On Thursday, March 20th, the Dallas Mavericks will launch the Guitar Hero Challenge where aficionados will have the chance to show off their skills on the AT&T Plaza outside the South Entrance of American Airlines Center. The grand prize, the chance to play Guitar Hero during a quarter break at a First Round Playoff game, two-tickets to the game, an autographed Mavs Authentic jersey.
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Reuters reports:
Guitar manufacturer Gibson says Activision property violates copyright over music simulation software

Just hours after it transpired that developer Harmonix had filed and then withdrawn a lawsuit against Activision over alleged unpaid royalties, Reuters reports that guitar firm Gibson has made a move to sue the Guitar Hero publsher for patent enfringement.

The manufacturer said that Guitar Hero, which was published by Red Octane and developed by Harmonix until Activision acquired the former in 2006, violated a patent over 'technology for simulating a musical performance'.

Gibson made the complaint in a letter sent to the publisher in January - Activision has already fired back, said Reuters, asking the U.S. District Court for Central California to declare Gibson's patent invalid and bar it from seeking any damages.

However, Gibson and Activision have worked together before, with officially licenced Guitar Hero controllers modelled on the guitar firm's products.
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Kotaku writes: Activision will be kicking off the St. Patrick's Day celebrations with a special free track pack from the popular Celtic punk band Dropkick Murphys that will be available mid March. Straight from the band's sixth album, The Meanest of Times, the Dropkick Murphys pack will include master recordings of "Famous for Nothing," "(F)lannigan's Ball" and "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ya." The track pack will be available for free to download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PLAYSTATION®Store.
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First Day Sales : The numbers in () shows the shipments info.

Yakuza 3 (PS3) : about 113k

Metroid Prime 3 (Wii) : about 20k

Everybody's Common Sense TV (Wii) : about 5.0k (about 60~70k?)

Guitar Hero 3 (PS3, PS2) : about 3k

Family Jockey (Wii) : about 2.5k
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New downloadable songs for Activision Inc.'s Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock are set to storm living rooms across the globe with the release of two new track packs.

Available today is the Modern Metal pack which let's players jam to master recordings of Deftones' "Hole in the Earth," Avenged Sevenfold's "Almost Easy" and Thrice's "The Arsonist."
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The flOw expansion pack makes its way to Europe, as does some additional Guitar Hero III DLC.

In addition, there are a stack of videos this week plus a new theme for the PS3 XMB.
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With the massive Activision Blizzard merger looming, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick held court today at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference in Dana Point, California. And while many presentations by executives to analysts prove snooze-inducing, Kotick brought up several subjects which perked up the ears of the game industry.
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US Games

* Major League Baseball 2K8
* Army of Two
* MLB 08: The Show

EU Games

* Army of Two
* MX vs ATV: Untamed
* Dynasty Warriors 6
* Blacksite Area 51
* Soldier of Fortune: Payback
* Battle for the Pacific (History Channel)

Asian Games

* Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
* Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan (Yakuza 3)
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Torrence Davis of The Bitbag writes, "And the hits just keep coming! The amount of downloadable content that is available for GHIII is overwhelming at this point. Pretty soon you won't need another version of the game, just more music. "
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Activision has announced the batteries for the Guitars for Guitar Hero III. The Batteries are for the Playstation 3, Playstation 2 and Xbox 360 guitars they will cost about 14.99 each and they will be charge by USB. They will hit stores on February 29.
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Nintendo platform titles head the latest Spanish and German software charts, while Guitar Hero III occupies the top spot in Sweden.

Spain

01. Wii Play (Wii)
02. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (DS)
03. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
04. Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 (Wii)
05. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
06. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3)
07. Devil May Cry 4 Collector's Edition (PS3)
08. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (Wii)
09. Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)
10. Burnout Paradise (PS3)

Germany

01. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS)
02. More Brain Training from Dr. Kawashima (DS)
03. Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training (DS)
04. Professor Kageyamas Math Training (DS)
05. Wii Play (Wii)
06. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC)
07. Devil May Cry 4 (PS3)
08. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
09. World of Warcraft (PC)
10. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii)
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Saying they're going to the library may no longer be the standby excuse teens offer their parents for secretly heading out to a party or to hang out with friends.

These days, more and more young people are flocking to metro Detroit libraries: not necessarily for homework, but to participate in one of their favorite pastimes -- video games.

Hage has stocked the shelves with 1,823 games for PlayStations 2 and 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360 and other systems. And the free sources of entertainment are hot items among adolescents -- on any given day, 1,300 are checked out. The addition of the games largely contributed to the library's 12% spike in circulation last year, she said.

