Video Game Buttons Blog

April 17, 2007

Red Octane reps have confirmed that the latest in its Guitar Hero franchise will be focused on online play and downloadable tracks, and it will hit every major platform.

 

Red Octane founder and president Kai Huang said that Neversoft would be working to bring the features to Guitar Hero III, the latest in the franchise expected to be released for Xbox 360, PS3, Nintendo Wii, and the PS2 by the end of the year.

 

In an interview with GameSpot, Huang also confirmed earlier suspicions regarding a handheld version of the game, saying the company was “looking at a DS version, for early next year.”

 

Last September, Activision chairman and CEO Robert Kotick said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XV Conference that Guitar Hero will be released “on every significant new format.”  The game was also recently announced to be in development for mobile phones by San Francisco mobile developer Hands-On Mobile.

 

Huang added that new Guitar Hero developers Neversoft would be “focusing on online play, of course, and that includes both co-op and competitive modes. We’re looking at more downloadable content, and more music, because we know that’s one of the things the fans want–as soon as they finish playing Guitar Hero, they want more music.”

 

Huang also told IGN that for the Wii version of the new game, while Red Octane was “really excited about the Wii game because there are so many options for the Wii remote,” players would still “play the game with a guitar peripheral and it will be similar to a guitar you’ve seen in the past.”

 

On former Guitar Hero developer Harmonix’s recently announced Rock Band, now positioned as an MTV- and Electronic Arts-backed competitor to the Guitar Hero franchise, with additional drumming and vocal features and full online play, Huang said,  “I was very excited to hear about Harmonix and EA working on the game Rock Band.  I think Guitar Hero was really the first big game that defined the music rhythm genre… So we’re excited that Harmonix is working on it.  They’re a fantastic developer, we’ve had a great relationship working with them in the past, and we know that they’re going to do a great job with the game.”

April 6, 2007

Hideo Kojima, the brains behind the influential Metal Gear series, recently addressed in an interview the issue of whether Metal Gear Solid 4 remain PS3 exclusive?

 

In his circuitous but eventual answer, Kojima equated Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 to a moviegoing experience: “The PS3 is like the theatre, it’s a little bit high-priced but it has to be high quality as well.  The 360 is a DVD, it still needs to be high-quality, but you need more variations, while the Wii is almost like a TV channel, because every game you have is with your family.”  Not a bad little series of similes, but how does this relate to PS3 exclusivity, you’re probably wondering?

 
Well, on the topic of Devil May Cry 4 going multi-platform, Kojima knew exactly where the conversation was going: “[L]ike I said, MGS4 is aimed for the movie theatre, it’s aimed for the PS3, so the game’s scenario and graphics need this theatre-type hardware.  It’s when a producer has a game that can work on the ‘DVD level’ that a game will go multiplatform.”  Kojima also stated his belief that any decision made regarding a particular game’s multiplatform status is mostly the decision of the game’s producer.

 
In response to whether MGS 4 would truly be his last Metal Gear game, Kojima offered the following: “If users want more Metal Gear, then I will probably step up as producer, like the James Bond series does.  That way I can have new, upcoming directors making MGS while I oversee the project, and then perhaps I can move onto something new.”