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Print E-mail del.icio.us 13 comment(s) - last by HelToupee.. on Feb 4 at 11:15 AM
EA posts record revenues amidst $33 million net loss

Given the wide appeal of music rhythm games, it may have surprised some that Rock Band wasn’t planned to launch on Wii – a system known for its legion of casual gamers. Although Wii versions are usually developed alongside PlayStation 2 ports for the sake of asset sharing, Rock Band graced only the latter system in late 2007.

Not surprisingly, Rock Band publisher EA’s CEO John Riccitiello confirmed during an investor conference call not only the upcoming Wii version, but also the pending European release. "What's probably the most interesting pieces right now is the coming launch on the Wii, the continued sale of the core platforms in North America and then the fiscal 09 launch across Europe," Riccitiello said.

EA also reported that it has sold 1.5 million copies of Rock Band across the current three available platforms, while setting a record $1.5 billion in third quarter revenue.

Other strong sellers for EA in 2007 were Madden NFL 08, The Simpsons Game, FIFA 08 and Need for Speed ProStreet. Despite strong games sales, EA reported a $33 million net loss, though the games company did also complete its acquisition of BioWare and Pandemic Studios during the same quarter.

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By Netscorer on 2/1/2008 8:58:19 PM , Rating: 1
The biggest one being not having a Hard Drive for added content. New songs appearing for RB and GH are what keeping these games fresh and constantly exciting.
Another drawback that would really hurt Wii owners of Rock Band would be absense of true digital surround sound. Owners of the games on Xbox and PS3 with full surround sound setup would attest how great these songs sound when blasted through 5.1 setups
And finally, Rock Band, when played by four players has very busy display. I wonder how 480P would be able to display all this information clearly and cleanly, so that players standing up to 8 feet away from the screen can still have no trouble seeing their tracks and stats.




By StevoLincolnite on 2/1/2008 9:33:35 PM , Rating: 2
Well You can use Flash Drives on the Wii to store content, And they are coming in at 8gb these days and aren't all that expensive.

5.1? My 5.1 Pro-Logic Surround sound Theater system automatically changes 2 channel sound into 4 channel sound, Don'cha love DSP's? :P Mind you it's still not perfect quality, but it's getting there.

480P? Well those who live in Pal Territory's get to enjoy it in 575P or something, but one thing I have notice is that, Although Nintendo may not be the most Graphical company in terms of "Graphics effects" they sure do make use of what they have and make some really incredibly artistic things.
Just remember these company's know what they are doing, the world has only been using 480P for the last several Decades.


By Netscorer on 2/1/2008 10:29:27 PM , Rating: 2
You have valid points but they still do not make Wii a platform of choice for Rock Band.
Flash cards are very slow. I want to see how long does it take to load song (10-15Mb) from flash card each time you are going to play it.

DSPs are OK - I used them myself, but they are not a substitution for properly encoded true 5.1 track. DSP will never be able to clearly separate different instruments, voice and audience noize from each other - just spread them to all speakers more or less evenly.

And, finally, yes world (or, rather US) has been using 480P for a long time but never to read from screen. In Rock Band, when 4 players are all rocking at the same time the screen is very, very busy. To replicate this screen with only 480 horizontal lines and make it readable from the distance would not be an easy task.


By Jedi2155 on 2/2/2008 6:27:49 PM , Rating: 3
I'm thinking the flash cards would typically be at least 1-2 MB/sec in loading a medium size file like a song. So no more than a couple of seconds.


By Kefner on 2/4/2008 1:50:23 AM , Rating: 2
Only problem is the Wii only works with SD cards of 2 GB or less. Got the following off wii.nintendo.com.

The Wii console is only compatible with SD Cards that are 2 GB (Gigabyte) or less. Cards with a capacity higher than 2 GB will likely not work with the Wii console.

Here a link to the page.

http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/wii/en_na...


By HelToupee on 2/4/2008 11:15:12 AM , Rating: 2
I think we'll be seeing an external hard drive that hooks up via USB coming out of Nintendo's R&D very soon. I just hope it's not some proprietary format that can't be (easily) replaced by an off-the-shelf 750Gb external drive...


By kamra on 2/2/2008 12:30:11 AM , Rating: 2
i think the Wii started to show its limitations the moment it came out amidst the PS3 & Xbox 360.

also... we've filmed segments with Rock Band in 480p and it works just fine with 4 players. The only person who has trouble, actually, is the singer because the words to the songs aren't as clear.

you can chalk that mistake up to the QA department... i remember bugging small-type lettering and it being a legal issue in some cases.


Guessing it's a new rig
By Cr0nJ0b on 2/1/08, Rating: 0
RE: Guessing it's a new rig
By mcturkey on 2/1/2008 5:43:45 PM , Rating: 2
The Guitar Hero guitar already uses the Wiimote inside of it. For the mic, there is no point - use the existing USB microphone. Not sure about drums, unless you replace the sticks with the mote/chuck.


RE: Guessing it's a new rig
By ViRGE on 2/2/2008 3:39:27 AM , Rating: 2
It doesn't make any sense to try to replace the instruments with the Wiimote, it's good for picking up motions but not necessarily replacing the feedback from an instrument. I'd imagine they'll do like GH3, and create instruments similar to the ones that shipped with the other versions, except they all hook up to the Wiimote for wireless functionality.


Bout time
By Alexstarfire on 2/1/2008 4:23:52 PM , Rating: 2
I wondered why they didn't do it as well. Hope if/when they release it on the Wii that it doesn't have issues with the Guitar Hero III guitar, cause if it does then I won't be buying it. No sense in having a guitar that you can't use simply because they won't let you.

Wonder if it'll sell better on the Wii than the other consoles? I think if it does it might be just because they have more consoles out in the wild.




Wiihashed
By Rage187 on 2/1/08, Rating: -1
Production Capacity
By InternetGeek on 2/1/08, Rating: -1
"So if you want to save the planet, feel free to drive your Hummer. Just avoid the drive thru line at McDonalds." -- Michael Asher








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