Rock Band Web Site Enters Coccoon, Emerges As Tattoo Flash [Rock Band 2]
Kotaku — ... a hibernation state earlier this morning only to emerge as Beta RockBand.com! The new site features all of the old site's features plus a host of new items, including a new blog, a photo creator that lets you pose your band members offline for exciting action scenes, and the merch shop, that allows you to create custom merchandise from your band, including Bandmates - 6 inch tall 3D statures of your characters in the game! So much goodness here, but yet... something is missing. Beta RockBand.com [Official Site]

RockBand.com updated, order custom merch
Joystiq [Xbox] — Filed under: News, Rock Band 2 Earlier today, RockBand.com received a major website renovation that has added new functionality, new information and a much sleeker Rock Band presentation. RockBand.com (beta) is more feature-rich than ever, allowing gamers ...

Everything You Need to Know about Guitar Hero World Tour
PC World Latest Technology News — [image] It packs in a sleek new wireless six-piece drum set with fan-like cymbals, a slap-strum pad on its 25 percent larger sunburst guitar, a stunning 86 master recording track list, and absolutely nobody, I repeat nobody, dies in this game. I'm talking about Activision Blizzard's Guitar Hero World Tour ...

@olevia re: Ohio polls (Col Dispatch reports that all polls now have Obama ahead... http://snurl.com/4s07r) as Ohio goes...
Politweets — Loader Twitter.com Profile_bird Hey there! rjedwards is using Twitter. Twitter is a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Join today to start receiving rjedwards's updates. Already using Twitter from your phone? Click here . [image] rjedwards @ olevia re: Ohio polls (Col Dispatch reports that all polls now have Obama ahead... http://snurl.com/4s07r ) as Ohio goes... 4 minutes ago from web in reply to olevia Re-tweeting jimmacmillan - ...

Use Rock Band drum controller with GarageBand
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) — Filed under: Audio, Gaming, iLifeHere's a fun tip from Mac | Life that describes how to use the Rock Band drum controller with GarageBand. In fact, they describe two set-ups; one cheap and one less so. The cheap setup requires GarageBand, the Rock Band USB drum kit and either the GamePad Companion, JunXion (trial) or the Xbox 360 Controller Driver if you've got the Xbox kit. The pricier rig requires a paid version of JunXion ($95). After some simple configuration, you'll have a fully functional electronic drum kit with virtually no ...

The Beatles Join MTV’s Digital Empire
Fast Company - Technology — 12:20 pm | 2 recommendations | 0 comments The Beatles Join MTV’s Digital Empire | posted by Sean Ludwig MTV is on a roll. Just days after announcing a fresh new music video web site comes news that MTV Networks will license songs from the Beatles for an upcoming video game from Harmonix, the makers of Rock Band . In our November issue, we talked about the importance of MTV’s new digital strategy , where a property like Rock Band has the potential to be a billion-dollar business. Van Toffler, the president of MTV Networks, has a stated goal to be a major player in ...

Beatles - New game to feature their music
Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women — As you probably know, the Beatles are one of the last hold-outs from licensing their music for iTunes. But they have agreed to use their music for a new video game, a partnership between MTV Games and Harmonix, creators of the "Rock Band" series. The surviving members of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Beatles widows' Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, will be involved in the game's creative planning. "This game will take you on a journey from the Beatles' first album Please Please Me until the last album at Abbey Road," Jeff ...

Beatles chegarão ao mundo digital em 2009; nada de iTunes Store, porém
BLOG.MACMAGAZINE — Os desenvolvedores do Rock Band anunciaram na semana passada um acordo que viabilizará um jogo temático dos Beatles até o final de 2009, uma bela força de combate para a MTV, que briga com o grande sucesso Guitar Hero, da Activision. O preço pago não deve ter sido nada baixo, haja vista que a própria Activision e a Harmonix (criadora do Rock Band) já teriam feito tentativas de licenciamento no começo deste ano. O mais recente anúncio do jogo Guitar Hero foi o lançamento da sua versão especial da banda Aerosmith. A próximo na fila é a da Metallica. ...

Guitars for Girls -Guitar Hero and Rock Band
Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women — Weren't we just saying that the problem with Guitar Hero is that the guitars aren't designed for girls? Don't laugh -- Daisy Rock Guitars has done very well by designing slightly smaller and very stylish models for girls and women. Make no mistake, these are serious guitars with prices to match. The teen pop band consisting of sisters Aly & AJ took it one step further and "designed" new guitar controllers compatible with both Rock Band and Guitar Hero which will be available this week for $69.99 each. The guitar by Aly features a heart and cross bone print in ...

