Activision today (officially) scored a major player for Team Guitar Hero (take that Rock Band!), landing Jimi Hendrix, who will make his posthumous "video game debut" in Guitar Hero World Tour. Hendrix will feature as a playable character in the game, and two master tracks from the fire-casting rock star will ship on the game disc:
"Purple Haze (Live)" (recorded in 1969 at the San Diego Sports Arena)
"The Wind Cries Mary"
Additionally, Activision has announced plans to release more, unnamed Hendrix tracks as downloadable content. Seeing as how Rolling Stone has named Hendrix the "Greatest Guitarist Evar," it's about time we're able to honor his ineffable talent with five multi-colored buttons. So what's a guy like Jimi cost, Activision?
Activision might have dropped out of E3, but that didn't stop them from having a huge party, complete with tiny hamburgers, pork buns, sushi, and other things we couldn't pronounce. We liveblogged it, then got some chow on. Head after the jump to find out the kinds of things Activision has been spending their money on, besides Blizzard.
Hot on the (wolf?) tail of the ever-so-brief debut trailer for the game, Activision has unleashed a pack of first-ever Wolfenstein screens. Well, technically, they're of the new Wolfenstein ... not the original, although they share the same title (minus a "3D"). But we figured you'd guessed that after taking a gander at it above.
Oh, and to clear up any confusion, Activision has confirmed that the game will hit PCs as well as PS3 and Xbox 360. The only thing we need now is a date. (Our eagerness to crack some nazi skulls remains more than sufficient, thankyouverymuch.)
While leaving the bathroom after Activision's press conference, we heard the following from an unknown blogger: "Yeah, I was liveblogging the whole time, and 10 minutes into it -- like everyone else probably -- I had to go pee. Like, really badly, but everyone told me not to stop and just to pee my pants." We feel ya, buddy.
Sure, we've been trying to get to the bottom of the inconsistent incompatibility between Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and non-Guitar Hero guitars for weeks. Some players who try to use, let's say, the Rock Band Stratocaster would be greeted by the above screen while other encountered no problems at all.
Well, at least we're not going crazy: Activision told MTV News that "a recent auto-downloaded title update" to the Xbox 360 version of GH: Aerosmith "should" make that game compatible with other guitars, like the Rock Band Strats. Now, that wasn't so hard, was it Activision? (Also, you couldn't have just told us when we asked you fifty times earlier this month. We're feeling like Rodney Dangerfield over here).
Plastic instrument rivalry news now, with Stephen Totilo of MTV Multiplayer confirming that the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero: World Tourwill happily work with non-Guitar Hero peripherals – including those from Harmonix's first Rock Band game. The fate of Rock Band 2's instruments has yet to be decided – they haven't become available for testing just yet.
We're happy to see Activision tear down this wailing wall, even though we'll have to tweak our peripheral compatibility matrix for the umpteenth time. We're not quite sure how many an "ump" is, but we're thinking it's somewhere in the region of 119.
Reading about people playing Guitar Hero World Tour is one thing, but seeing it in action is quite another. We've chopped up and condensed the extremely lengthy World Tour demonstration contained in Activision's non-E3 press conference into the most important, informative and interesting bits for the below embedded videos. We've even included a full, six minute performance of Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," performed by the developers themselves. Rock on!
We've known about it for a while years, but it was nonetheless nice to see the next Wolfenstein formally announced for PS3 and Xbox 360 tonight. Activision, id, and Raven Software have finally shown a trailer showcasing the fruits of their collective labor – one that's over rat-a-tat-tat fast.
It was revealed that the game's most intriguing hook will be the ability to enlist the aid of underground resistance in combating a nigh-endless flood of nazis. Nazis who are attempting to rip open a hole between our dimension and one called "Shrell," which we assume is Raven's way around officially licensing "Hell."
id's Todd Hollenshead, who was on hand to introduce the quick clip, announced that more footage (and, we hope, details) will be dished out at QuakeCon on July 31.
6:55 pm PT: We're inside the Vibiana awaiting Activision's press conference. The place looks like a renovated church. Along the middle are rows of chairs, and at each corner are L-shaped couches with tables filling the square, covered in sushi and edamame. The music just changed from Santeria to Foo Fighters' "Everlong." As a reminder: this it, folks, for Activision, so any big announcement they have will likely come out in the next hour or so.
7:08: We've moved to a what is the equivalent of the third row inside of a horseshoe of couches. Still nothing but the Activision (and not Activision Blizzard) logo across all the monitors throughout the venue.
There're really no details to relate at the moment, but we thought we'd let you know Activision has picked up a couple of movie-based properties, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. We don't know any release dates yet, but Wolverine is due out on May 1, 2009 with T:RotF coming the same year. We figure it's a pretty safe bet that you'll see both games near their film counterparts.
So after a trailer leaked out earlier today Activision has now confirmedMarvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion. The "Fusion" part of the title is apparently pretty literal with characters mixing their powers to create new, doubly rad powers.
It's official, now what do you have to say about it?
Activision's press conference won't be kicking off for a little over an hour now, but we've already found a nugget that we assume they'll be unearthing: Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion. The trailer on GameTrailers has next to nothing in terms of information, but we thought we'd at least offer it up for your perusal. Here's hoping we hear more soon.
Over 350,000 units sold in three weeks ... on a handheld? You're damn straight Activision is already booking a second tour -- call it: Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades. The sequel to last month's (yeah, last month's!) palm-packed jam session was confirmed today during the Nintendo E3 2008 keynote. While not detailed, Decades will likely include a setlist that ranges multiple ... decades. The game will also include a song-sharing feature, allowing those with only the original On Tour to sample the Decades tracks. And apparently, there could be some form of microphone functionality (karaoke?) -- as if On Tour wasn't already awkward enough to play during the morning commute...
The middle of the biggest convention in the industry probably isn't the best time to trumpet some record earnings, but the fiscal calendar waits for no convention, as they say. Activision's first quarter in fiscal '09 (and their last quarter before officially becoming Activision Blizzard) was the best non-holiday quarter in the company's history, with revenues coming in at a whopping $650 million (well above the projections $500 million).
Unsurprisingly, the quarter's Guitar Heroes (both On Tour and Aerosmith) contributed a lot to the bottom line. More surprisingly, the Kung Fu Panda game also contributed a fair share, representing as Activision's largest Dreamworks-associated game to date. Now that's one large panda!
It's not Guitar Hero: Metallica but metal fans should still be excited about today's announcement (at Microsoft's pre-E3 press conference) that their next album, Death Magnetic, will be released as a Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero World Tour the same day it launches in stores this fall. "Who knows, maybe a few years from now this will be the norm when your favorite band's new record comes out," the boys from the band said on their official web site.
The band is no stranger to rhythm games, already having tracks featured in both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III already. The band was previously reported to be in talks to premiere a single as Rock Band DLC.
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