Release date: April 09
Discover all you ever want to know about MUSIC on this colorful and detailed website:
www.music-thegame.com– How through 21 lessons you’ll be able to play and read music while having fun.
– All the details about the different modes: terminology, chords…
– The mini games to work out your musical ear, rhythm …
– All the songs you’ll be able to perform after playing this game.
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Two Cameras, Interactive Audio and Nintendo DSiWare Provide Creative, Customized Experiences
REDMOND, Wash., April 2, 2009 – On April 5, Nintendo launches Nintendo DSi™, the third iteration of the best-selling portable video game system and the latest evolution in hand-held gaming. Nintendo DSi gives new and veteran gamers the ability to customize, personalize and share their experiences with friends and family. Two built-in, interactive cameras let people snap and modify photos, while recorded sounds can be played and manipulated in interesting and imaginative ways. Also on April 5, Nintendo will launch the Nintendo DSi Shop, a new online storefront where users can redeem Nintendo DSi Points to download an ever-growing variety of inventive games and applications. Nintendo DSi will be available in the United States in Blue or Black at an MSRP of $169.99.
“The concept of entertainment is clearly expanding to enable self-expression and creation in ways never before possible,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Nintendo DSi is loaded with software to help people do exactly that. It’s not just about the cameras or audio playback, but what people can do with these features that makes Nintendo DSi such an enjoyable game system.”
Beyond the creative user experience, these features also give developers the tools to create new games and applications not previously possible. In the same way that WiiWare™ has given developers big and small a way to deliver their most original games directly to Wii™ users, Nintendo DSiWare™ provides access to the latest and most inventive hand-held games from a variety of studios and genres. Here are the Nintendo DSiWare titles that will be available when the Nintendo DSi Shop launches:
EA Sports Grand Slam Tennis (Wii)
Publisher: Electronic Arts Inc.
Developer: EA Canada
Ship Date: June 15, 2009 (North America)
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP: $49.95 USDProduct Description
EA SPORTS™ welcomes a new member to its family of world class franchises. EA SPORTS Grand Slam® Tennis delivers the deepest and richest tennis experience ever developed for the Wii™ with authentic tennis motions on the most famous courts in the world. Professional tennis is all about the Grand Slams and EA’s new tennis franchise is no different. It is the only videogame where users can play at Wimbledon. In fact, it is home to all four Grand Slams; from the Australian Open to Roland Garros to the hallowed grounds of Wimbledon to the lively U.S. Open.
Perform real life tennis strokes in your living room and control every inch of the court. Users feel like they have a racket in their hands as they swing real forehands and backhands.
Proving It
Now, and to be completely candid about this, as a game developer Terminal Reality had something to prove. At that time our most recent titles, Aeon Flux and Spy Hunter, each featured some great elements but neither of them exactly set the world on fire.
We had recently undergone extensive management changes and company reorganization. We firmly decided that we no longer want to be known as a developer that ships decent games on time, but instead one that focuses solely on top-quality entertainment. This had been the central message of our ‘reboot’ publisher tour in LA.
We had just proven our commitment to quality (to ourselves, anyway) by reluctantly turning down the offer of an extremely high-profile project that we felt just didn’t offer enough development time to really perfect the game.
A few months prior to that we had gone out to pitch an (different) original game IP. We had a strong document, a gameplay concept that everyone was dying to play, and even a development partnership with a high-profile, stellar, and very cool movie director who worked a room like no one I have ever seen. But what we didn’t have was a demo, and thus we never got out of the talking stages.
A thrilling ride of adventure, mystery and cliff-hanging suspense, perfect for children of all ages!
Vienna, Austria, April 1st 2009; JoWooD Productions and XPEC Entertainment are pleased to announce the successful PC adventure “The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft” is in development for Wii™. Players will face challenging puzzles and exciting dialogues embedded in a thrilling story, which is especially suitable for children! In The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft, the vault at Spencer Mansion is robbed, and the Bayport Police call on the Hardy Boys to help tie-up some loose ends, but they soon find themselves in the middle of a major criminal investigation that takes them on an adventure all over Bayport, and even into New York City. But the pieces don’t add up, and Frank and Joe find themselves embroiled in a drama of sinister proportions.
After their release on the PC, The Hardy Boys were able to obtain official awards including the “Ultimate Games Award 2008”, which focuses on pedagogical valuable games.
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REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Paint on the eye black and lace up the cleats, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced today that Madden NFL 10 will be available in North American retail stores on Friday, August 14. The storied football franchise ushers in a new era with advancements that bring the NFL fan everything they see on Sundays, minus the grass stains.
