Music matching video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have helped bring hordes of new casual gamers to consoles and have been a boon for the ailing music industry. Now a new player has emerged that promises to give gamers a new excuse to get their groove on.
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Games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero III" have proved their ability to breathe new life into classic rock sales. But can they do the same for new music?

Last month, Motley Crue decided to find out. The band placed its new single, the title track from "Saints of Los Angeles," for sale as a downloadable track on "Rock Band" well in advance of the album's release date, which has been pushed back to June 24. The only other place to obtain the track was iTunes.

According to data provided by the band's management, Tenth Street Entertainment, the track was downloaded more than 47,000 times via the Xbox 360 version of the game alone in the first week after it became available.

By comparison, the same track received slightly more than 10,000 downloads via digital services like iTunes and Amazon, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
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Amazon is liquidating their stock of Guitar Hero 3 on Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 / Nintendo Wii by slashing $40 off ($30 for the Wii) the MSRP resulting in a new price of $59.99 with free shipping, a great deal since it MSRP's at $99.99 ($89.99 for the Wii). Hurry the promotion ends soon, it's a great gift for a hell of a good price. The PS2 version is available for $49.99, also on sale.
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Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert played a bit of the Pat Benatar anthem, Hit Me With Your Best Shot at a charity Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock marathon today in Dallas. The event is sponsored by Blockbuster and benefits Education is Freedom, a local nonprofit which is part of Mayor Leppert's Igniting Opportunity for the Children of Dallas Campaign.
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WorthPlaying writes: At the Give It A Name Festival in London two gamers took to the main stage to play Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock in front of over 9,600 fans. The previous record was set at the Download Festival, Donington, in 2007, when the game was played in front of 3,000 people.
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Activision posted a quarterly profit on Thursday that blew past expectations as demand for its Guitar Hero 3 and Call of Duty 4 video games made up for a complete lack of new releases.
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Finally Activision does something selfless. From May 2 to May 5, Guitar Hero III will host a charity challenge competition (on easy, medium and hard), benefiting the Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. Activision will donate $1 to the charity for every participant and $100 for every 1000 points of a challenger’s individual score. The Starlight Starbright Foundation helps sick kids and their families cope with the ... » Read More

OpinionDebug writes:

"Well the first details of the imminent Guitar Hero 4 have begun to trickle out of Activision, stating that Guitar Hero 4 will feature drums and vocals¿hmm, this seems familiar. While this is just a rumour it is backed by some reliable sources, including Activision CEO Bobby Kotick. Ok, this sounds like Rock Band, a lot. I mean really, couldn't they have thought of something slightly original - a didgeridoo controller for example? However I think Activision are entitled to copy Rock Band and its peripherals."
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In March, Nintendo again defined industry momentum in both home and portable video games sales, according to the independent NPD Group, which monitors retail activity in the video game industry. More than 720,000 Wii systems sold in March, representing the highest monthly sales total outside of holiday months (November or December) to date, while Nintendo DS also sold through nearly 700,000 systems.

Nintendo also finished with the top-selling U.S. game of March. Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which launched March 9, came in at No. 1 with 2.7 million units sold.
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PlayStation 3 outsold Xbox 360 for the third month in a row, but the Nintendo Wii overshot the combined sales of its rivals, according to Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter.

Ahead of March's NPD Group sales data, due to release this Thursday, Pachter forecast PS3 sales of 365,000 units, edging out sales of 310,000 for Xbox 360.

In a Monday investor note, Pachter predicted that Nintendo will come out on top for yet another month, with Wii sales of 700,000 during March's five-week retail period.
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Charlie Daniels, the writer and musician responsible for 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia,' has hit out against Guitar Hero 3 for perverting the meaning of his music. "[The song] is supposed to be a lighthearted novelty about a fiddling contest between a country boy and the devil and the devil always loses," Daniels posted on his personal website. ... » Read More

A Calif. Judge has dismissed a class action lawsuit against Activision which sought damages over mono sound in the Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.
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VG247: Activision's offering you the chance to get into the next edition of Guitar Hero.

How do you do it? It's very simple: make a video recording of yourself imbuing anything from a guitar to a Guitar Hero controller to a tennis racket with the mystical power of rock; shred to the best of your ability to your favourite rock song and administer lordship over the universe through whatever axe you choose to wield. Then register on www.releaseyourrockstar.com and upload your video.

The movie that gets the most views...
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VG247: Actress Jodie Foster is a terrible musician but is good enough at Guitar Hero to beat her six and nine year-old children.

"I have no musical ability," she said. "I tried in my life. I tried to learn the trumpet, that wasn't so good. The good thing about Guitar Hero is you can just go 'blue, green, green, green, blue, green, green.'"

Not much more to add to that, is there?
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If you've sent in your Wii Guitar Hero III disc for replacement, you should be getting an extra bonus from Activision and Red Octane. For the downtime from Guitar Hero 3 gameplay, Activision and Red Octane is sending customers who had their disc replaced a bonus gift: a Guitar Hero faceplate.
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Calling all Guitar Hero III players!

Think you have what it takes to become a rock legend? Sign up now to compete in our Guitar Hero III Rock-tacular, and show off your most amazing licks and riffs. We'll be flying four finalists out to our studio in San Francisco to compete for $1000 in prizes!
Registration for GameSpot's Guitar Hero III Rock-tacular begins March 24, 2008.
To register, click here to go over to guitarhero.com. You will need to create a profile and link it to your Xbox 360, Wii, or PS3 game.

As always, we'll broadcast the finals live on GameSpot Tournament TV. You'll get to see your favorite GameSpot editors provide analysis and commentary on the competition, as well as interviews with some of the top players. Be sure to tune in!
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Wal-Mart is one of five big-box retailers being sued for selling Guitar Hero 3, and in fact the entire Guitar Hero franchise.
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Activision has released a statement in response to Gibson Guitar's claims that the publisher's popular Guitar Hero series of games infringe upon one of its patents.

Activision said in a statement released on Thursday, "Gibson's lawsuit is a transparent end run around an impartial court that Activision asked on March 11 to rule on patent assertions that Gibson knows have no merit."

"Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong. We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers."
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Martin Bandier, a top executive at the music publishing company that owns the Lennon-McCartney song writing copyrights, has said he'd be interested in a dedicated edition of Guitar Hero for the Beatles."It's something we have talked about and something I'd like to pursue," said Bandier to the Los Angeles Times.Traditionally, the rights to cover Beatles tracks have been notoriously hard to obtain, but copyright owner Sony/ATV Music ... » Read More

The L.A. Times reports:

"The latest sign of a video-game "Revolution"? You may soon be able to plug in and play guitar in "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

Martin N. "Marty" Bandier, the top executive at the music publishing company that owns the John Lennon- Paul McCartney copyrights, said he liked the idea of a dedicated Beatles edition of Guitar Hero, Activision Inc.'s hugely popular video-game franchise.

Activision announced last month that Aerosmith would be the first act with a dedicated version of Guitar Hero.

"It's something we have talked about and something I'd like to pursue," said Bandier, who last year took over as chairman and chief executive at Sony/ATV Music Publishing.

The company has loosened its approach to the Beatles' music. Producers of " American Idol," for instance, had for years sought permission for contestants to perform Beatles hits on the show but were turned down again and again.

That's changed: Tonight's episode is the second week of an "all-Beatles" format for the show, which Bandier calls "a wonderful way to get this legendary music in front of an audience of 30 million people in an exciting way."
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