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Confirmed for Black Friday: Old Navy giving Lego Rock Band with $20 clothing purchase

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 24th 2009 at 1:10PM }

We hope you've been putting off purchasing that that new fleece jacket you've had your eye on, because Old Navy will be running one hell of a video game deal this coming Black Friday. As suggested by a supposedly leaked circular earlier this month, anyone who spends $20 on the store's merchandise will receive Lego Rock Band for free on the platform of their choice.

The rumored deal was recently confirmed by a television spot (which unfortunately has yet to find its way online). We contacted a handful of locations in Texas, Ohio and Illinois, all of which said the offer would be valid at their stores. However, both the advertisement and the store representatives we spoke to mentioned that copies of the game will be "extremely limited," so we suggest getting to your nearest store as close to its 3 a.m. opening time as your tryptophan-infused body will permit.

Rock Band Weekly: Tom Petty, Go-Go's, Kelly Clarkson, Pink

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 20th 2009 at 11:30AM }

A live version of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' "Mary Jane's Last Dance" is available next week within the band's Rock Band DLC six-pack. The song may not be everyone's cup of formaldehyde, but it's certainly memorable for conjuring up one of the creepiest music videos of all time. We have no idea what the song is actually about, but it will always be the story of Tom Petty stealing Kim Basinger's corpse from the morgue, dressing her up, and then at the end .... AHHhhHhHHHH!

Check out the full update after the break, no new Rock Band Unplugged DLC next week.

Update: PSN will updated on Tuesday.

Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:

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Child's Play & Harmonix rock San Fran for charity Dec. 9

by Randy Nelson { Nov 20th 2009 at 6:00AM }

Harmonix and Child's Play have announced that they're banding together for a charity benefit Rock Band night at San Francisco's DNA Lounge the night of December 9. "Ümloud!" is an all-ages event organized by GameLife's Chris Kohler, Gamehelper's Joe Markert and Telltale Games' John "Seg" Seggerson, and staffed by a number of Bay Area games bloggers, including yours truly.

The party kicks off at 7PM PT and runs through 2AM PT on December 10, with a suggested $10 donation for admission. Everyone who attends will automagically be made eligible for a chance to win some of the many raffle prizes that'll be awarded throughout the night, but those who wish to donate more can sign up for two different "band packages" -- which include reserved songs and the chance to play on DNA's main stage -- at the Ümloud! site.

Proceeds from the event will go to provide toys and video games to children's hospitals nationwide, including the local Oakland Children's Hospital.

Rock Band Weekly: AFI, The Bangles

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 13th 2009 at 12:30PM }

AFI will be available next week in a Rock Band DLC five-pack of ... oh wow, The Bangles' "Walk Like an Egyptian" is there too! Hey guys, it's "Walk Like an Egyptian!" So, all you foreign types with hookah pipes better do the sand dance, don't you know?

Check out the full update after the break, along with Rock Band Unplugged's new DLC.

Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:

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Beatles: Rock Band 'Sgt. Pepper's' DLC debuts Nov. 17

by Xav de Matos { Nov 13th 2009 at 10:15AM }

In a move no doubt inspired by the Movember Movement, Harmonix and MTV Games have revealed that the second DLC album for The Beatles: Rock Band, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, will release the week of November 17. Tracks from the British sensation's eighth studio album, as featured in the DLC release, include:

"Fixing A Hole"
"She's Leaving Home"
"Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!"
"Within You Without You"
"When I'm Sixty-Four"
"Lovely Rita"
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)"
"A Day In The Life."

Xbox 360 and Wii owners can purchase the DLC on Tuesday, November 17. The tracks will be available as a complete Track Pack for 1080

($13.50) or 160

($2.00) individually on Xbox 360; and 200 Wii Points ($2.00) per track on Wii. PlayStation 3 players get a few extra days to grow out their glorious mustaches when the pack lands on PSN on Thursday, November 19 for $13.49 (or $1.99 per track).

As previously revealed, Beatles fans can look forward to next month when 1965's Rubber Soul will become available as the game's third full-album DLC.

