MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
During its post-fiscals conference call, Activision became the latest publisher to ring the death knell for big-bundle, hardware-based music games. The firm will release just two console games in 2010, across 10 SKUs. Music games accounted for 25 SKUs in 2009, when it launched the likes ofGuitar Hero 5 and …
Read More »Record $4bn revenues for Activision
Activision Blizzard has once again bucked the downward trend in the games industry by detailing better than expected Q4 and full year 2009 earnings. In fact the firm reckons 2009 was the most profitable year in the history of the company. For the full year Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues …
Read More »New boss for Guitar Hero franchise
Musical chairs at Activision today – after less than a year on the job former Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosensweig has left to pursue new career oportunities. He will be replaced by David Haddad, who becomes COO of Guitar Hero. Haddad formerly served as COO of Vivendi Games’ Sierra Online …
Read More »DJ Hero’s audio in focus
A look at how FreeStyleGames reinvented the rhythm action series
Read More »Heard About: DJ Hero
Why mastering the DJ Hero soundtrack requires a new kind of developer
Read More »Guitar Hero: Natal on the way?
The team behind Guitar Hero are busy working on a way to create a game for Microsoft’s Project Natal. The co-founder of RedOctane, Kai Huang, has revealed that the firm is investigating the idea of having a camera track players’ movements – and said the firm is exploring the possibilities” …
Read More »Guitar Hero: Led Zeppelin incoming?
The global boss of Activision’s Guitar Hero brand has told MCV that the firm is ‘evaluating’ whether to create more artist-specific releases to go up against MTV’s The Beatles: Rock Band – pointing to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd as possible candidates. Speaking in an exclusive interview, Dan Ronsensweig said …
Read More »Activision: ‘Guitar Hero as respected as Harley Davidson’
Super-publisher Activision has called its Hero franchise as respected as Harley Davidson and the iPhone. In an exclusive interview with MCV, the firm discusses how Guitar Hero has become bigger than just a video game – with long-term planning key to its success. "Things like Guitar Hero has forced us …
Read More »Another lawsuit targets Activision
Just a month after the firm was blasted (inaccurately, it turned out) by Courtney Love, Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise is subject of another celebrity lawsuit. This time rock band No Doubt is up in arms over an appearance in Band Hero, which the group allege contravenes their licensing deal by …
Read More »Guitar Hero CEO: Music games market not saturated
Activision’s Dan Rosenwig has claimed the music games space is far from saturated, with a significant untapped audience yet to be introduced to the likes of Guitar Hero. Speaking to CNBC, the Guitar Hero CEO said: We’re focused on providing value to the consumer, so I don’t think [the music …
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