Where's my SOUL; Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchise off a step

When it comes music, the industry itself has been always driven either by good marketing or creative hustle.

Why has MTV Games/EA/Harmonix and Activision/Neversoft failed, once again, to address Soul Music and Latin American Music in their marquee franchises of Rock Band and Guitar Hero at E3?

Sony's Singstar has included a strong multicultural lineup in their song selections, do to SCEE being part of multilingual market, but when it comes to American publishers and developers they have failed to properly capture the other popular music genres.

Soul Music, R&B, Hip Hop, Mariachi, Banda, Cumbia, Rock en Espanol are huge music genres, with multimillion selling artists and albums, but Rock Band and Guitar Hero have included very little amount of songs in to their respective franchises.

The Music Game genre is growing, DJ Hero, Scratch and The Beatles, were recently announced at the videogame tradeshow E3, but there is still an absence.

Nintendo, please make a James Brown Wii Balance Board game. Thank you.

God of War 3 Top Five Gods that should be featured!

1. Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Dread) The sons of Ares will be on the warpath for revenge of the murdered father by the hands of Kratos


2. Enyo The Goddess of War, who else, wants to exact revenge on Kratos for the murder of her brother


3. Aphrodite Lover of the Fallen God of War Ares, mother of Phobos and Deimos, it seems Kratos has done to these gods what they have done to him, doing the exact opposite killing the lover, brother and father of their family


4. Hephaestus Scorn by the Gods married to Aphrodite but not loved by her, this maybe one of the only gods that may aid Kratos (besides the titans) that may help him on his quest to destroy Zeus 


5. Kratos's siblings - Nike, Bia and Zelus, will they stand agaisnt Zeus or betray Kratos

Top 7 Non Sony Game Series that should be on PSN

Sony recently announced an on-going courtship of third party non platform Playstation games to find a home at Playstation Network. (MTV Multiplayer Blog)
Latinogamer wants to see another kind of initiative, how about court non Sony PS classics to PSN. We scourged the internet, and our memories, to bring a top 7 list of game series that need to come to the PSN.

7. Spike's Fire Pro Wrestling

6. Atari's Driver

5. Midway's Mortal Kombat

4. Namco's Ace Combat/Air Combat

3. Atlus' Persona

2. Capcom's Resident Evil

1. Square Enix's RPG Backlog

SCEA announces 2009 Lineup for PS3

Sony is one of the biggest publishers on the gaming industry and today was the announcement of games to expect for year 2009. Blockbuster titles include, God of War 3, Killzone 2, Uncharted 2, MLB 09, Infamous, Heavy Rain and MAG. A strong line up to help Sony push PS3 hardware to homes, college dorms, and children rooms around the USA and other regions.

Is there a pool of PS2 owners ready to move on the PS3, or will the lineup bring new gamers to the fold?

Killzone 2 Demo code for North America **FREE**

Just describe in the comments on why you deserve the Gamestop demo code.

Best response gets the KZ2 beta code courtesy of LGs. The code is redeemable on the Sony PS3 Network or PSN.

Update. The contest ends 10PM PST Time. The one code will be sent to the winner at 9AM PST on Friday the 6th.

Thank you.

NPD Top Five Selling Games for 2008

NPD List;

Top-Selling Games In The U.S. For 2008

(All versions combined. Units in millions)
1. Wii Play 5.28
2. Madden NFL ‘09 5.25
3. Grand Theft Auto IV 5.22
4. Mario Kart w/ Wheel 5.00
5. Call of Duty: World at War 4.63

One interesting note, all of the top five form a different outlook on how to sell a videogame;

1. Mini games bundled with an extra controller
2. Multi-SKU(NO PC)with Special Edition and a Spanish Edition of a long running sports franchise
3. HD Multi SKU Sequel from popular developer
4. Exclusive sequel with a peripheral
5. HD Multi SKU sequel of a popular fps franchise

Little Big Planet Beta Code; I have one to share for one lucky poster

Just describe in the comments on why you deserve to be in the Little Big Planet Beta before the game hits retail.

Best response gets the LBP beta code courtesy of LGs.

Update. The contest ends 10PM PST Time. The one code will be sent to the winner at 9AM PST on Thursday Oct 2.

Thank you.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Sunday Night, reviews, videos and spoilers aplenty. Who else is hiding during these times, just to keep themselves "virgins" for GTA4's Tuesday release? PS3 Bundle including GTA4 being launched? With Europe and Australia confirmed, is Sony of North America doing a stealth launch for April 29th?

EGM VS UBISOFT Round 1

Dan Hsu in his monthly editorial in EGM, tittled Banned, calls out Ubisoft for pulling not only their Ads but also their upcoming gaming coverage. (How did Graw ever get a 10 was beyond me) With the Eidos and Gamespot fiasco fresh on everyones' mind and nearing the one year anniversery of the banning and unbanning of Kotaku at SF GDC 07 by Sony, I have one picture that sums it all up.

Enjoy!



After reading the post, it will easy to determine which dog represents who, the underdog will always have the peoples' support.



(No animals were injured for this photo...seriously, unilike UBISOFT, the Cocker Spaniel was in good spirits the next day)

Too Laugh or To Cry it is your choice

With CES in full swing in Vegas, demos of Little Big Planet, a Sony PS3 sidescroller exclusive, have been streaming onto the net. One of these offers a level compromised of Pig Pinatas, Pueblo style buildings, Chili swings and a samba de amigo lookalike, as the three playable characters jump and play across the level. Laugh or cry at the british accent voiced player, as he and other players "grab the Mexican," in the demo.

HD Movies are now...

The era of HD movies began at this year CES. I was not able to go to this years event, but gaming blog site Kotaku has been pumping out the coverage. Two important changes to the HD Format wars, MS goes the way of a download service, whereas Bluray seems to have won over HD-DVD.

The Sony articles
http://kotaku.com/341998/paramount-moving-to-blu+ray-hd+dvd-dead-can-we-all-just-get-on-with-our-lives-now
http://kotaku.com/341869/sony-makes-blu+ray+to+psp-movie-transfer-official
The MS article
http://kotaku.com/341367/mgm-disney-abc-all-coming-to-xbl

Having used both systems and Comcast's On Demand, the landscape of home movies is changing. There are positive and negative points for all three delivery systems, but Sony may come out ontop if it can deliver a similiar download service via their PSN Store ala Comcast or Xbox Live.

The UMD is dead. So long unliked friend.