Kotaku

by John Gaudiosi

Finger Eleven lead singer Scott Anderson is a huge gamer, so he's pretty stoked that his band is the first to offer a free live concert in high definition on Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Through January 6, gamers in the U.S. can download the 58-minute set from the Berkeley Church in Toronto. The concert includes hit songs "Paralyzer," "So So Suicide," "Falling On," and "Lost My Way."

"It's pretty awesome," said Anderson. "Anyone who's tried Xbox Live Video Marketplace for a while, they've been waiting for this type of thing...I live in Canada, so I've been waiting for this type of HD content for a long time. It's a full hour of a show we did a few months ago. It's so cool. It's a couple clicks away. It's a platform that I endorse, literally. I love it, man. I'll load it up and see my face and probably cringe, but it's cool. We're living in the future, man. There's no flying cars yet, but it's still pretty cool."

Anderson has been a passionate gamer his entire life. He said he doesn't discriminate against any platform, since he's not a fan boy of any console in particular. In fact, if he had to pick a favorite gaming medium, it'd be the PC.

Over the weekend, I attended the Games Japan Festa in Osaka. The nice part about the Games Festa? Companies don't have enormous booths, and the entire hall is wall-to-wall demo kiosks. So, if you actually want to play games, this is a good show to hit. For those who missed the Osaka show, the Festa rolls through Chiba at the end of the month.

The Konami booth had a MGS4 trailer and had folks fill out a questionnaire to receive a Metal Gear book The Konami questionnaire featured very basic questions: What's your gender? How old are you? Where do you live? What consoles do you own? Blah, blah, blah. One question did jump right out at me. Here's Q2. in English:

This is a question for those who do not own the PLAYSTATION 3. Do you have plans to purchase it? Why is that?
1). I will purchase it (Reason:
2). I won't purchase it (Reason:
3). Undecided (Reason:

Take-Two Interactive just issued a release featuring details on the preliminary settlement of the consumer class action lawsuit filed against it and Rockstar Games over the "sexually explicit" content in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That content, unlockable via the "Hot Coffee" mod, caused the game to be re-rated by the ESRB, pulled from store shelves, and acted as the grounds for a suit filed in July of 2005 claiming violation of consumer protection laws.

The lawsuit against Take-Two is still pending, but should the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York agree to the settlement, claims against the company will be dismissed "without any admission of liability or wrongdoing by Take-Two or Rockstar."

The publisher says that it will pay out between $1.025 million and $2.75 million in settlement benefits, which range from an edited copy of GTA: San Andreas to a cash payment up to $35 for those who can provide proof of purchase of the game from before July 20, 2005. There are, of course, stipulations to the proposed settlement, the details of which are in the full press release below.

Harmonix is a company all about the music. Don't believe me? Well consider this: When you walk into the men's room at the Cambridge, MA headquarters there's a ghetto blaster on the floor so you can listen to tunes while you do your business.

We're all eagerly anticipating Rock Band, but yesterday morning Harmonix delivered one more thing: A surprise iPod music game called Phase. So I jumped on the phone with lead producer Kasson Crooker, who told me about whether Steve Jobs has played it, if we can expect an iPhone version, and, most interesting of all, whether the beat-detecting technology in Phase could soon be applied to a game like Rock Band.

Kasson: We have soundtracks, downloadable content, and this is the next step: re-experiencing your own music in a game. We wouldn't be able to separate out all the instruments and what not, but I think you'll see this kind of technology used in other Harmonix products down the road.

EA Chicago has gone down for the count. I can exclusively report that EA is closing the studio effective immediately. Word is that EA is working hard to place many of the 150+ employees at its other studios around the world. What does this mean for the future of the Def Jam fighting franchise and the forthcoming Marvel fighting game? I'm still looking into that, but it sure seems like those games won't be coming anytime soon.

A source has also leaked me with the surprisingly honest memo sent to EA employees from Frank Gibeau, President of EA Games. In it he says:

"Within the EA Games Label, we are committed to running each franchise and facility as a city/state, teams with unique creative identities as well as responsibility for product quality, ship dates and profitability....Unfortunately, EA Chicago hasn't been able to meet that standard....Closing EA Chicago is the toughest decision I've made in my career - one that in no way reflects on the talent and dedication of the people who work there."

Read the full memo from EA after the jump...

