It seems not all real musicians appreciate plastic game controllers shaped like music instruments. While Aerosmith, Metallica and The Beatles are all getting their own music-based branded games, and hundreds of bands have been making some cash by selling songs via downloadable content from the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Chad Kroeger, the frontman for Canadian band Nickelback, isn’t so keen on the phenomenon:

“I feel like there’s not enough rock bands out there, especially when we go on the road. It’s tough to find other bands out there, because either they’re making a record, or they just got done touring. So kids: Start rock bands. Set down the Guitar Hero, learn how to play an actual guitar and start a band, because it’s hard to find more bands to put a solid rock-and-roll package together, to get out there. It’s getting harder and harder, but I think we’ve done it.”

Maybe no-one’s approached them to make loads of cash off of Guitar Hero? jk.

Bobby Kotick, head of Activision, has proclaimed his company’s dominance in the music rhythm genre by throwing some numbers around. During the recent Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York, Kotick revealed that, not only is the Guitar Hero franchise outselling Rock Band 6 to 1, they have many more people dedicated to the task of dominating that market. Kotick bellowed:

“We’re outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the world’s music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there. I would also say when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software, and so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category.” Right on, Bobby. Right on.

Source: Kotaku

The Ant Commandos (great name!), creators of wireless gaming peripherals, announced something new to add to their product line - Illuminated Drumsticks!

For use with drumming music games (Rock Band and probably the upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour), the sticks illuminate whenever you hit a surface - ‘flame red’ and ‘electric blue’ are your colour choices, at a RRP of $19.99 per pair (2AA batteries included). An extra feature is that the tip of the sticks are coated with silicon for noise reduction while playing. They’ve thought of everything!

These could be pretty cool…you don’t know until you try! Head over to www.theantcommandos.com for more information.

When you think of Brett Ratner you probably think of Rush Hour or X-Men 3. Apart from directing films Ratner has also been in charge of various music videos, including Mariah Carey’s latest single ‘Touch my Body.’

According to Variety, Ratner is looking to venture into the world of videogame movies. Since securing Activision as his first client for Brett Ratner Brands, Ratner has been involved in Guitar Hero/American Idol commercials. He also intergrated Guitar Hero III into the ‘Touch My Body’ music video.

“The games business is much more exciting than the movie business right now,” said Ratner. “I will be doing movies that come from videogames,” adding that he’ll now have “access to the Activision brain” and the people who create its games. He hopes this relationship with Activision will lead to film projects.