Buried in today's Elecrtonic Arts earnings call was this amazing revelation from COO John Pleasants: Revenue for music/rhythm games was down 36% during the first quarter of the year and 42% in March, per NPD. As a result, EA has cut the gross sales revenue it expects from its EA Partner division, which distributes "Rock Band" for Viacom.

That's a huge decline. And keep in mind that there weren't any major music game releases during the first quarter of last year, while 2009 saw "Guitar Hero: Metallica" (albeit at the very end of March). As we started to see in late 2008, sales of "Rock Band 2" and "Guitar Hero: World Tour" must be down massively from the original "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero III."

And while EA CEO John Riccitiello said he feels "really bullish" about "Rock Band: Beatles Edition," the fact that the company is expecting $400 million less in sales indicates just how big an impact continued sales of "Rock Band" through last year mattered, and how far "Rock Band 2" is lagging.
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Slashgamer: "Prince is considered to be one of the greatest musicians of our time. Honestly, even if for some reason you can't stand him, it's hard to argue his greatness, just look at his achievements. The artiest has won seven Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe and even an Academy Award for his work on Purple Rain.

Even with his legendary work, comes controversy. Without me getting to much into it, just go to his Wikipedia page and look under 'controversy.' With that said, PBS asked Prince on his thoughts about Guitar Hero. Although he didn't necessarily criticizes the rhythm game, he just doesn't think it should be a substitute for playing an actual guitar."
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PlayStation LifeStyle writes, "Back again for another weekly Rumored PS Store content. This week has me rather excited since, we get the PSN exclusive demo for Marvel Vs. Capcom 2! That's certainly not all we get to look forward to, as the first DLC pack for Killzone 2 drops, and we get more exciting DLC for Burnout Paradise."
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Activision sent out this email announcing the new community login system coming for Guitar Hero.
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A California court has thrown out a lawsuit filed by legendary guitar maker Gibson against Activision for allegedly violating a patent with their Guitar Hero games.
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Consumer electronics manufacturer Vivo Products has announced a couple of changes in their corporate lineup today. Bernard Stolar has been appointed to Chairman of the Board and Kelli Richards assumes the role of VP Business Development&Content Partnerships.

Vivo currently boasts three products including a Jillian Michaels Flash Drive, Gene Simmons Axe, and the Vivo Video player. The famous Axe guitar from the legendary front man of KISS, Gene Simmons is forever immortalized in plastic by Vivo for use in Rock Band and Guitar Hero games on the Playstation 2 and Playstation 3 consoles. Jillian Michaels has her likeness on 2gb flash drives that are a compliment her Fitness Ultimatum Nintendo Wii game. The Vivo Video is touted as "the ultimate all-in-one mp3 and mp4 player".
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Power Chord Academy, the nation's leading summer camp for amateur musician training, is excited to announce the addition of two new Summer programs!

GameROCKERS is an exclusive 3-day cutting edge game-musician program for the new age of musicians who play Guitar Hero or Rock Band. iROCKER is a 1-day version of the GameROCKERS program.
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IncGamers report:
"Blondie drummer Clem Burke is teaming up with researchers from the Universities of Chichester and Gloucester to study the potential physical and psychological benefits of playing drum-based music games."
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A 14-year old teenager from Texas broke the world record for Guitar Hero III. Danny Johnson completed 'Through the Fire and Flames' for 99% which gave him a score of 973954 points, 75000 points more than the previous record. A video of him playing and an interview can be viewed after the jump.
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To celebrate the launch of the second annual Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition, the nation's best Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock player visited New York City for a mesmerizing record-breaking shred session.
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Uber sexy movie starlet Megan Fox has been snapped playing Guitar Hero, apparently in someone's house. Foxy Miss Fox, star of Hope and Faith and the Transformers movie, could probably have charged the world for promoting the game, but it's nice to know that she's keen enough a gamer not to let dollar signs cloud her vision. ... » Read More

Activision has confirmed that it will be unleashing three all new track packs for Guitar Hero: World Tour next month.

Kicking things off on February 12 is the Acoustic Track Pack, which includes "Drive" by Incubus, "New Slang" by The Shins and "Wonderwall" as interpreted by Ryan Adams.

The Wings Track Pack will follow one week later, featuring "Junior's Farm", "Hi Hi Hi" and "Jet". Finally, February 26 sees the release of the Bob Seger Track Pack, which includes "Old Time Rock and Roll", "Her Strut", and a live version of "Get Out of Denver".

Each track pack will set you back USD 5.49, while individual songs will cost USD 1.99 apiece
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Oasis lead guitarist and songwriter Noel Gallagher has his knickers all up in a bunch about Guitar Hero, scoffing at the idea of the game and exclaiming that "playing a guitar is not a f**king videogame."

"Don't look back in anger." Yeah, right. Oasis lead dude Noel Gallagher, who, ironically enough, penned that song which was featured prominently in Rock Band, has looked back at what he sees in the music gaming landscape, and well, he's kinda angry. "When I meet kids I always say to them that playing a guitar is not a f**king videogame, there is no level to get to," he said. "You'll never master it and you'll never complete the game."
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Thatgamingsite writes: "Forbes Writer, Peter C. Beller has responded to criticisms made after calling music game 'Rockband' a shameless knockoff in comparison to Guitar Hero. Althought it looks like he's sticking to his guns on this one."
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Today Fender and Little Kids Rock, a non-profit music education organization, announced that an informal survey they conducted in November 2008 revealed that music games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" actually do inspire students to play real instruments. The survey polled 812 music instructors and said that enrollment in music programs has increased in the past year.
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Kotaku writes: "Like regular sized Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitar controllers, but far, far daintier, the USB ready Riff Rocker adds hand cramping as an extra difficulty modifier to your rhythm gaming.

While the lil' device has been available commercially for a few months now, it has been so at some of the more, let's say, unproven retailers. But we got a chance to go claw-hand on with it at CES this weekend. It works, but only with the open source Frets On Fire for Windows and Linux."
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Speaking during a CES keynote in Las Vegas on Friday, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith said that over the holidays, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock became the first single game ever to surpass $1 billion in sales. The game launched in the fall of 2007.

The news comes about a year after Activision announced that the overall franchise had broke $1 billion in sales across all titles from the series' 2005 launch to that point in time.
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PS3-Sense writes "German shops are selling something we never saw, its underwear themed in the PlayStation 3 controller or Guitar Hero." Pictures after the jump!
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Two of the more amazing records from Grand Theft Auto 4 and Guitar Hero 3 are being included in the book's memorable moments of 2008 section.
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MVC Reports "Guns N' Roses singer Axl Rose has slammed Activision and its Guitar Hero series for using his band's songs without permission."
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