Saturday, June 24, 2006

The Mole: Madden Sings, Blizzard stings


Madden Rocks Out - Getting on a video game soundtrack is a big deal for up and coming bands. It provides great exposure to a captive audience forced to listen to some band they never heard until they turn of the music option. Here is the song set for Madden 07, to be released August 22.

30 Seconds To Mars - Battle Of One, AFI - Summer ShudderAl Fatz - Came Down, Anti-Flag - This Is The End (For You My Friend)Atreyu - Ex’s And Oh’s, Audioslave (okay, I have heard of these guys) - Revelations, Bishop LaMont feat. Chevy Jones - The BestCartel - Say Anything (Else), Cord - Go Either WayDamone - Out Here All Night, Dashboard Confessional - Reason To Believe, Dynamite MC - BounceFeezy 350 - Playa What, Glasses Malone - Right Now, Hit The Lights - Until We Get Caught, Keane - Is It Any Wonder?Less Than Jake - Still Life Franchise, Lupe Fiasco feat. Jonah Matranga - The Instrumental, Matchbook Romance - Monsters, Omnisoul - Not Giving UpRise Against - Drones, Riverboat Gamblers - On Again Off Again, Saves The Day - Head For The Hills, Shorty Da Kid - Get Loose, Spank Rock - Backyard Betty, Sparta - Future Needs, Taking Back Sunday - SpinThe Panic Channel - Teahouse Of The Spirits, The Pink Spiders - Easy Way Out, The Rapture - WAYUH, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - In Fates Hands, The Sleeping - Don’t Hold Back, Trae - Real Talk, Underoath - Ever So Inviting, Wolfmother - Woman

Blizzard make you pay - Blizzard finally revealed their plans for a paid character transfer for realm transfers in "World of Warcraft". Transfers will cost users $25 per character, and users can only transfer the character once every six months. Users will only be able to transfer servers with similar game types - PvP to PvP, and PvE to PvE, and character must be level 10 or higher. No word yet on when the transfer option will be available.

Sony execs pants catch on fire - Jack Tretton, Co-COO of SCEA, had some interesting things to say about the Grand Theft Auto franchise in an interview with TheStreet.com, an investment news website.

"No, I don't think it hurts us. No, I really don't," Tretton said about the next GTA game being released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 on the same day. "There's no question that having the Grand Theft Auto franchise helped us a lot and helped us sell some units, but I don't think the battle would be any different with or without Grand Theft Auto," he continued. "The days of locking up exclusive content from a third party and having that be key to your strategy is really a dangerous road to go down because I think with the cost of development, not many developers can afford to do exclusivity," Tretton said. "So, really what defines the uniqueness of a platform from a software standpoint are the offerings that you have from first party."

Liar, liar pants on fire. Jack, its nice of you to try and downplay the importance of the GTA franchise now that its not exclusively yours but lets be completely honest. GTA is to Sony what Halo is to Microsoft...or at least it was until E3 when Microsoft announced it will be getting "GTA: Nome, Alaska" the same day the PS3 does. Sure GTA wasn't exclusive but tons of gamers are addicted to the franchise and wanted it the day it came out, not 6 months later when it was released on the Xbox. Its a big reason why those gamers who toed the line between an Xbox and PS2 bought a PS2. I know things are hard enough over at Sony, what with your new system costing at least $200 more than other new systems, but stone up and admit that it sucks but you'll have some other good games. Or better yet, admit that Sony should have found a way to buy out Rockstar the way Microsoft bought out Bungie.

Well that didn't take long - It took only 35 days for New Super Mario Bros. to rack up sales in excess of 500,000 in the United States. That's a rate of more than 20 every minute since the game went on sale May 15, according to Nintendo.

More Nintendo News - The Opera Web browser for Nintendo DS will be released in Japan on July 24. The DS browser will initially be sold online only at a price of 3,800 yen ($33), and come with an additional memory expansion pack. Nintendo has not yet announced release dates for a browser in the U.S. and Europe.

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