From the strong reported sales of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, to the frenzied pace of downloads for additional music albums and downloadable content in Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, musicians today are finding that rhythm games are a new way to get their music out to fans outside the traditional sales channels.  While the revenues from the games themselves are a lure, bands are also finding in fans a renewed interest in their non-game music downloads as well as band merchandise. Is this the next big money maker to save the ailing music industry?

Continue Reading “Bands Find More Money in Music Games than Traditional Album Sales” »

It’s been a busy week with several Activision press releases hitting the inboxes as well as some new videos showing scenes with pieces of the GH World Tour song list. All have confirmed more songs on the “leaked” set list we’ve been tracking - with one exception.  We’ve added one song to the list that wasn’t originally leaked- the Cult’s “Love Removal Machine” which was noticed on a gameplay trailer.  By now, almost the entire list has been confirmed, including some favorites by

• Tool
• Smashing Pumpkins
• Sting
• Linkin Park
• Sublime

So, if you haven’t checked out the list lately, click here to be taken over to the Extras tab where we’re keeping all the sources straight until the official word on the ENTIRE list comes from the horse’s mouth!

According to the LA Times, a man accused of posting nine unreleased songs from the upcoming “Chinese Democracy” album by Guns N Roses has been arrested for violating federal copyright laws.  Although one of these songs, Shackler’s Revenge, was allegedly briefly available on RockGamer’s DLC Central page via a YouTube video preview, Code Monkey Smeeguel has not been shackled for allegedly posting a link to it.  The video was allegedly gone almost in the blink of an eye and only a few lucky souls could even verify that they heard it.  For more on the story in the LA Times, click here.

[EDIT: This news has been officially confirmed by Harmonix through their email 'zine pictured after the video!]

Chatter is ablaze on the RockBand official forums with several members posting comments that they viewed a very special tv commercial today.  According to several people, the VH1 Classic channel aired a promo video that announces Rush’s “Moving Pictures” album will be available for download next week (Tues Aug 26 for xbox and Thurs Aug 28 for Playstation).

Take a look at the video and see if it looks like a fakey fake to you!

The Full list of songs as shown above is

Tom Sawyer (Original Version)
Red Barchetta
YYZ
Limelight (Original Version)
The Camera Eye
Witch Hunt
Vital Signs

Tracks will go for $1.99 (160 points) or pick up the whole album for $10.99 (880 Points).

Well, folks, we’ve been working on this list for some time, and we are now comfortable declaring that the “leaked list” of the complete Guitar Hero World Tour Setlist that we found earlier is very likely ”the real deal”.  Two new sources of confirmation have appeared today that all but finalize the list completely. IGN wrote an article that had eight songs listed which we reported earlier today, but the second source came as a welcome surprise.

Special thanks to RockGamer.com commenter Alex on this latest find. He left a comment on our story on the leaked list saying, “Kent - Vinternoll2 is now officially confirmed by the band on their website.”  which led us through the interwebs on a chase for that story and ultimately turned into a gold mine. The Kent official website  and the related press release I found is in Swedish, so let’s hope the Swedish to English translation site was working!  This is the press release on their site after translation:

Continue Reading “Complete Guitar Hero World Tour Setlist?” »

I am not really a fan of this “nibble nibble” form of receiving the GHWT setlist that’s going on, where we keep hearing bits and pieces through Stuff Mag, Tool Website, PS3 articles, etc.  I’d much rather just wait and get ONE announcement from Activision of the entire setlist so I can sit down and chew through that. 

However, one of the “leaked” setlists has seen a striking number of its predictions confirmed through one source or another, so it’s gaining credibility as the announcements gain speed. Therefore, we’re going to provide that list, as well as the sources of confirmation, just in case it happens to end up being true.  If it is true, it’s one hell of a list!   Thanks to the ga-forums for originally compiling all of this and keeping up with the sources. We’ve added a few more of our own as well.

Continue Reading “Guitar Hero World Tour Nibbles Through Leaked SetList” »

With the upcoming release of Rock Band 2, the continued debate over which system will offer the most bang for your buck continues to heat up.  Many people continue to press the point that the PS2 and Wii versions of the game will be inferior to their PS3 & 360 counterparts, due to their lack of gameplay features.

We’ve heard the complaints regarding no DLC, no online play and no character creation/customization.  As a current owner of all four of the above consoles, I’d have to agree that those complaints are valid, at least in regard to Rock Band 1.  However, in an article published on Wired.com, author Chris Kohler claims that he was told by Harmonix reps (unnamed in the article) at last month’s E3, that “the Wii version of Rock Band 2 will be a much more competitive product.”

Continue Reading “Rock Band 2 For Nintendo Wii - Fully Featured?” »