However, the statistic is not as impressive as it sounds.

1. DJ Hero sold bundled with a Turntable with $100 price tag. This means that the other games in the running for this title would have had to sell 2 games for every 1 DJ Hero that was sold in order to keep even with them.

2. Last year was a slow year for new releases. And the few ok quality new releases that came out just never gained much popularity.

Regardless DJ Hero was a nice new and cool addition to the Guitar Hero Family that was well received by its players. We are glad to here that Activision will still be making another one despite sales not living up to expectations.

[Via  NetworkWorld]

Well, now you can a the people behind the game have released a new feature known as the Rock Band Network. The network gives users the ability to upload their own songs and sell them to other users at prices ranging from $1-$3 dollars.

Fortunately and Unfortunately there is a slight entry barrier for getting your songs on the network. The uploaded song must in a certain file format that Rock Band can understand and people are saying the conversion process is not very easy. Don’t worry though because there are services popping up that will convert your song to rock band format for about $500 per minute of audio.

Media outlets are reporting that there will be a slew of bands appearing on the service besides the rich kid ext door.

According to the developer, tracks by Jonathan Coulton and Billy Idol (as well as some Finnish death metal) will be among the tracks that are slated to appear on the Rock Band Network. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that multi-platinum artists Creed and Evanescence will also have music on the service. Indie label Sub Pop’s plans are also made a bit more clear — expect music from The Shins, Flight of the Conchords, Mudhoney, Sleater-Kinney, and The Postal Service.

[Via Engadget, Destructoid]

There are reports that Megadeth has been having “high level meetings” with the people over at Activision and Neversoft talking about the possibility of a some type of new Guitar Hero Megadeth game.

I have recently had two very important high-level meetings with the people from Activision and Neversoft, and we are talking about a lot of things, but a Guitar Hero box set is not as attractive to me and the people from Guitar Hero as the new idea that they offered me, as the creative stuff that we are talking about is over-the-moon! I just hope that someone doesn’t stand in the way of this happening. I know that there are a lot of really damaging results from our mothership (Warner) having some legal disputes with YouTube and Guitar Hero to name just a few.

I’m really interested in what they could be doing with new Guitar Hero games. They really need to do something new to renew some interest in the games after bombarding us with a ton of games in 2009. Megadeth would be a good option for a new Guitar Hero, but i’m still waiting for Guitar Hero Led Zeppelin!

After DJ Guetta let the news slip about a new DJ Hero game slated for release this year, Activision is finally confirming the rumor. Activision however did not add a “2″ to the end of the game instead opting for the more ambiguous “a future instalment” language.

“Do you want your song mashed up in the next DJ Hero?” Activision asked musicians attending the huge MIDEM music show in Cannes, France later this month.

Those that do will have their submissions judged at a Listening Session at MIDEM on 27th January – “providing one lucky undiscovered musician the priceless opportunity to have their winning song mixed, mastered and featured in a future installment of DJ Hero”.

Ringo Starr has recently admitted that he is “really bad” at playing The Beatles Rock Band Drums.

“I’m really bad at it but I’ve tried it”, said the Beatle. “We tried it when they were putting it together and they’d bring all these geniuses out to play it. It’s too frantic for me.”

This comes as no surprise to me as real drums and Rock Band Drums are two different beasts. Even mores-so, being a drummer myself, I still am not great at the game.

Its good to know that the Beatles have actually played the game that wields their name.

[via XFM.com]

The Alice in Chains Track Pack will hit the fictitious shelves of the various online networks for Xbox 360 and Wii on Jan. 12th and for PS3 on Jan. 14th.

Alice in Chains Track Pack includes:

• Alice In Chains – “Grind”
• Alice In Chains – “Heaven Beside You”
• Alice In Chains – “Last of My Kind”
• Alice In Chains – “We Die Young”
• Alice In Chains – “Your Decision”

Pricing:

Per Track: $1.99 USD, .99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track
Whole Pack: $8.49 USD, 4.39 UK, €6.59 EU (680 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for “Alice In Chains Pack 02″
On Wii: $2.00 USD (200 Wii Points) per track

The You Rock Guitar Controller is basically a fake Guitar Controller and a real Guitar Combined and made able to play Guitar Hero. This Guitar has actual string that the user must press and pluck in order to activate the icons that are flying at them on screen. The concept is cool, but I could see it being decently difficult for many people and with a $180 dollar price tag its not a cheap Guitar Controller.

