Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

This is it, soldiers. The day you’ve been anticipating has finally arrived. Okay, so maybe that’s a build up not deserved by the lowly Metal Gear Solid 4 Bluetooth headset, but seriously, we’ve been waiting ages for this thing to ship. Like, so long that the whole MGS4 aura has already come and gone. Those still firmly planted in Snake’s posse can choose to prove their fanhood by snagging this thing now for $39.98; if all goes well, it should be headed your way in a matter of business days. Over and out.

[Via LogicBuy]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

With all the incompatibility out there among Guitar Hero / Rock Band instruments, it’s a real treat to see something like this. The Director of Publisher Relations at SCEA has posted an update that promises compatibility between instruments and software for upcoming titles; for instance, Guitar Hero: World Tour’s guitars and drums will work with Rock Band 2 and Konami’s Rock Revolution software, and Rock Band 2’s guitar and drum set will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour and with Rock Revolution. Furthermore, the team is still “working hard to ensure compatibility between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles currently on the market,” though we are told that an announcement on that could surface “shortly.” Rock ‘n roll harmony, baby.

[Image courtesy of BeSportier]

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Filed under: Gaming

Alright, this is getting a little silly. First it was Gibson claiming that Rock Band and Guitar Hero violated a patent covering “simulating a musical performance,” and now Konami is suing Harmonix, Viacom, and MTV Game because Rock Band allegedly violates a similar set of patents covering “simulated musical instruments” and “musical rhythm-based matching games.” Filed in good ol’ Marshall, the suit seeks the big green in damages and an order preventing the sale of Rock Band’s instruments. Interestingly, Gamasutra noticed last year that the fine print on Activision’s Guitar Hero homepage says the game is covered by the Konami patents in question, so it appears that Activision’s managed to reach a licensing agreement with Konami — which, if true, doesn’t necessarily bode well for Harmonix and company. No one’s commenting yet, but we hear Harmonix’s lawyers are furiously punching in the old up-up-down-down trying to get this to go away.

Read - Wired article on the lawsuit
Read - Gamasutra article
Read - Konami’s complaint (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering simulated musical instruments (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical arcade machines (PDF)
Read - Konami patent covering musical game machines (PDF)

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Filed under: Gaming

The folks at Konami have been trolling the forums again, kids, and this time they’re fighting back. Reps from the game-maker have issued a statement on the company forum addressing the furor over the inflated cost of the forthcoming, limited edition Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle. According to Konami, the bumped up price ($600 for a 40GB version of the PS3, plus Dual Shock controller and MGS4 game) is due to the special material used to create the gunmetal gray system and controller casing. The company seems to take issue with the fact that some are calling it simply a “paint job,” and points out that the run of units is only 10,000, and the package also includes a version of the game with an extra disc of additional content. To put it another way: this is the deal of a lifetime!

[Via Wired]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Brilliant, just brilliant. As if Rock Band wasn’t living room clutter enough, Activision is busting out a drumset for Guitar Hero IV, and now Konami is getting in on the “pretending to play music” meme with its very own Rock Revolution title. If the oversaturation of incompatible music peripherals wasn’t enough to make you take pause, the janky-ass nature of Konami’s kit certainly might. Granted, there are more things to hit on Konami’s set, Rock Revolution allows you to improvise in between the proscribed hits, and doesn’t require that pesky kick drum until midway through its five difficulty levels, but MTV Multiplayer’s Patrick Klepek didn’t have too easy of a time hitting on it, while his buddy did a lot of plastic smashing attempting to improvise — not a promising start. Oh, what was that? We can play “Sk8er boi”? We take it all back, when can we buy?

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Gaming

Ha, seems our Japanese gaming overlords aren’t the only ones looking down the retail barrel at the limited edition gunmetal gray MGS4 PS3. Sony’s official Playstation.Blog is reporting that the MGS4 Limited Edition PS3 Hardware Bundle will be available exclusively from Konami.com for $600. For that you get a 40GB gunmetal PS3, matching DualShock 3 wireless controller, Metal Gear Online, an exclusive Blu-ray disc with 2-hours of additional content (making of documentary and look at Hideo Kojima’s production team) and of course the MGS4: Guns of the Patriots Limited Edition game. Pre-orders from the “very limited supply” begin on Monday the 19th. Best set your alarms.

[Via Playstation.Blog]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Trust us, we know how tough it is to count to 999 in our head while closing in on a cool thousand push-ups, so we could not be more excited to see Konami’s push-up counter. Okay, our entire team couldn’t hit 1,000 collectively in one sitting (okay, maybe so on a good day), but for those macho, macho men out there, this thing will certainly keep you motivated as you look to max one out and hop over to another. Feel free to start the chin-to-big red button-action as soon as you muster up ¥1,764 ($15) required to claim one of your own.

[Via TechDigest]

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