How Many More Ways Can Axl Rose Piss Off Fans?

from the keep-trying dept

Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses has a funny way of trying to sell his album: his strategy seems to basically revolve around pissing off fans who want to interact with the music. There's been plenty of coverage over the arrest and subsequent guilty plea of a blogger who was actually doing a fantastic job of promoting the new album by leaking it online. Since then, Rose has apparently been unwilling to do much to actually promote the album, other than putting angry rants on various websites. The latest is that he's apparently threatening legal action against Activision for including some GNR songs in Guitar Hero. Apparently no one pointed out to Rose that having songs in Guitar Hero tends to help sell more albums. And, that would be useful for Rose right now, as reports are that his long-awaited album has been a tremendous flop. So, once again, it's worth pointing out that the last thing any musician wants to do these days is appear to be anti-fan.

Filed Under: axl rose, fans, guitar hero, guns n' roses
Companies: activision

Music Games Drive Kids' Interest In Real Instruments

from the school-of-rock dept

A report from the UK says that 20 percent of the kids there that have played music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have picked up real instruments because of the games. The author of the report says it shows that when music is presented to kids in new and compelling ways, it can get them interested in creating their own music. We'll note it's nice to see that kids getting excited by video games can have some positive effects and not only translate into violence, as one recent study said. It's also interesting to note that Gibson says it's getting a sales bump from the games, particularly for its iconic Les Paul guitar, after which one of the plastic axes in Guitar Hero is modeled. This is a little ironic, after Gibson wanted to extract some money from Activision by waving an unrelated patent in its face and trying to get the company to license it. This further illustrates to record companies how these games can add value to their content and serve to promote it, but sadly, you know that somehow that lesson will still be lost on the labels.

Filed Under: guitar hero, music, rock band, video games
Companies: activision, gibson

Activision CEO Suggests Record Labels Should Be Paying To Get In Video Games

from the this-ought-to-be-fun dept

Remember a couple months ago, when Warner Music's Edgar Bronfman complained that the makers of video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band should be paying more for the music they used? He claimed, incorrectly, that the games were "entirely dependent" on the record labels' content. That was wrong, and totally downplayed the fact that the video games were actually adding value to the music. Now it appears that the maker of Guitar Hero, Activision, is hitting back. The company's CEO is pointing out how much being in those games has helped bands, suggesting that its really the record labels that are getting too good of a deal:

"When you look at the impact [the game] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant -- so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse. The bulk of our consumers will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included, they're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them."

He's exactly right. The content industry always seem to over estimate how much "value" the content provides and almost totally ignore the value provided by anyone else in the value chain. It's going to be interesting to see what happens over the next few months, but I would bet that the video game companies have the stronger hand here, and despite Bronfman's statements, the record labels really understand that.

Filed Under: guitar hero, music, rock band, value, video games
Companies: activision, warner music

Activision Begins Suing File Sharers [Updated]

from the backlash-beware dept

While EA has faced a ton of backlash lately for its decision to use draconian DRM (though it's since backed down a bit), at least the company has made it clear that it doesn't think it makes sense to follow the RIAA and sue file sharers. Activision, on the other hand, seems to have gone in the opposite direction, recently filing a bunch of lawsuits against file sharers, even to the point of asking for $30,000 to $150,000 in damages per violation. While it's within Activision's legal right to do so, the company may want to be careful in pissing off hard core gamers. The backlash can hurt a lot more than any bit of file sharing ever would. Update: As a few people noted in the comments, Activision is claiming that the lawsuit in question was not about file sharing, but has not provided more details yet.

Filed Under: file sharing, lawsuits, video games
Companies: activision

Gibson Sues More Than Just Activision Over Virtual Music Concert Patent

from the who-else-can-we-sue dept

Remember how Activision had preemptively sued Gibson for a declaratory judgment that it didn't infringe on a really questionable patent concerning a computerized guitar for a "virtual" concert? Well, Gibson has now struck back, and it's not just suing Activision, but almost all the retailers who sell it as well, including Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Amazon.com, Toys 'R' Us and GameStop. The idea, clearly, is to have those retailers put pressure on Activision. Update: Wired reports that the lawsuit also covers a bunch of other companies. Basically, Gibson is suing anyone even remotely connected to video games that involve fake guitars.

Of course, there are all sorts of questionable things about this lawsuit. As we pointed out when Activision first sued, Gibson's patent doesn't seem similar to "Guitar Hero" at all. It talks about playing a real concert, with a real guitar (with strings) attached to a head mounted display. Also, as Activision points out, Gibson didn't care about the patent as long as Activision and Gibson had a marketing agreement. They only started calling for patent infringement after the marketing agreement ended. Finally, suing retailers for selling the game is quite sketchy. In fact, the Supreme Court just heard a case looking at whether or not that was legit, and the Justices sounded quite skeptical. Gibson is clearly posturing to try to push for a settlement -- and in the process, showing yet another way to abuse the patent system.

