Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock Wireless Guitar Controllers Hitting Retail Shelves in Early 2008
SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov 26, 2007 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq:ATVI) today announced that standalone wireless guitar controllers for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will be available at retail stores nationwide by early 2008.
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock lets fans thrash and burn with new wireless guitar controllers available for each platform, including exclusive Gibson Guitar's Les Paul model for the Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, Wii(TM) home video game system from Nintendo, and PLAYSTATION(R)3 computer entertainment system. PlayStation(R)2 gamers will also get to shred on an exclusive shape, Gibson's Kramer guitar, popularized by hard rockers and known for its body design, pickups, electronics and construction for furious finger fretting.
Given the publicity surrounding Nintendo's supply problems with the Wii, it is not surprising that Nintendo's competitors -- Sony and Microsoft -- are trying to take advantage of the Wii's woes in the weeks leading up to the holidays.
Sony has been the most aggressive by far, slashing the prices of PlayStation 3 and its developer kit.
The smoke has barely cleared from the Nintendo Wii's first birthday candles, and already the next big challenge is looming: the 2007 holiday season. For Nintendo, the critical question is whether the revolutionary gaming platform will continue to be a consumer favorite or a lingering manufacturing hangover will stifle sales.
According to industry analyst Video Game Chartz, it was a stellar first year for the Wii, which passed the PS3 in total worldwide sales at Thanksgiving last year, and then passed the Xbox 360 at the end this past summer. VG Chartz compiles its figures by sampling sales data from retailers around the globe.
The Xbox 360 has fared better in head-to-head sales in the U.S. VG Chartz reported that as of this week, Microsoft has sold nearly 8.5 million Xbox 360 consoles in the past year, compared to just over 6 million Wiis and 2.3 million PS3s.
A Wii Manufacturing Problem
Given the robust sales and continued demand for the Wii, the upcoming holiday season should be a good one for Nintendo, but the company has been hampered by manufacturing delays.
"Here's the good news," Roger Fils-Aime, the president of Nintendo America, said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News. "The good news is we're flowing more and more product into the marketplace, and the amount of Wii hardware that will be in North American stores will be unprecedented. Substantially more than the launch, substantially more than has been seen to date."
The New World Assembly (TNWA) Group has released its proprietary anti-cheat platform, X-ray, to anybody that wants to use it for regulation of online games - for free.
The software, which cost over USD 1 million to develop, is currently used by the company's own tournament site Enemydown.
X-ray works by monitoring an individual's PC during play, and if it detects any irregularities it then sends a report and screenshot - anybody caught cheating will then be held in a database and prevented from taking part in future games using the software.
TNWA CEO Paul Sulyok explained the decision to GamesIndustry.biz.
"The reason why this came about is because we had a number of smaller leagues and tournaments in the UK, the States and in Australia who approached us asking to borrow the anti-cheat software that we had.
"We're not in the game of saying 'no, you can't have it, everyone's got to play in our tournaments,' so we sat down and tried to come up with a solution whereby people could use the anti-cheat technology that we built, and are updating an improving on an ongoing basis.
"It's about community, it's about nurturing and helping the community - and the community helps each other. We've had a number of companies help us out in the past, and there's absolutely no reason why we shouldn't feed that back in to help other communities grow as well."
Sensible World Of Soccer was first announced for XBLA back in September of 2006 for a release date in the first quarter of 2007.
We all know how that one turned out.
However, there are strong indications that the title will finally surface on Wednesday. Codemasters Online Gaming's Jim Brown said the following earlier this month: "We are currently targeting a release at the end of November. Of course this is all subject to passing the usual internal and Microsoft submissions."
Well, CVG noticed that there's only one more Wednesday before December rolls around, so it's do or die time for a November release for Sensible World Of Soccer.
Naturally, after months and months of being burned, we're excited for the title -- but we're not going to hold our breath
According to Double Fusion, the dynamic networks used by in-game advertising companies to monitor player behavior data can be used to aid processes such as level design.
Frank Sagnier, the European MD of in-game advertising specialist Double Fusion, told Develop that advertising placed in game environments can be used to monitor the popularity of in-game areas, which in turn can aid designers’ creation of new locations.
“Developers are starting to realize that there is a benefit to having this tool running underneath their game,” he said.
“For massively multiplayer games and virtual worlds we have developers asking us to look into where players are going and what they see. We can track the ads to see that players are going to certain spots.
“It’s difficult to know what environments work when you’re designing a game in a vacuum, but when it comes to MMOs you can update the game based on player behavior. Really, consumers can control the design of a game. Because we can track the data on what they are looking at and doing, we can help developers design their games better.
Double Fusion recently released a new technology which separates in-game advertising from the development process, enabling advertisers to implement new ads in already completed games and back catalog titles. Already being utilized by Ubisoft, NCsoft and casual game publisher Oberon Media, the technology, dubbed fusion.runtime, aims to offer companies much more flexibility in their approach to advertising strategies, and ensure that the implementation of adverts doesn't hamper the development process.
Microsoft is now working hard on getting owners of the original Xbox gaming console to the Xbox 360.
The company is now offering a new deal this holiday season specifically for the owners of the Xbox console who are also members of the Xbox Live service.
They are going to offer a copy of the hugely popular Halo 3 gaming title to gamers who wants to buy an Xbox 360 as long they have a paid-up Xbox Live membership and the original Xbox console.
This offer is valid between 21 November and 21 December. They would also have to move their existing Xbox Live account to an Xbox Live Gold subscription.
Halo 3 was just recently launched and it became a smashing hit for the company breaking several records for videogame titles in the market.
Metro Simulator 2 is coming soon for Xbox and PlayStation consoles Ultimate Games (@ULTGames) confirmed that Metro Simulator 2, the realistic and relaxing simulator with faithfully reproduced subway realities and train control mechanics from KishMish Games, will laun..
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According to industry analyst Video Game Chartz, it was a stellar first year for the Wii, which passed the PS3 in total worldwide sales at Thanksgiving last year, and then passed the Xbox 360 at the end this past summer. VG Chartz compiles its figures by sampling sales data from retailers around the globe.
X-ray works by monitoring an individual's PC during play, and if it detects any irregularities it then sends a report and screenshot - anybody caught cheating will then be held in a database and prevented from taking part in future games using the software.
Well, CVG noticed that there's only one more Wednesday before December rolls around, so it's do or die time for a November release for 
“Developers are starting to realize that there is a benefit to having this tool running underneath their game,” he said.
They are going to offer a copy of the hugely popular Halo 3 gaming title to gamers who wants to buy an Xbox 360 as long they have a paid-up Xbox Live membership and the original Xbox console.
