Confirming reports published yesterday, The Beatles, MTV and Harmonix have jointly announced that they will be collaborating on a “brand new videogame featuring the music of the iconic Beatles” and will be out in time for the holidays 2009.
Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos added the game will be a “new, full-blown custom game title production built from the ground up”. This won’t be a special one band branded game like Aerosmith had with Guitar Hero however, it will be a whole new game.
Jeff Jones, CEO of Apple Corps, noted that the catalog would include songs from the entire run of The Beatles. It also appears the game will work with peripherals from Rock Band as well as Guitar Hero.
“We want to take players on an experiential journey through the band’s history,” he said. “A visual exploration of the Beatles’ imagery is a big part of this project,” Rigopulos said. “With apologies…there’s very little that we’re ready to say about the game itself.”
MTV Networks president Van Toffler added, “We’re going to provide the ultimate platform for new generations of fans to start their own love affair with the Beatles”. Van Toffler also noted that the song of George Martin, Giles Martin, would be doing music production for the game.
“The thing that we’re trying to keep to is for people to play the songs as though they’re playing the originals. So we will be adhering to the original mixes my father and the Beatles did, and trying to preserve the sound quality as much as possible,” said Martin.
Result for: aero
The blockbuster hit game Wii Fit was finally made available in the US this morning, after selling over 2 million units in Japan over only a matter of weeks. The game is available in New York right now only and then the rest of the US beginning May 21st.
Nintendo’s latest hit allows users to check their body mass index and do various routines such as strength training, aerobics, yoga, skiing, and snowboarding, all in the comfort of their homes.
“Wii Fit will get you moving whether you’ve been playing video games for years or this is your first time,” Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive VP of sales and marketing, said in an announcement. “Wii Fit is easy for anyone to try and is yet another example of how Nintendo continues to expand the world of video games to new audiences.”
The $90 USD game comes with “a hefty balance board that wirelessly communicates with the required Nintendo Wii Console. Measuring 20.5 inches by 13 inches by 3 inches, the board which is basically a complex floor-based game controller, senses the user’s weight as he steps on it and uses the information to control and synchronize the onscreen games and exercises designed to improve your balance, posture and fitness.”
Personal trainers around the world have said the game is a good way to get started on your personal fitness, especially if you are embarrassed to join a traditional gym.
Result for: aero
Microsoft VP John Schappert has confirmed today at the Tokyo Game Show event that the Xbox 360 “New Xbox Experience (NXE)” dashboard revamp is coming on November 19th to 26 countries and in 19 languages.
The NXE will completely transform the intrerface of your console but the biggest change is the move to cover flow-esque navigation, working the same way Vista’s Aero task switcher does. From there you can cycle through various channels (avatars, demos, new movies, Netflix, etc) and it appears there will be an expansion of channels, from the current 5.
NXE will certainly include Netflix support with the ability to stream over 15,000 movies, concerts and TV shows to your 360. You can also “stream the movie with up to seven other consoles in a ‘party’ you can also haul around the dashboard, in and out of movies or games.”
The NXE also adds Mii-like avatars where gamers can customize a character to look like them (or anyone else) including the face, hair, body and clothing and accessories.
More notably, NXE will give you the ability to copy your retail purchased game to the hard drive, which slows down load times and also saves your drive’s laser in the long run.
NXE officially adds 16:10 plus 1440×900 and 1680×1050 widescreen VGA and HDMI support. Fans should applaud this as it will remove most black formatting bars and will offer high resolutions for VGA and HDMI users.
The new interface update will also include a new channel called “Xbox Live Primetime” which is basically a party game (think GSN) channel for XBL members.
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