Gaming Roundup: Ubisoft/Massive Entertainment; Whirled Launches; Rock Band's $300+ Million Payout
paidContent — —Ubisoft gobbles up Massive Entertainment : French videogame developer and publisher Ubisoft acquired Massive Entertainment, the Swedish studio behind the World In Conflict strategy series. Ubisoft bought Massive, which employs more than 120 developers, from Activision (NSDQ: ATVI) Blizzard for an undisclosed sum. The gaming company posted a solid Q3, with sales up 37 percent year-over-year to $219 million (175 million Euros), and raised guidance for the coming quarter. The optimism hinges on the holiday releases of titles like Prince of Persia and Far Cry 2. ...

Guitar Rock Tour vs. Tap Tap Revenge [TheAppleBlog]
GigaOM Network — Guitar Rock Tour has arrived to challenge Tap Tap Revenge’s rhythm-action throne. The new arrival touts a bevy of terrific tunes to tap along to, plus the option to play drums or guitar, loads of characters and unlockable awards. While Guitar Rock Tour may be Rock Band squished on to the iPhone, it’s just as loud and rocks just as hard. Whereas Tap Tap Revenge is free, Guitar Rock Tour costs a few bucks ($9.99) and as such is polished better than a factory fresh Fender Strat. At the core of any decent music-based game is the soundtrack and, while all ...

First Look: Guitar Rock Tour for iPhone
The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) — Filed under: iPhone, App StoreDo you like to rock out with Guitar Hero or Rock Band? If you do, then you'll no doubt like Guitar Rock Tour [iTunes link] for the iPhone. The Guitar Rock Tour experience is similar to that of Guitar Hero, but portable. Unlike Tap Tap Revenge, Guitar Rock Tour gives you 17 licensed songs, including Rock You Like a Hurricane, Beat It, Smoke on the Water, and more. The nice thing about this game is that you can play either the lead guitar or the drums. There are three difficulty levels for Guitar Rock Tour: Easy, Medium, and ...

Pearl Jam releasing "Ten" for "Rock Band 2" video game simultaneous with album's re-issue
The Seattle Times: Microsoft Pri0 — If you've always wanted to rock out with Eddie Vedder to "Jeremy," "Even Flow" and "Black" -- and who hasn't? -- your chance is coming in March. Harmonix ...

The Gift of Guitar Hero - Aerosmith
Technology - Channel Feed — One of the gifts I received this Christmas was Guitar Hero - Aerosmith edition. I must say it is quite entertaining to play and I just finished beating the game on easy level, so now it’s time for medium and bring on the blue notes. Continuing the ongoing discussion that’s already been started here is whether or not it’s appropriate for younger audiences like my 9 yr old son and 6 yr old daughter. It was about a year ago this time that I wrote that post so my kids were a year younger as well. I don’t want to say that one year makes that big of a difference, but it may ...

Rock Band beats iTunes to selling The Beatles online
APC - Tagged Articles - Apple — CES 2009 — You might be able to purchase more than 500 tracks to play along with on the hit console game Rock Band , but the games' developers don't want to take on Apple's iTunes — at least not yet. One of Rock Band's distinguishing features amongst the growing ranks of sing-and-play-along console games is that extra songs can be purchased online for use within the game. "As of the Roy Orbison tracks this week, it's up to 530 songs," Alex Rigopulos, CEO and co-founder of the game's developer Harmonix, said during an appearance at the Billboard Digital Music Live Conference at CES 2009 in Las Vegas. ...

Roland Rock Band
Coolest Gadgets — Face it – making noise by hitting stuff is fun, which is why Rock Band flew off the shelves despite the high price. Roland are cashing in on this craze with two new products – the HD-1 entry level electronic drum kit and the DT-HD1 drum trainer software. Roland drum kits are well regarded and the HD-1 has all the usual toys you’d expect from a modern instrument – velocity sensitive pads, MIDI interface etc. No real surprises there except it’s compact size. The thing that caught my attention was the training software. Reading music is hard work so the guitar hero / Rock ...