Filed Under: guitar hero, lawsuits, patents, retailers, supply chain
Companies: activision, amazon, gamestop, gibson, kmart, target, toys r us, wal-mart

Activision Sues Gibson In Response To Claims That 'Guitar Hero' Violates Patent

from the it's-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-digs-up-a-patent dept

And now bogus patent threats are finding their way into the video game world, as Activision has filed for a declaratory judgment that it doesn't infringe on a patent owned by Gibson, the well-known guitar company. It appears that Gibson owns a patent on "generating and controlling a simulated musical concert." Reading through the patent, it appears to be quite different than Activision's game. First off, the patent seems to clearly indicate that the instrument in question is a guitar, not the faux guitar used in "Guitar Hero." Also, the patent really does seem to be about participating in a virtual concert by adding the guitar part, rather than about pushing buttons in a game. Finally, the patent also includes the small detail that the participating in the virtual concert also involves a "head-mounted 3D display." I'm not aware of too many people playing "Guitar Hero" with one of those. Either way, Gibson approached Activision about licensing the patent, and rather than finding itself involved in a patent lawsuit in East Texas, Activision took charge and filed a suit against Gibson proactively, looking for a declaratory judgment that "Guitar Hero" does not violate the patent in question. In the meantime, if Gibson is really so concerned, why not do a deal with Activision to get them to offer replicas of Gibson's classic guitars as an upsell offering for the game's fans?

Filed Under: guitar hero, patents, virtual guitar
Companies: activision, gibson

Guitar Hero Gets To Rock On For Now

from the can't-shut-me-down dept

Last month we wrote about how the 80s rock band the Romantics was suing Activision for a version of its video game Guitar Hero. That game used a cover of a Romantics hit, which was properly licensed. However, the Romantics claimed that the cover was too good and too close to the original and wanted to be paid for a full performance license, rather than just for the cover. Otherwise, they wanted to halt sales of the game. Luckily, a judge has turned down their request for a summary judgment, noting that an injunction right before the holidays would have a profound impact on Activision's sales of the game. The judge also noted that the band did not "show a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits of the case." Apparently, the judge was less-than-impressed by the fact that the band's own lawyer admitted that this was "all about the money."

Filed Under: copyright, cover songs, guitar hero, romantics
Companies: activision

Does ActiBlizsion Make Sense? Can A Merged Activision And Blizzard Really Work?

from the the-studio-model-at-work dept

The big news in the tech world this weekend, of course, is the slightly complicated merger between video game firms Blizzard and Activision to form the not-particularly-creatively-named Activision Blizzard. You can read the link above to figure out the complicated parts, including Vivendi's role, as well as the various amounts of cash going into the deal from both sides. As for the rationale behind the deal, it's one of those deals that seems to make sense on paper. It makes the combined company somewhere around the size of EA, the major player in the space. It also aligns the complementary strong points of each firm. Activision is big in console games like Guitar Hero while Blizzard is big in multi-player online games like World of Warcraft. Blizzard also has a strong presence in Asia. So, on paper, it sounds like a great deal. The tricky part will be actually making it work. Even with such clear complementary successes, it's not always so easy to merge two large players like this with different approaches to the market. What almost always happens when two large companies merge is that one side ends up taking over and the other group fights for a while and then leaves -- taking much of the reason for the merger away. Even more complicated in this case is that both companies are pretty dependent on coming up with new "big hits" on a regular basis to keep bringing in the revenue. EA's success (whether on purpose or not) has largely been driven by the ability to release "franchise" games that people will buy the next version of every year -- particularly in the sports arena. If the merger makes the company take its eye off the ball, leading to a weak set of products, it could be quite damaging. Maybe the companies will pull it off. Maybe they can figure out a way to actually build on their separate strengths without fighting themselves -- but it's a big bet to take.

Filed Under: mergers, video games
Companies: activision, blizzard, vivendi

The Romantics Suing Over Cover Version Used In Guitar Hero: Apparently, It's Too Good A Cover

from the copyright-insanity dept

Jennifer was the first of a few folks to alert us to the latest ridiculous copyright lawsuit. It appears that the 80s band The Romantics is suing Activision for the cover version of its song, "What I Like About You," being used in the Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s game released this past summer. The lawsuit is not because the song wasn't properly licensed. Activision properly licensed the song so it could have a band cover the song and use the cover in the game. The problem is that the cover band was too good, according to The Romantics. Yes, the band is complaining that the cover is so accurate it sounds just like the original Romantics' version, and therefore, is infringing on the band's rights. This is so ridiculous that it's worth repeating the details once again: The band agreed to a license allowing Activision to use a cover version of its song -- and then sued because the cover version was too similar to the original. The band is now claiming that Activision should have paid different (more expensive) royalties to use the original master recording. As ridiculous as this sounds, the band may actually have some (equally ridiculous) precedents to back it up. Other musicians have sued when properly licensed covers were used in commercials, claiming that even though the songs used were covers, they sounded too similar and people might assume that the musician endorsed the product in the commercials. In this case, though, there really isn't any question of endorsement -- and, honestly, the Romantics should probably be thrilled that anyone still pays any attention to the band at all, rather than trying to ban the sale of the new game (which, yes, it's trying to do).

Filed Under: copyright, covers, guitar hero, the romantics
Companies: activision