Videogames are often put at odds with certain forms of productivity, such as learning a musical instrument. But performance simulators such as Guitar Hero have proven to be an entryway into real-world musicianship.

To help support a growing interest in guitar study, RedOctane and NAMM announced a partnership at the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif. that will link Guitar Hero III to NAMM's "Wanna Play" campaign. This new facet of the public awareness campaign focuses on bridging the gap between virtual and real-life musicianship.
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Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey picks what he believes will be the biggest sellers of 2008.
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Jan. 2, 2008 -- MSNBC tallied in their Game of the Year readers' votes between December 19 and 27. "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" garnered 33 percent of the over 17,000 votes and is MSNBC Readers' Game of the Year. The runner-up was "Bioshock" at 22 percent of the votes. The second runner-up was "Mass Effect" at 10 percent.

Here are MSNBC readers' picks for the best in each genre:

¿ Best sports game: Madden NFL '08
¿ Best racing game: Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Best casual game: Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ Best family game: LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Best music game: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ Best handheld game: The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Best role-playing game: Mass Effect
¿ Best action/adventure game: Bioshock
¿ Best shooter: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

View the full report for the runners-up in each category.
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ActionTrip's 2007 Game of the Year voting poll registered 10673 participants. 1809 registered users voted for Call of Duty 4, 1279 for Halo 3, 1192 for Assassin's Creed, 837 for "None of the Above", 716 for BioShock, 710 for Crysis, 627 for The Orange Box, and so on. The rest of the results can be viewed in ActionTrip's voting poll section.

¿ People's Choice: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
¿ Runners-up: Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box

¿ Game of the Year (ActionTrip Staff): Portal
¿ Runners-up: Mass Effect, Halo 3, BioShock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, The Witcher

¿ Best Action Game: Halo 3
¿ Runners-up: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, God of War II, BioShock, Crysis

¿ Best Strategy Game: World in Conflict
¿ Runners-up: Supreme Commander, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

¿ Best RPG: Mass Effect
¿ Runners-up: The Witcher, Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer

¿ Best Sports Game: FIFA 08
¿ Runners-up: SSX Blur, NHL 08, Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

¿ Best MMOG: World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
¿ Runners-up: Tabula Rasa, The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

¿ Best Rhythm/Music Game: Rock Band
¿ Runners-up: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

¿ Babe of the Year: Joanna Krupa
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MSNBC video game section has been polling gamers about their favorite games in a number of categories, trying to narrow down the search for the Game of the Year.

On Thursday the site put up the poll to decide which of the finalists, culled from the best of each genre, should be named the game of the year.

The finalists are:
¿ Madden NFL 08
¿ Project Gotham Racing 4
¿ Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree
¿ LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
¿ The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
¿ Mass Effect
¿ Bioshock
¿ Call of Duty 4

At the time of this writing Call of Duty 4 was leading with 31 percent of the vote. BioShock was close behind with 22 percent and Mass Effect was in a distant third with 8.6 percent.

[ Words: Kotaku's Brian Crecente ]
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Dec. 18, 2007 - A PriceGrabber.com survey of 3,309 online shoppers conducted in early December reports that:

¿ The number of consumers interested in video games and consoles continues to rise, with 64 percent of respondents planning to purchase a gaming equipment in the next year.

¿ 71 percent of online shoppers plan to spend more than $50 on gaming.

¿ 55 percent favor consoles in the $100 to $300 range.

¿ Game selection is the most important attribute when choosing a gaming system.

¿ 31 percent favor the Nintendo Wii, saying it offers the best games.

¿ Non-violent games have gained in appeal, with 29 percent rating animated/child-friendly games as their preferred genre.
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Here are some observations issued by NPD analyst Anita Frazier, on total industry sales and the performances of Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, Guitar Hero III, Rock Band, the 360 HD-DVD add-on, and Wii accessories.
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts:

¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card
¿ The Buying Guide
¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts
¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys
¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents

Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.
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Via CNet:

The immense popularity of the hit Guitar Hero franchise--the third iteration of the game, Guitar Hero III, brought in $115 million during its first week on the market--may be the best thing that has happened to the instrument, to rock 'n' roll, and to guitar instructors, in a long time.

"I have an overwhelming feeling that my business is safe for years to come when I see kids playing Guitar Hero," said Dan Emery, owner of New York City Guitar School. "These kids are really enjoying playing Guitar Hero, and they're really being turned on to old classic rock" via the game.
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Christopher Grant of Joystiq writes:

"You Mac gamers out there (we know, we know, "both of you") will be pleased to learn that the briefly delayed Guitar Hero III will be shipping to retailers on December 10, so you should be able to snag a copy in time for [insert gift-giving holiday of choice here]."
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Activision Inc has announced that it is raising its financial outlook for its fiscal third quarter, ending December 31, and for the financial year as a whole.