Check out a trailer for the product below!

[via Engadget]

This is just one of those decisions that you just want to kick youself in the ass for.

The story is that Mad Catz, mainly a game peripheral company, was originally involved in the creation of an Xbox Version of the original Guitar Hero on launch. As you know the original Guitar Hero only debuted on PS2. This was Mad Catz fault. It seems they were in court with Konami at the same time and they paid $300,000 to get out of the Guitar Hero Contract. A contract that would have made them Millions.

“Guitar Hero was a game that we were actually involved with early on and pulled out because of a lawsuit with Konami,” Mad Catz president and CEO Darren Richardson tells us. “We were doing the Xbox SKU and that’s why there was only a Playstation 2 launch. That’s why. We were in there and we pulled out as a result of (the lawsuit) and (Red Octane and Harmonix) went forward and it turned out to be a success, a huge success.”

That one hurts.

“Everyone else made hundreds of millions and we paid money to not be a part of it,” Richardson said. “It was brilliant. I come up with these strokes of genius from time to time. That was my best.”

At least he admits he screwed up and has a sense of humor about it.

I like the guy.

The people over at Guitar Hero have just released the DLC calendar for January 2010. This months DLC includes the likes of Vampire Weekend, Credence Clearwater Revival, and Dethlok amongst others.

This made me laugh a bit as I just recently heard of Vampire Weekend due to a co-worker constantly playing their CD on repeat in the next cubicle over.. Some of their songs can become irritating after the 32nd time.

Anyway, it looks like Guitar Hero has a nice selection of DLC for us to eat up this month. Check out the specific track lists below!

The New Blues Masters Track Pack – 360 and Wii – 1/7, PS3 – 1/21

• Joe Bonamassa – “Lonesome Road Blues”
• Tyler Bryant – “Who I Am”
• Scott McKeon – “Broken Man”

Vampire Weekend Track Pack – 360/Wii/PS3 – 1/14

• Vampire Weekend – “Holiday”
• Vampire Weekend – “Cousins”
• Vampire Weekend – “The Kids Don’t Stand A Chance”

Metal Track Pack – 360/Wii/PS3 – 1/23

• Shadows Fall – “Still I Rise”
• Dethklok – “Laser Cannon Deth Sentence”
• Amon Amarth – “Twilight of the Thunder God”

Credence Clearwater Revival Track Pack – 360/Wii/PS3 – 1/23

• Credence Clearwater Revival – “Proud Mary”
• Credence Clearwater Revival – “Bad Moon Rising”
• Credence Clearwater Revival – “Travelin’ Band”

All of the songs will be available on Guitar Hero DLC in track packs or individually via your console of choice. The tracks are all normally priced at around $2 a song and $5.50 for a pack.

Looks as if Harmonix is definitely listening to its fans with this most recent update to the Rock Band 2 software for PS3.

The Lead Designer of Rock Band 2, Dan Teasdale, posted a blog post about the updates mentioning that many of the updates were fan suggestions and common feature requests.

The update will be available this thursday on the PS3.

This patch includes the following updates to your Rock Band 2 for PS3 Software.

• “Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song. Each star rating gets a category, as well as an “Unplayed” category for songs that don’t have a star rating recorded. Finally, you can record your progress towards gold starring every song in your library!
• Improved “Sort by Stars” fix: Players will not have to beat a previous high score to record a star rating for their songs.
• Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.
• Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.
• Rock Band Network Store Support: When the Rock Band Network goes live, select songs will be available for PlayStation 3 users through a new storefront available in game. Stay tuned for more information closer to the launch of RBN!
• SingStar Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports the SingStar Wireless Microphones currently available through Europe! Finally, you can now have a fully wireless Rock Band experience on your PlayStation 3!