From around the web:
Real guitars offer new riff for music games
Sales figures for music games have hit more than a few bum notes lately, but there may be life in the Guitar Hero/Rock Band genre yet.
MTV Games announced on Tuesday there would be a Rock Band 3 later this year, implying a new distribution deal had been struck with Electronic Arts. Meanwhile, over at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, a new competitor emerged touting a video game with real instruments. Read more
Beatles beat Guitar Hero, PS3 finally hits No 1
The Beatles: Rock Band outsold Guitar Hero 5 in September in the US, while Sony’s PS3 console beat its rivals’ sales figures for the first time, according to the latest figures from the NPD research firm.
The “Battle of the Bands” was a key focus as the two titles were released at the same time, but both were outsold by the latest release in the Halo franchise - Halo 3: ODST - and Madden NFL 10. Read more
Coming soon…Accordion Hero, Flugelhorn Hero…?
The creators of Guitar Hero, the video game that transforms console players into plastic-guitar-wielding maniacs, have big plans to extend the brand.
Speaking at the MI6 game marketing conference in San Francisco on Wednesday, Kai Huang, co-founder with his brother Charles of RedOctane, the Guitar Hero publisher, said he believed the industry was in the early stages of developing a huge category around music. Read more
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Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.
Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years and since 2004 has reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby.
Maija Palmer has been writing about technology for the FT since 1999 and is fascinated by cybercrime, privacy and all the other issues of the information society. Based in London, she covers European tech companies and hopes that they won't all get acquired by American rivals.
Robin Kwong is the FT's technology, media and telecoms page editor in London. Formerly he was the Taipei correspondent and wrote about the companies that manufacture the vast majority of the world's computers and gadgets. He is interested in the intricacies of the technology supply chain and how China is increasingly changing the tech landscape.
Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.