PS3 Beatles: Rock Band DLC crashing game's servers overseas [update]

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 10th 2009 at 3:30PM }

European owners of the PS3 version of The Beatles: Rock Band who decided to purchase the "Abbey Road" DLC are having an awfully difficult time coming together. A lengthy forum thread on the Rock Band message board tells of the woes of a number of overseas faux-rockers who, after downloading the content on their PS3, have lost the ability to access any of the game's online modes.

A Harmonix developer responded to the complaints, asking for the specific circumstances of these server crashes and promising that the Beatles team is "investigating this issue to try to find out what's going on." That is to say, the Beatles: Rock Band development team -- not the Beatles themselves. We imagine they're a little too busy for this kind of thing.

Update: A Harmonix representative just emailed us the news that this bug has been squashed. European PS3-owning DLC-purchasing Beatles: Rock Band players, you may now return to your regularly scheduled rocking.

Harmonix employees harmonize during a cappella Paramore song performance

by Ben Gilbert { Nov 9th 2009 at 7:02PM }

Since only a fraction of Joystiq is headquartered out of Boston, MA we unfortunately aren't eligible to be honored with "Top Places to Work" awards like Beatles: Rock Band developers Harmonix, nonetheless host a company-wide singing contest. If we could though, we'd like to think our singing chops would at least match the five gentlemen (four from audio and one engineer) found singing Paramore's "That's What You Get" after the break.

Winning first "among mid-size companies" and third overall in The Boston Globe's "Top Places to Work" survey, the 320 employee-strong music/rhythm-game studio was praised for its studio-wide a cappella singing competition. "I would do a lot to stay here," says senior writer Helen McWilliams. "It's really hard to imagine going from this company to any other company." That whole "making successful games" thing probably doesn't hurt either.

(Thanks, DarkArchon)

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Dhani Harrison: Rock Band 3 will make you better at actual rocking

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 7th 2009 at 1:00PM }

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Dhani Harrison, The Beatles: Rock Band contributor (and son of the late, great George Harrison), spoke about his involvement in future iterations of the popular rhythm franchise. "I'm working on Rock Band 3 and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game," Harrison explained toward the end of the interview. "Give me a couple years, it's going to happen."

We wish Harrison and the entire Harmonix crew the best of luck in this endeavor, if only so they can finally stymie the infinitely deplorable "why don't you learn how to play a real instrument" contingency. Man, we hate those guys.

Rock Band Weekly: The White Stripes, The Damned, Kasabian

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 6th 2009 at 11:20AM }

Forget that Jack White finds it "depressing" that kids are learning about music through rhythm games -- there's gold in them thar virtual hills! Next week's Rock Band DLC adds a pack of songs from The White Stripes, with tracks off of three different albums.

We've also added this little guy to Rock Band Weekly:

. He indicates tracks that are considered "family-friendly" enough for Lego Rock Band. Such marked songs will be available in LRB's music store, as well as appearing in the regular Rock Band music store. [Thanks to our friend Dustin Burg for the Lego head!]

Check out the update after the break, along with what Rock Band Unplugged players can expect for DLC next week.

Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:

Continued →

'About 50%' of Lego Rock Band team was against the game concept

by Andrew Yoon { Nov 5th 2009 at 3:59PM }

"omg they're selling out. they are humpin' the cash cow like activision has been till shes dried up . they're gonna beat the rock band name to a pulp until we are absolutely sick and tired of instrument rhythm games." –fffunfarm06

"I'm so sick of these corny games. All of you people should just learn to play with REAL Legos." –Troy Powers

LEGO Rock Band's very existence is something that both the Joystiq staff and community couldn't help but question. However, animator Matt Palmer revealed that developer TT Fusion also had doubts about the bizarre collaboration. "I know people were saying, 'Oh, they're flogging a Lego license again,'" he recalled during a Develop panel. "I'd say about 50 percent of our studio were for the idea, and about 50 percent were against it."

Considering the game actually came out (this week!), it's apparent that the team eventually banded together to finish the project. Why the change of heart, though? "Many of us started realizing that we weren't just skinning one franchise on another," Palmer explained, noting the need to hand animate the blocky Lego celebrity characters to capture their various "signature styles." That's ... something. Right?