Acclaim resets the music game business with Rockfree
VentureBeat — Howard Marks is a high energy guy.  He can talk mile-a-minute about Asian online game business models for games, or user-crafted games, and everything in-between. But most interestingly, the chief executive of Acclaim has just reinvented the music game genre’s business model.  At the Casual Connect show in Hamburg, he gave me the scoop on Rockfree, something that can change the fast-growing music game business. Music games like Rock Band – which just shipped it’s 10 millionth copy – have been successful, and sometimes contentious with the music ...

Rock Band Gets New Classic Rock Track Pack in May
I4U News — Rock Band Gets New Classic Rock Track Pack in May Posted on Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:00:00 CDT | by Shane McGlaun | Topic: Gaming MTV, EA, and Harmonix have announced that a new track pack for Rock Band is coming on May 19. The track pack works with both Rock Band and Rock Band 2 with 20 classic rock tracks form bands like The Who, Rush, Boston and Police. Players buying the track pack form the Xbox or PS3 can play directly from the disc or download the songs onto the console hard drive and once downloaded the songs appear in the Rock Band Library. Pricing for the new track pack hasn't been announced, but ...

Awards night at the Game Developers Conference
VentureBeat — Thousands of people packed the giant auditorium at the Moscone Center’s Esplanade Ballroom in San Francisco tonight for the annual Independent Games Festival and Game Developers Choice awards. It’s always a thrill to listen to the roar of applause as the winners are announced. The crowd loves the indies, which include everyone from students to veterans who run tiny video game studios on shoestring budgets. As all 16,000 or so attendees pile in for the main conference, the awards program is a rare gathering of both the industry fat cats and the little people. While ...

Rock Band has surpassed $1 billion in Sales
I4U News — Rock Band has surpassed $1 billion in Sales Posted on Thu, 26 Mar 2009 10:00:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr | Topic: Gaming MTV Games, Harmonix and distribution partner Electronic Arts, today announced that the Rock Band franchise has officially surpassed $1 billion 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 ...

Guitar Hero World Tour and why you must own it
Tech Digest — I bought Guitar Hero on Friday night. I left Shiny Towers the minute I tapped my last key and made a beeline for Oxford Street, home of crowds, that horrible eternally vomiting zombie and one of the few stretches of road still left with more than one movies, games and music shops still standing. I'd walked past the remains of a credit crunched Zavvi and then up and down between GAME and HMV trying to work out the best deal on guitar packs for either GHIV or Rock Band 2. Which was more expensive was less the issue than which game had the best tracks, after all, it was pay day. Who ...

'LEGO Rock Band' Hitting Shelves Holiday 2009
Switched — Proving once and for all that two totally unrelated franchises can be rolled into one gooey ball of profitable deliciousness, 'LEGO Rock Band' is a go. Set to launch this Holiday season on any console with a pulse -- PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and DS -- the game is a joint ...

Rock Band: Classic Rock Track Pack Available Now
Gearlog — Rock Band Track Pack: Classic Rock software is out now in stores for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and Wii system. This game of classic rock hits will feature 20 songs from artists such as The Who, Rush, Boston, Police Steve Miller Band, and George Thorogood. Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners will have the option of playing the game off the disc or downloading it onto their consoles' hard drives for free. After the songs are downloaded they will appear automatically in player's Rock Band library. Rock Band Track Pack: Classic Rock's suggested retail price ...

Country Track Pack for Rock Band Announced
Gearlog — Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the list of songs being released in their new Country Track pack. It features 21 songs from artists including Shania Twain, Willie Nelson, and more. Rock Band Country Track Pack is available for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. The Rock Band Country Track Pack will hit stores in America on July 21, 2009 for $29.99. The disc will be available for a limited time only before joining the Rock Band Music Store as downloadable content. Track list after the jump. Track List: 1. ...

Ask a Basterd: Am I a Jerk if I Dump Our Sucky Rock Band Bassist?
Wired Top Stories — Our Rock Band bassist sucks. Am I a total jerk if I kick him out? Who cares? You shred, he doesn't. Fire his ass. Bonus: It'll put the others on notice. Anyone who doesn't keep up can hit the road. Even if that means firing the whole band. Remember: All great artists go solo eventually. Just think of Ronnie James Frickin' Dio.

MTV to let artists sell their own tunes in Rock Band
T3.com News — Rock Band’s hard fought rivalry with Guitar Hero is driving MTV to look for new directions to take the increasingly popular music gaming genre. The company reckons its future may be secured with a new initiative to allow artists and bands to sell their music directly to gamers from within Rock Band.   Under the scheme, musicians will be able to submit their tracks to a ‘Harmonix-trained freelance developer’ who will convert it into a proper Rock Band track. It will then be released to Microsoft’s Creator’s Club, which will review it – ...