This is the result of better than expected revenues to date on its titles, which include Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The statement released by the company revises the Q3 outlook up from USD 1.05 billion to USD 1.23 billion, with a diluted earnings per share moving from USD 0.51 to USD 0.66.
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MTV Games has taken its first major step into the console game arena with the launch of "Rock Band," with company executives touting the title as the integration of music and gaming on a whole new level.

"Our belief is that 'Rock Band' is not just a game," said Jeff Yapp, executive vice president of program enterprises at MTV Networks Music Group. "It's a new platform for which to engage with music, and that's what we're most excited about."

"We're pretty optimistic about what this game is going to do," Jeff Yapp said. "But our next big announcement, which is coming up fairly quickly, is a move to a whole other realm."
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Via Ripten:

"Gift givers looking for Guitar Hero, Rock Band, or Dance Dance Revolution merchandise this holiday season beware, knock-offs are out there, and while you may not know the difference, the individual receiving the gift likely will."
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Nov 15, 2007 For two years now, Guitar Hero has ruled the music genre with a fret-blazing iron fist. That reign is now contested by Rock Band, which happens to come from the same guys who made Guitar Hero what it is today. Now that their creation is in the hands of another studio, who's to know which team brings the rock? For the answer, we turn to our custom-built comparison videos that split the screen right down the middle - Guitar Hero III on the left, Rock Band on the right. The two games ... » Read More

Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson says new version of Nintendo's portable complete; holiday release torrent creating retail woes.

Wilson notes that not all games will be affected by insufficient retail space. "Clearly, the end-of-year squeeze creates limited space at retail, which limits the size of initial orders of games with less publicity and reorders of games with lower quality." He anticipates games with high preorder rates such as Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4, Assassins' Creed, Mass Effect, WWE, and Rock Band to be less affected by insufficient retail space. "Titles that could be at risk of getting squeezed," he continues, "include Haze, Kane & Lynch, and Uncharted."
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Reports have been flying across the web claiming that Guitar Hero III for the Nintendo Wii plays in mono sound only. If true, this could be a huge disaster for Activision and Nintendo. Guitar Hero III is supposed to support Dolby Pro Logic II quality sound.
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"Call of Duty 4, which was released two days ago by Activision, appears to be in extremely high demand and is sold out across the board. We've checked with a wide range of retailers (Gamestop, Wal-Mart, Target), and only pre-orders are being satisfied-stores are otherwise sold out of the title," said Nollenberger Capital Partners analyst Todd Greenwald.

"Guitar Hero III, to a lesser extent, is also out of stock at many retailers... The Xbox 360 and the Wii versions are the hardest to come by," he said.
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Activision announced this morning that just about every song to ever appear in a Guitar Hero game will be available on iTunes under Guitar Hero Essentials. A total of 1,300 guitar anthems on 20 separate essentials awaits to be downloaded.
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The review scores from EGM #222 (December 2007) are revealed:

* Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock: 9, 8.5, 8
* Sega Rally Revo: 7.5, 7, 7
* Conan: 5.5, 5.5, 5.5
* WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008: 8, 7, 5.5
* Clive Barker's Jericho: 3, 4.5, 4.5 (Shame of the Month)
* The Simpsons Game: 7, 6.5, 7
* Bladestorm: The Hundred Years War: 4, 6, 4
* Folklore: 5.5, 7.5, 8
* The Eye of Judgment: 8, 8, 8
* Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction: 8.5, 9.5, 9
* Halo 3: 10, 10, 9
* Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation: 6.5, 6.5, 8
* Half-Life 2 Orange Box: 10, 9.5, 10
* Beautiful Katamari: 7, 4.5, 4
* Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Trials and Tribulations: 9, 7, 7.5
* Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness: 7.5, 7, 7
* Silent Hill: Origins: 7.5, 7, 7
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Fire up the fretboard, crank up the amp and get ready to rock like never before. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock drops you into the spotlight of the largest and most legendary rock concert ever.

Fisrt three reviews are up:

90-PSM Magazine
Basically more of the same, but we aren't complaining...It's Guitar Hero, it's next-gen, and it's the party game PS3 owners have been waiting for.

88-Game Informer
You're in for one hell of a good time.

75Hardcore Gamer Magazine
I got a gang of friends together to test it out and we spent hours unlocking songs and fooling around, but, because some of us are guitar heroes and some are guitar zeroes, having a truly quality time is a tougher than it should be. It's still well worth a look
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