals and guitar. How odd, don’t we have a game called Rock Band which has done that for awhile now? It’s much easier to be competitive in the market if you can squeeze your opponent out of the market by telling them you hold a patent on the entire concept…which you let slide for a year.
It seems a bit convenient to force a lawsuit, now, after Rock Band is proven successful and before you launch your own “clone.”
Its suit claims that Rock Band violates a series of US Patents registered in 2002 and 2003 relating to “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-matching game.” (gamespot)
Although the developers of Rock Band should have gone through some patents on the topic prior to make it (or maybe they did?), it seems a bit out of place to patent such a generic concept. As far as I know, Musical Chairs is also a musical rhythm-matching game but nobody put up any stink when Konami filed a patent for the same concept…