By John Gaudiosi

LOS ANGELES--Electronic Arts, which has had a studio in LA for years now, has learned a thing or two about Hollywood premieres. The game publisher hosted a world premiere launch party at the Hard Rock Café at the Universal Studios City Walk, just across the way from EB Games, which remained open an extra three hours to sell the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP and Nintendo DS game to die hard Simpsons fans and gamers.

Simpsons creators Albert Brooks and Matt Groening were on hand for the launch, as were the show writers who also worked on the game. EA had a yellow carpet set up outside of the Hard Rock for celebrities like Zach Levi ("Chuck"), Zach Ward (Postal) and Ian Ziering ("Beverly Hills 90210") to pose for pictures and talk to TV reporters. There was a live DJ and a Tommy's Burger's truck outside giving away free hamburgers, fries and sodas to everyone. Break dancers wearing yellow The Simpsons Game t-shirts performed outside for the crowd who didn't have access to the VIP party inside.

Contest start! So, we're giving away a BlackSite: Area 51 gaming PC from Alienware. The winner will also get an Area 51 t-shirt, an "eyeblack" patch and a copy of Midway's Stranglehold PC. The computer is a $3,000 dollar machine, making this one of the most expensive things we've given away, so any bitching about the TOTALLY FREE AND AMAZING PRIZE will be met with the blunt end of the Ban Hammer.

The contest is based on Crecente's sadistic treasure hunts. Long-time readers will know what we're talking about. Basically, we give you a clue about a post we've done, and then y'all must go find it. If you find the correct post, there will be another clue, which you'll need to track down. And so on. This contest will have ten questions, or "Missions" as I call them. These missions are unnumbered, but if you are doing the contest correctly, they show flow into the next question, etc. The contest ends Monday November 11 at midnight EST. Send all your answers with links to kotakucontest@gmail.com with the word contest in the subject line. The winner will be randomly selected from the correct entries and announced Friday November 16.

Anyone who posts answers on Kotaku or anywhere on the internet will be banned and made an example of. Here's your first mission:

While Crecente wasn't able to see out of his Halo 3 helmet, this guy was — and added an awesome visor. Thumbs up all around. Find him!

Spent literally hours putting this together, trying to make this as hard and difficult as possible. Remember, nothing is free, so if you want this pricey loot, get to work!

Specs after the jump.

Eds Update: Quick note about the contest. Three things: Be sure to include your name and home address. Also, to enter this contest, you must be 18 years old and up. Also, if you are only sending us one link, you are wrong. Very, very wrong. Send us TEN links and correct answers.

ESRB president Patricia Vance just held a short conference call to address the growing furor surrounding the discovery that the unfiltered, Adults Only version of Manhunt 2 is fully playable on the PlayStation Portable with the help of a hack.

In a nutshell, Vance said what happened with Manhunt 2 was not at all similar with what happened with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' "Hot Coffee" scandal.

"With Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, that involved a scene that was fully rendered in unmodified content on the disc," she said. "It didn't alter the content; it merely unlocked it. That content was not disclosed to the ESRB... and it was easily accessible to PC users."

While Vance stressed the differences between what happened with GTA:SA and Manhunt 2, it was unclear to me how removing a filter to see images that were deemed appropriate for adults only and unlocking a scene in a game that is deemed appropriate for adults only is that different.

Vance contended that this was not an issue with the ESRB, but rather one created by smart hackers.

"I don't think there is much the ESRB can do to stop games from being modified," she said. "I don't think the ESRB should be held responsible."

The full press release and a short press release Q&A; after the jump.

By John Gaudiosi

Sony learned the hard way with its Betamax tape format that consumers ultimately want only one choice when it comes to new movie formats. The DVD format continues on a record pace because it was a unified disc with all of the movie studios and hardware manufacturers on board. The home entertainment industry is in turmoil with two competing formats, one backed by Sony (and others), the other by Microsoft (and others).

This war between Blu-ray Disc and HD-DVD is extremely nasty, as members from each camp throw barbs at each other. Unlike the console wars, which has Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo actually expanding the overall videogame market, this next gen DVD battle is not helping consumers, retailers or anyone not affiliated with one of the two sides.