The Rochester Hills library (in Michigan) increasingly draws kids in with gaming events, like the one held Feb. 9.

And it's not just happening in Rochester Hills.
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VGChartz is reporting that Sony will be releasing a special update to the PlayStation Store later tonight. A new song for Guitar Hero III has been released and the content is free, but only available for a limited time.

The song is Aerosmith's "Dream On".

This update has been made available due to the announcment of the new Guitar Hero game, Guitar Hero III: AeroSmith which is a game similar to Rock the 80's on the PS2.

For all PlayStation 3 owners with Guitar Hero III this download will added to the store at 11:59p.m. PST and will only be available for till February 18th, 2008.
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IGN reports: "Dust off the old axe and brush up on those hot licks! Guinness World Record's will be holding an international Guitar Hero Relay Marathon between the UK, France, US, Canada, South Africa and Australia to celebrate the release of the Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008. Any and all Guitar Heroes are welcome to participate, dress as their their favorite Guitar Hero, and shred in this historic record attempt! For more information, or if you'd like to submit a record to break, please visit guinnessworldrecords.com.

Although Guinness World Records: Gamer's Edition 2008 hit store shelves last week in Europe, it won't be released in North America until March 11th".
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Guitar Hero: Fan Appreciation Giveaway

Here is your chance to win a trip to the Rock'n Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in New York City! Must be 21 to enter.

The Prize Package

The prize package includes all of the following for 2:

- Tickets to the 2008 Rock 'N Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony

- Round-trip airfar to New York City

- Hotel accommodations

- Transportation

- $500 Spending Cash
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Ben Fritz of Variety writes: "On the earnings call, Publishing President Mike Griffith said Activision has sold over five million song downloads for "Guitar Hero 3" on Xbox Live since the game launched. Recall that "Rock Band" has sold 2.5 million.

Of course, given that EA/MTV have sold 1.5 million copies of "Rock Band" in the U.S., compared to 6.5 million for "Guitar Hero 3," it appears that on a per capita basis, it's advantage: "Rock Band."

(One caveat: the vast majority of "Rock Band" units were for PS3 and 360, while many copies of "Guitar Hero III" were PS2 and Wii, which don't offer downloadable content. And Activision didn't include PS3 stats, for whatever reason. It's not clear how close the margin is just in terms of 360 owners.)"
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Here are some more highlights from Activision's conference call with financial analysts earlier today:

- As expected a new Call of Duty game is due for release in the 2009 fiscal year (again most likely this fall). No other details were revealed except that PS2 and Wii platforms will join the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms for the next game in the shooter series.

- As usual for Activision, the company will not release any new games for the current fiscal quarter that ends on March 31. The next quarter will see the release of the game based on Dreamworks's CGI movie Kung Fu Panda along with more downloadable content for Guitar Hero III and Call of Duty 4. The company will also release games later in the year based on another Dreamworks CGI movie Madagascar II.

- The James Bond game is still due for release this fall, around the time of the new movie's release. No other details on the game were announced.
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According to Nielsen SoundScan data, songs saw digital download sales spikes of 31 per cent, 39 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively, for the month after they were featured as a Rock Band download, over the previous month.
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VGChartz is reporting for Week Ending 19th January 2008, the American Chart was as follows:

Hardware Total:

DS: 161,736 (+36%)
360: 70,769 (-16%)
PSP: 67,102 (-6%)
PS2: 59,473 (-2%)
Wii: 55,141 (-4%)
PS3: 47,536 (-10%)

Total Software:

360: 805,220
Wii: 722,008
DSL: 596,161
PS2: 531,297
PS3: 347,921
PSP: 217,08

Top 10 Software:

1. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) 82,379 2,896,309
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare(360) 71,689 3,046,068
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PS2) 68,551 2,766,635
4. Assassins Creed(360) 58,031 2,064,721
5. Wii Sports (Wii) 55,141 8,651,583
6. Halo 3 (360) 50,074 5,182,309
7. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (360) 47,488 1,779,871
8. Mario Party DS (DS) 43,143 673,196
9. Wii Play (Wii)40,862 4,485,905
10. More Brain Training (DS) 36,406 1,552,208
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While the Nintendo Wii continues to garner headlines for its many alternative uses, occupational therapists at the Select Specialty Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana are investigating the potential of Guitar Hero in physical rehabilitation.

Certified occupational therapy assistant Kelly Colwell first noted the healing potential of Guitar Hero while working with a patient who had injured his elbow and lost range of motion in his arm.
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