Crisis averted.

Until now, the war between music game franchises has left frugal gamers with no option but to pick a side and hope for the best. Following Guitar Hero publisher Activision’s press conference, however, Chris Kohler over at Game|Life brings us good news:

At Activision’s E3 press conference Tuesday, Guitar Hero director Brian Bright told the crowd that if they already owned guitar controllers and drum controllers from “previous games” on the Xbox 360, they’d work with Guitar Hero World Tour.

As a person who owns Rock Band and all its peripherals on the 360, this makes it a lot easier to be on both sides of the music game fence. My Rock Band 2 purchase is all but sealed up, but knowing that I can get the full Guitar Hero World Tour experience without crowding my basement with even more peripherals makes it all the more enticing.

Specifics on now the RB drums will work with GH remain to be revealed, but it should be interesting, as the Guitar Hero World Tour drums require one more input than the Rock Band drums currently have. In addition, Bright did not adress PS3 or Wii compatibility. We’ll have to wait and see.

[Image and info via Wired]

According to IGN, Activision CEO Bobbi Kotick said that the company is considering launching a massively multiplayer online game based off of its Call of Duty franchise.

Kotick stated that Activision looked at five years of data at publisher attempts to break into the MMO market and noticed that most of them resulted in failure or cancellation. Now that Activision and Blizzard are together, it’s a sure thing that will not be the case for the company. Kotick says that Activision will not only be able to get some World of Warcraft subscribers, but also learn from Blizzard’s half how to comprehend newer projects.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was no doubt one of the greatest games of the year 2007, and an MMO game will definitely attract several gamers. Please note, Kotick did NOT confirm that there will be an MMO game based off of the CoD franchise, but rather said it’s being talked about right now. He only briefly mentioned it in his speech at the 2008 Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, but still, this is pretty exciting speculation.

I’m not going to lie; I saw this coming. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has been rumored to have been in the workings for a while now, and Activision finally decided to announce the game this morning. Why Aerosmith? Aerosmith is one of the defining bands of a generation; the only thing few bands that would be more appropriate to name a Guitar Hero game after would be Led Zeppelin or perhaps Jimi Hendrix. (Why haven’t we seen those yet, Neversoft?)

Not only that, but this weekend Activision is releasing Aerosmith’s hit “Dream On” free to Guitar Hero III owners.

Anyway, I, for one, am pleased with Activision’s choice as to who would front the next Guitar Hero game. Don’t like Aerosmith and want another one of your favorite bands to front the next Guitar Hero game? Dream on.

Hit the jump for the full press release.

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Apparently Harmonix has had a patch that makes the Guitar Hero controllers compatible with Rock Band on PS3 ready for a while, but Activision won’t let them release it. Now Activision says they’re more than willing to let it be released, they just want to make even more money out of it. Here’s what Maryanne Lataif, a spokeswoman for Activision, told The Boston Globe:

Unfortunately for Rock Band users, Harmonix has been unwilling to discuss an agreement that will allow us to provide that option in a manner that maintains the high standards people have come to expect from Activision

By “unwilling to discuss” she must mean unwilling to pay up and by “high standards” she must mean money mongering, as she makes Activision’s motives perfectly clear with the following statement:

We believe we should be compensated for the use of our technology

I thought people actually purchasing Guitar Hero III in the first place was compensation enough, and once they owned it they should be able to use it however they please - but Activision wants more in addition to the $100 they already got for each game sold. While it seems clear that Activision is only preventing the patch’s release for money, and they even admitted it, they’re still in denial and another spokeswoman, Spencer Saltonstall, says they’re doing it for the consumer:

We are really and truly not looking at this from the financial standpoint, we are looking at this from the consumer standpoint

I’m not sure how delaying a compatibility patch until Harmonix bribes them to allow its release benefits the consumer (or anyone besides Activision themselves) at all, but I guess they just refuse to admit how bad they’re handling this.

[Via Evil Avatar]

This has been a really hot year for video games. One company in particular has had an amazingly successful year. According to The NPD Group (a company who provides consumer and market research information) Activision was the “#1 U.S. console and handheld publisher for the first eleven months of calendar 2007.

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People will shout out anything on Xbox Live, believing they are anonymous. Anyone who’s played online has heard numerous unprovoked slurs and gratuitous swearing, and people will say some pretty disturbing things for the sole sake of saying disturbing things. Something you probably haven’t heard though is someone threatening to shoot up a school - but recently, someone made that threat over Xbox Live and now has two misdemeanor counts filed against him as a result:

Two misdemeanor counts of disrupting a school operation have been filed against a Frostburg State University student who allegedly made an Internet threat of “shooting up the school,” according to district court documents.