Possible free Lego Rock Band with $20 Old Navy purchase on Black Friday

by JC Fletcher { Nov 5th 2009 at 9:35AM }

We're going to approach this scanned Old Navy Black Friday ad with as much skepticism as we can muster, both because there are a lot of variables and because we, personally, are trying to convince ourselves not to join the Black Friday crowds at Old Navy, of all places.

According to the ad, the retailer will be offering free "Lego Rock Band video games" with purchases of $20 or greater on Friday, November 27. "Your preferred platform may not be available," the ad warns, presumably due to limited overall supply. We're wary that it could be a demo or something like that, but the fact that Old Navy will also be selling Rock Band 2 bundles, and giving away guitar controllers with said bundles, makes this doorbuster deal seem more likely. But it's still crazy to hand out a $50 video game with $20 worth of clothes.

If you want to check it out for yourself, Old Navy stores will be open at 3AM that day. Have fun!

[Thanks, Kneon!]

Viacom: The Beatles: Rock Band sales strong, overall RB growth slow

by David Hinkle { Nov 4th 2009 at 8:29PM }

Even though John, Paul, George and Ringo have been rocking the disc tray of your favorite console with The Beatles: Rock Band, its expectation-exceeding sales haven't helped boost overall Rock Band sales. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman told USA Today the "economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving, though not as quickly as we'd like." There's still hope that Rock Band could at least break even or show a small profit, though Viacom CFO Tom Dooley said that will depend entirely on the franchise's performance this holiday season.

Despite tanking sales, the music genre still remains one of the best in the industry and The Beatles: Rock Band shows us that the right approach could still determine financial success in the space. Its September debut was very fortuitous and it even managed to best Guitar Hero 5 in the US -- which not only came with a free game, but is also one of the most recognizable brands to the mainstream.

Source - USA Today
Source - Viacom earnings report

Rock Band Weekly: Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Joan Jett

by Alexander Sliwinski { Oct 30th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Next week's Rock Band DLC could have been a little Dave Grohl fiesta, offering up tracks from his days back in Nirvana and now with Foo Fighters, but it turns out that he wasn't with the genre defining grunge band until after Bleach, which happens to be part of next week's DLC. But, we're pretty sure Grohl was with Foo Fighters during the time they recorded the tracks that make up the band's third DLC pack for the music game.

Completely unrelated to Grohl (maybe there's a six degrees of separation in there?), there will also be one track from Ms. Joan Jett thrown in the mix. Check out the update after the break, along with what portable players can expect from Rock Band Unplugged's DLC.

Select a platform below to view complete DLC listing:

Continued →

Use a real guitar to play Rock Band 2 AND get punched while doing so!

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 28th 2009 at 5:00AM }

Normally when people mod real instruments for use in music-rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, they don't intentionally include the ability for someone else to play along by punching them. For Norway's Morten Skogly, that choice seemed only natural. On his website, you can see a shot-by-shot breakdown of the process necessary to transform something that creates music into something that plays along with music.

In fairness, the entire (ridiculously intricate) process leads to the hilarious video you'll find after the break. You see, rather than strum on the strings of his guitar, the punching gloves (punching him, mind you) approximate a strum for him. That means that every time he pushes a note, he gets punched. It's like penance!

[Image credit]

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Rumor: Roger Daltrey reveals The Who joining together with Rock Band

by JC Fletcher { Oct 27th 2009 at 1:00AM }

If Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who, has his facts straight, we could all be windmilling and smashing plastic instruments in a Who-themed Rock Band. Daltrey told The Republican when The Beatles: Rock Band was brought up that "The game, yeah, yeah, they're going to be doing a Who one next year. There is one planned." Daltrey called music "our last true great freedom."

As with Green Day, it could just be a Who pack for the existing games. Whatever it means, it involves playing the songs from one of the other most influential and rocking British bands ever in Rock Band, a prospect to which we can say only one thing:

Yeaaaaaaaah!

[Via RockBandAide; thanks, Sean!]