MTV to let artists sell their own tunes in Rock Band
T3.com All — MTV to let artists sell their own tunes in Rock Band Rock Band eyes the future of music gaming, writes Al Warmington Rock Band s hard fought rivalry with Guitar Hero is driving MTV to look for new directions to take the increasingly popular music gaming genre. The company reckons its future may be secured with a new initiative to allow artists and bands to sell their music directly to gamers from within Rock Band. Under the scheme, musicians will be able to submit their tracks to a Harmonix-trained freelance developer who will convert it into a proper Rock Band track. It will then be released to ...

Rock Band to Release Metal Track Pack
AppScout — Got metal head? Then check out Rock Band's latest Metal Track Pack, to be available October 13th at local retailers and online. Harmonix has assembled a wide array of artists and songs to give this latest pack some edge. This Metal Track Pack includes All That Remains, Lamb of God, Bullet for My Valentine, Godsmack (left), and many more. The 20-song pack will be available for all current generation systems and PlayStation 2 for $29.99. Song and artist list after the jump. All That Remains Two ...

Former Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman slams Guitar Hero
T3.com All — Former Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman slams Guitar Hero Whining Wyman can't get no satisfaction from virtual rock. Ex-Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman has hit out at music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero claiming they prevent youngsters becoming dedicated to learning a real instrument."It encourages kids not to learn, that's the trouble," said the latest unenlightened aging rocker to express his displeasure."It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument. I think is a pity so I'm not really keen on that kind of stuff." - Guitar Hero: Metallica studio tour ...

Former Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman slams Guitar Hero
T3.com News — Ex-Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman has hit out at music games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero claiming they prevent youngsters becoming dedicated to learning a real instrument.   "It encourages kids not to learn, that's the trouble," said the latest unenlightened aging rocker to express his displeasure. "It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument. I think is a pity so I'm not really keen on that kind of stuff."    - Guitar Hero: Metallica studio tour - Ultimate Set-up: Guitar Hero ...

EA announces Rock Band for iPhone
T3.com News — Not content with conquering one Apple corporation (The Beatles variety, that is), Rock Band is now taking aim at the other Apple, with Rock Band for iPhone and iPod touch hitting the app store sometime later this month. Thankfully you don't need to plug your smartphone into a load of plastic add-ons, instead your iPhone can opt to take on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, a tap on that touchscreen hopefully hitting the right notes. So what do you do with the kit you can't control yourself? Simple, you rope in a few iPhone-owning mates. Yes, multiplayer is an option too, use Bluetooth to ...

EA announces Rock Band for iPhone
T3.com All — EA announces Rock Band for iPhone Is that a guitar in your pocket? Not content with conquering one Apple corporation ( The Beatles variety , that is), Rock Band is now taking aim at the other Apple, with Rock Band for iPhone and iPod touch hitting the app store sometime later this month. Thankfully you don't need to plug your smartphone into a load of plastic add-ons, instead your iPhone can opt to take on guitar, bass, drums, and vocals, a tap on that touchscreen hopefully hitting the right notes. So what do you do with the kit you can't control yourself? Simple, you rope in a few iPhone-owning mates. ...

RockBand Heads to iPhone/iPod touch
Mac|Life all RSS Feed — A mobile version of the popular music rhythm game franchise, RockBand, will be heading to an iPhone or iPod touch near you soon enough. TechCrunch is reporting that the game should be due out in ...

Is there a Rock Band game coming for The Who?
VentureBeat — Roger Daltry, the lead singer of The Who, spilled some beans today that there’s a version Rock Band coming that will be based on songs from his band. In an interview with a newspaper, Daltry said about Rock Band, “The game, yeah, yeah, they’re going to be doing a Who one next year. There is one planned.” That’s pretty clear. But it isn’t necessarily a complete confirmation. MTV Networks, Harmonix and Electronic Arts just launched The Beatles Rock Band in September. The game is the No. 1 music game on the market now, but sales weren’t ...

Review: DJ Hero is a standout in overcrowded field of music video games
L.A. Times Tech Blog — Like the Guitar Hero games it's based on, "DJ Hero" requires gamers to tap a colored button at just the right time. Credit: Activision Grandmaster Flash. DJ Shadow. Z-Trip. Most hip-hop heads revere these names as turntable legends. But it’s ...