Apparently he made the threat and even gave details on how he was going to do while playing Call of Duty 4 on Xbox Live (which, contrary to what the Cumberland Times-News claims, is not a “gaming system.” That would be the Xbox 360). Upon hearing this unsettling threat, another player in the match from Oregon contacted the Frostburg Police Department and told them what he had heard. They immediately started an investigation, and schools in Frostburg were ordered to be in “lock-in” status when they opened in the morning on Tuesday. Various state troopers and police from different counties came, and there were 40 officials patrolling the school at one point.

With the help of Microsoft, they tracked the IP address to his room and he was taken into custody and led hand-cuffed out at about 2 p.m. Tuesday. He could face up to a year in jail or a $5,000 fine, or both. However, according to the court documents he said “he was joking and had no intention of following through with the threats,” which seems plausible since when they searched his room no weapons or evidence was found.

[Via Kotaku]

From the very first mission to the fast-paced final minutes, Call of Duty 4 is an incredibly fun experience that immerses you completely in the game and places you right on the frontlines of war. It starts off with a training mission that is mostly taking out targets, walking, and finally completing a short, timed combat scenario. However, as soon as that is complete you are thrust straight into the action when you are dropped onto a ship in the middle of the turbulent waves of the ocean. The mission is fast and intense, and a brilliant way to begin the game, as it really gets you pumped. As soon as you leap to safety after an adrenaline-fueled race against the clock and the ocean itself, you finally have time to breathe and yet it, like nearby every level following, only leaves you wanting more. When the title appears it has a movie like quality; it begins with a fast-paced opening action sequence, followed by a momentary pause for the title, and then a scene that sets the story and tone for much of the game. However, unlike with movies, you are in complete control so the beginning is much more effective at getting you pumped than many well done action sequences at the start of movies. You are entirely responsible for getting out alive and in time, and instead of merely spectating as the action unfolds you are right in the middle of everything.

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Following the recent merger, Activision Blizzard has revealed a fact sheet this morning that has announced a few working titles. Currently, the company is planning to release a new James Bond title, a new Tony Hawk title (which would make it the 11th installment), some new DreamWorks games, new Marvel titles, and a new racing title made by the recently acquired Bizarre Creations. Sequels to the two biggest multiplatform titles of the holiday season are currently in the “pipeline,” as well: Guitar Hero IV and Call of Duty 5.

Of course, the last two selections were no secret. Hell, the others weren’t as much either. The fact sheet didn’t say when all of these games are releasing, but I’m sure it’ll be within the next year as Activision loves its money.

Activision, the gaming publisher responsible for such hits as Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Call of Duty, is now officially set to merge with Vivendi Games, publisher of such mega-hit franchises as Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo and Crash Bandicoot. The resulting company, now the world’s biggest publisher, will be called Activision Blizzard, or, as I like to think of them, the Third Reich. Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, commented:

By combining leaders in mass-market entertainment and subscription-based online games, Activision Blizzard will be the only publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry and reach the broadest possible audiences.

By joining forces with Vivendi Games, we will become the immediate leader in the highly profitable online games business and gain a large footprint in the rapidly growing Asian markets, including China and Korea, while maintaining our leading operating performance across North America and Europe.

Does this sound like the beginning of an Axis-like companionship between Activision and Vivendi to anyone else? Are they actually planning an entire take-over of the online gaming world? I can only speculate.

Actually, this type of merger might be good for Activision. Hopefully, because they are now coupled with Blizzard’s excellent online system, Activision will learn a thing or two about how to get online ranked matches to actually work in their next update of the Guitar Hero franchise. Or will we see a MMO Guitar Hero game? Think of the possiblities!

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]

You may have heard how disappointed I was with the last two tiers of Guitar Hero III. In an obvious attempt to please me, Neversoft and Activision have teamed up to release two packs of three songs as downloadable content for the Xbox 360. Both the Velvet Revolver pack (which includes “She Builds Quick Machines,” “Slither,” and “Messages”) and Foo Fighters pack (which includes “The Pretender,” “All My Life,” and “This is a Call”) will retail for 500 MS points each, and are now available for download right now.

At $2 per song, I’m still very hesitant to pick these song packs up. It just seems like too much money to pay for a couple of measley songs that I am not absolutely in love with. Activision had this problem with Guitar Hero II, as you may remember, releasing mediocre songs at exorbitant prices. I had hoped that they would clean up their act and get some sort of bargain going, and only charge a dollar per song, but I guess not.

For now, though, I’m boycotting Guitar Hero III downloadable content. Activision, come back when you bring some Zeppelin or Hendrix.

UPDATE: I think it may just be the booze kicking in, but apparently we’re also getting the boss battle songs up for download free of charge in later November.

- Grande gracias to kagatoasuka (aka “The Love Machine”)