On-field authenticity and emotion is taken to another level in Madden NFL 10. With more control over the outcome of the play than ever before, players can drag defenders towards the first down marker, fight for a fumble at the bottom of the pile, and avoid the rush by stepping up into the pocket. Utilizing an all-new animation technology, Madden NFL 10 ensures that the Fight For Every Yard doesn’t end until the whistle blows.
Release Date: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Cambridge, Mass. – March 31, 2009 – Harmonix and MTV Games announced today 14 new tracks coming this week to the Rock Band® Music Store catalogue of downloadable content for Wii™ home videogame console from Nintendo, including Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten. This week’s new music lineup also includes new wave band Devo, punk band Fall Out Boy and, the rap infused metal-edged stylings of Faith No More.
Ten, the 1991 album that introduced the world to Pearl Jam, will be released in its entirety for download in the Wii Rock Band® Music Store this week including popular hit “Jeremy” and hidden track “Master/Slave”. With the song “Alive” from Ten already featured on the Rock Band 2 soundtrack, the Rock Band Music Store will feature the other eleven tracks from the album. The Pearl Jam tracks were released to owners of Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system last week.
Santa Monica, CA – March 31, 2009 – Having pioneered and expanded the heavy metal genre while gaining critical and popular success over the past 25 years, Metallica invites gamers to “Ride the Lightning” with them and over 20 other rocking artists in Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) latest release – Guitar Hero® Metallica®. Enter the world of Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo and experience the intensity and skill of one of the greatest bands of all time. Shred on the guitar controller, rip on the drum kit controller and wail on the mic to over 45 explosive hits from both Metallica’s illustrious career and a variety of other legendary artists selected by the band, such as Alice In Chains, Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Foo Fighters, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Queen.
“When Guitar Hero came to us with the idea to do a game based on Metallica, we call this a no brainer and said yes very quickly,” said Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica. “It seemed like the next step – a whole other platform for musicians to reach an audience. If we talk about this in five years, I think it will turn into an expected way to release music.”
“Guitar Hero is a great way for people to experience the music of a band. Not just Metallica, but many bands. It’s almost educational in that sense, where people can learn about groups that range from Santana to Lynyrd Skynyrd to Journey,” said bassist Robert Trujillo.
Rock Legend to Lend Unique Musical Talents to Upcoming Sci-Fi First-Person Shooter
SAN FRANCISCO & LONDON (March 26, 2009) – SEGA of America Inc. and SEGA Europe …
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Milton Keynes, UK 31st March 2009 – 505 Games today announced that the highly anticipated next chapter in the Mama Brand, Gardening Mama will launch on 1st May across Europe. …
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London (31st March 2009) – Square Enix Ltd., the publisher of Square Enix® interactive entertainment products in Europe and other PAL territories, today announces that the official teaser site for …
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In this farewell edition of the Wii-kly Update (more on that below*), we’re pleased to announce a pair of excellent games based around completely opposite vocations. Newly available on the …
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London, UK – 27th March, 2009 – When aliens attack, monsters fight back in Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Monsters vs. Aliens™, the video game based on the highly anticipated 3D feature film from DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. (Nasdaq: DWA), which makes its UK debut today. Gamers can experience heart pounding action and silly antics as they lead a dynamic team of misfit monsters on a mission to protect earth from destruction.
“Monsters vs. Aliens allows players to control the characters from the film and use their unique abilities to battle alien enemies throughout the game,” said Rob Kostich, head of marketing for licensed properties, Activision Publishing, Inc. “Players invite a friend to grab a Wii Remote™ or controller and join forces at any time to help clear enemies, collect monster DNA and overcome obstacles as their favourite monster heroes.”
LOS ANGELES – March 27, 2009 – TOMY Corporation, the endearing consumer software and entertainment company, and Collision Studios today announced a strategic partnership to develop an original video game for Nintendo platforms. In choosing industry veteran Collision Studios, TOMY underscored its commitment to establishing its footprint in the gaming industry. The game further expands TOMY’s North American video game portfolio and will be available in late summer 2009.
“We are dedicated to establishing a reputation for quality games and innovative, new IP, which is made possible through partnerships with respected developers like Collision Studios,” said Laura Yoshioka, director of consumer software at TOMY Corporation. “Collision’s impressive roster of original and licensed video games instills confidence in their ability to create a unique and exciting new title.”
New York, NY – March 26, 2009 — MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks, (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), Harmonix, the leading developer of music-based games, and distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), today announced that the Rock Band® franchise has officially surpassed $1 billion dollars in North American retail sales in 15 months, according to The NPD Group. In addition, over 40 million paid individual songs have been sold via download through the Rock Band® platform furthering its position as the music video game leader in paid song sales and downloadable content with over 600 songs available to date in the Rock Band catalogue.