What do we love giving away more than games? Gaming systems. So, for our next contest we are giving away the computer version of Midway's BlackSite: Area 51 plus (yes, plus!) an Area 51 machine from Alienware (geddit? Area 51). That's right, our next contest will have a high-end gaming PC up for grabs. There's more! The winner will also get an Area 51 t-shirt, an "eyeblack" patch and a copy of Midway's Stranglehold PC. The computer is a $3,000 dollar machine, making this one of the most expensive things we've given away. Like, ever. Hit the jump for the machine's specs:

Like a child's game of "Telephone" gone horribly wrong, it seems that the whole Rockstar vs. The Simpsons Game controversy has been blown way out of proportion. Around the time of Leipzig, rumors started flying around the blogosphere that complaints Rockstar made about the game had been the impetus for some posters promoting the "Grand Theft Scratchy" level of the Simpsons Game being removed from the show. As the weeks went by, the rumors grew to titanic proportions with stories of actual content being removed from the game and a level name change. All of this resulted in quite a bit of speculative Rockstar bashing not only from the press, but from some of the games' writers as well. But, as we've now discovered, it was mostly unfounded.

In a comment to Kotaku on the subject, EA rep Tammy Schachter had this to say.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to put these rumors to rest. There was absolutely no content removed from the game as a result of complaints or comments by another publisher.

The spoof content and parody storyline for The Simpsons Game has been in place since the early stages of the titles' development. In-game spoof content for Grand Theft Scratchy has not been removed.

Rockstar has remained typically tight-lipped on the whole situation but given all the trouble they've been having lately with certain Florida lawyers and the overblown hub-bub over Manhunt 2, who can blame them. The reasons for the removal of the posters from Leipzig is still a bit of a mystery, but who knows what goes on behind the mysterious walls of EA? In any case it seems that quite a few outlets and individuals owe a certain Rockstar Games a little apology. Strike that, a big apology.

The annual West Hollywood Carnival has become the traditional stomping ground (get it) for many a Mario... and Luigi, and Princess Peach. This year the upcoming Mario Galaxy seemed to bring out the Nintendo in force.

My son the rocker, even when he's happy he's got to have an attitude. Despite the photographic evidence, he was elated to see this arrive on our doorstep. Now to break the news to him that we leave for Australia this Saturday. And yes, Virginia, the GHII 360 controller does work with Rock Band.

By: Mark Wilson

There are some of you out there who love the way writers and publishers handle video game reviews. This article is not for you. As far as the author and his sympathizers are concerned, you are the saps stuck as janitors cleaning dirty toilets in The Matrix, the suckers who sit around drinking Diet Coke convinced that it tastes like real Coke, the unfortunate few who were never able to see the rhinos and race cars in those Magic Eye images.

But after reading countless video game reviews over the years, and more recently editing Frankenreviews for both games and gadgets, it's become more and more obvious that the video game review system is dated, limiting and even, at times, unintentionally condescending.

But there's a ton of talent in the game review industry, really. So where are we going wrong?

KONAMI had initially intended to release "METAL GEAR SOLID 4 GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS" this winter and has been working on the production of the title. KONAMI has decided to delay the title's release in order to make further improvements to the quality of the game and provide even greater enjoyment for more customers worldwide.

By John Gaudiosi

With the NBA starting off the 2007-08 season, Stacey Kerr, senior director of entertainment products and licensing for the NBA, took some time to talk about the growing role videogames play in the league. Unlike some other major sports, which focus all of the attention on the start of the season and the playoffs when it comes to gaming, the NBA works with its five licensing partners (Sony, Electronic Arts, 2K Sports, Atari and Midway Games) throughout the year.

"It's not just launch the game at the beginning of the season and that's it," said Kerr. "They work with us all year long. We did a season simulation on NBA Live 08 for the upcoming season. EA Sports also sponsored our recent six-city pre-season European tour, which featured gaming in each of the cities."

2K Sports is introducing a brand new virtual card game available exclusively on NBA.com in conjunction with the new season. NBA 2K8 Top Trumps Stats Challenge is a new variation of the classic card game, "War," which features in-game characters of NBA stars from NBA 2K8. Players can compete against the computer to win up to 20 percent of off merchandise at NBAStore.com or take on a friend.

LucasArts and BioWare today confirmed that they have signed a deal to work together on an "interactive entertainment product." Wow, that's specific.

While they don't at all get into what the game is about, they do say it will push the boundaries of the gaming market, so I assume that it won't be a Star Wars RPG. That my friends, was sarcasm.

Hit the jump for the full, substance-free press release.

LucasArts Bioware