Rock Revolution

VGChartz writes: After the ever-declining sales of music games, there has been a frantic quest for the next big thing. Behold Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring, the first music game to feature a real guitar.

WorthPlaying writes, Grammy Award-nominated American metal rocker and former White Zombie frontman Rob Zombie adds to his Rock Band DLC catalog (currently War Zone) with three new tracks for the Rock Band platform, including Dragula and Superbeast, from his debut solo album, Hellbilly Deluxe, as well as Burn, from his new album, Hellbilly Deluxe 2, to be released Nov. 17. Zombie also has a film currently playing in theaters – Halloween 2, which he wrote, directed and produced.

Here's this weeks European Games Releases for the week beginning 19/04/09. Highlights for this week include Bionic Commando and The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena for PS3 and Xbox 360. Also the abysmal Rock Revolution hits PAL Territories.

Best Buy Co. Inc. stores this week clearanced Konami Corp.'s Rock Revolution Band Kit for Sony Corp.'s Playstation 3 to under $40 to rid inventory of the music video game product. This month, the Rock Revolution PS3 Band Kit held a clearance price of $38.49, down from a $59.99 MSRP.

Strategy Informer writes: Rock Revolution is Konami's response to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and is set to arrive this March in Europe on Xbox 360, PS3 and DS. The game has already launched in the US and hasn't received much fanfare, in fact many complain it offers most of everything you could want three years too late; metascore of 39.

...the video game Rock Band 2, which along with Guitar Hero is rocking bars and living rooms across the country. Many songs' sales have more than doubled after release in one of the games, and well-known bands have started lining up to provide new music direct to the game makers. Now record labels - noticing what they are missing, and struggling as compact disc sales tumble - are looking for a bigger piece of the action.

Children are becoming inspired to learn real musical instruments after playing music-based games such as Wii Music, Guitar Hero, Singstar and Rock Band, claims a new study. The study, commissioned by the UK's largest music charity Youth Music, claims that 2.5 million British kids have taken up a real instrument after having fun with virtual ones in videogames. Youth Music's research claims that 19 per cent of British kids have picked up a guitar or other instrument after playing a music-based game. Andrew Missingham, the music industry expert behind the report, said: The music games are popular because they are family friendly and inclusive. And it is this take-up of the games that is credited with the take up of musical instruments, the development of transferable musical skills and even the development of performance confidence. This research for the first time shows conclusively that young people are being inspired to make their own music by games that first piqued their interest.

Dylan Beale, of award winning Constantine and Rogue Ops fame, arrives at Zoë Mode as Senior Producer. Following the expansion into London, Zoë Mode has appointed Dylan Beale to take the reins on the studios forthcoming titles...

Harmonix has patched Rock Band 2 on PS3 to support Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Revolution peripherals. An Xbox 360 update is forthcoming, according to the Rock Band forum. Consumers should not be forced to buy separate controllers for each game. Rock Band peripherals should be compatible with other music games - even those of our competitors, said the developer.

Slashgamer writes: Can this be for real? According to the NPD, Konami's rhythm game Rock Revolution sold poorly. Again, if this is real - poorly would actually be good news for the gaming publisher. The NPD Group reported - get this, Rock Revolution sold less 3,000 copies of the game for the month of October. Because of the numbers being so ridicules low, I have my doubts about the legitimacy.