Originally launched on November 20, 2007, Rock Band is the multi-million unit selling, genre-defining music game platform that allowed music fans and gamers to interact with and discover music like never before by choosing guitar, drums, vocals, or bass to start a band and rock the world. Developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game development company, and published by MTV Games, the Rock Band platform has had a positive impact on the overall promotion and sales of music, benefiting artists included in the game both directly through royalties associated with game sales and indirectly by causing the sale of more songs and albums.
Keynote Details Nintendo DSi News on Eve of Launch
SAN FRANCISCO, March 25, 2009 – Nintendo President Satoru Iwata today revealed surprises for consumers and an expanded palette of video game development opportunities for the industry during his keynote address at the Game Developers Conference. Iwata announced a new storage solution for Nintendo’s Wii™ home console and showed video highlights of a new Nintendo DS™ game from The Legend of Zelda™ franchise.
Video game developers now have expanded opportunities given that worldwide shipments for the Wii system surpassed 50 million units and worldwide shipments for the Nintendo DS franchise are at more than 100 million units. Iwata said, “It is in the power of game developers to invent things that gamers have never seen – or even imagined – before.”
Nintendo also noted several key initiatives that are on the way for consumers, some of which are available at the Nintendo GDC booth.
Nintendo DSi
• The new portable Nintendo DSi system goes on sale in the United States on April 5. For the first six months after launch, consumers who buy the system and connect to the Nintendo DSi Shop will automatically receive 1,000 Nintendo DSi Points, which can be redeemed for downloadable Nintendo DSiWare™ games and applications through the Nintendo DSi Shop. In order to receive the free Nintendo DSi Points, consumers must access the Nintendo DSi Shop by Oct. 5, 2009, and the Nintendo DSi Points can be redeemed at any time after that (wireless broadband access required).
April 20, 2009
ESRB: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence
Game Type: Action Racing
Accessories: Wii Wheel™
Players: 1-2 Locally, Up to 6 via Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection
Developer: Monster Games
KEY INFORMATION
High-speed action. Robotic insect and animal racers. Wii Wheel controls. Bowling, poker, clowns – and sandwiches! Add them all together and you get the wild, nonstop fun of Excitebots: Trick Racing.
• This game takes the big-air thrills and simple pick-up-and-play controls of Excite Truck™ and ramps up the fun with a constant barrage of funky challenges and mini-games performed at blinding speed. Players shoot goals, throw pies and even play poker in the middle of rowdy races around off-road tracks.
• Having your vehicles drive, walk or fly around the track quickly is one thing, but it’s more important to go around in style. Players earn stars for huge jumps, cool tricks and daring feats at high speed.
• Six players can race online via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection in both Excite Race and Poker Race modes. If friends can’t join online, players can exchange ghost data via WiiConnect24™ and challenge their friends to outdo their most daring tricks. (Note that broadband access is required for online play. For more information about this topic, visit www.Nintendo.com.)
Jeff Mills
Director of Production
Red Fly StudioStars Align (again)
At GDC in March 2007, Red Fly Studio had only been in business for about three months. Studio founders Dan Borth and Kris Taylor knew that we had to start immediately preparing for the future beyond our first title (Mushroom Men). We set out for the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco where we met with the top brass of half a dozen of the biggest game publishers in the industry.
The one publisher who seemed surprisingly uninterested in our demo was Vivendi Universal Games. They sat impatiently through our presentation, and as soon as the standard demo spiel was done, they drew us away from the screen and quickly got to the point. They had a job, and they wanted Red Fly Studio specifically to do it.
Before I left Terminal Reality to help Dan and Kris start Red Fly Studio, I had been part of production on Ghostbusters, the project TRI had been developing in utter secrecy for the previous year. Because of my foreknowledge of the project, the publisher could cut right to the chase: The publisher wanted TRI to focus their entire attention on the Xbox 360 and PS3 version of Ghostbusters without concerning themselves with producing a separate Wii version as well. We were already licensing Terminal Reality’s Infernal Engine to produce Mushroom Men, and our close ties to TRI (Dan and Kris worked there along with me back in 1999) made us ideally suited to produce Ghostbusters for Wii. And it was Ghostbusters, after all: a dream job. Right?
“No way!” came the unanimous response from Red Fly Studio.
If the release date for Ghostbusters had been after Mushroom Men’s release date, then maybe we could have done it. But the publisher required that we ship this new title at the same time as our current project. Pushing a single title to completion is challenging enough, but shipping two titles simultaneously is a monumental undertaking. The veterans at RFS had seen a dozen studios explode by growing too quickly, taking on jobs that they couldn’t handle. We knew better. We sadly but politely declined and bade them farewell, wishing that the timing had been better.
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