Poor Jimi, he must be twisting and puffing in his grave right about now, to see what became of his musical legacy. As it turns out on CBC News (via Eurogamer), two of his songs - "The Wind Cries Mary" and a live version of "Purple Haze" - will be playable in the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour game, when it's released this autumn. And more will be added through downloads at a later time.

On the other hand, it was about time! Having several Guitar Hero games without the legendary Jimi Hendrix was a bit of a paradox. Even though, as EG points out, a cover of "Spanish Castle Magic" was previously featured in the series' first installment, and Guitar Hero III also had an avatar which looked a lot like him. Now, at last, he's officially denigrated.


Hey Joe, where you goin' with that Guitar Hero peripheral in your hand

And yet again, Mr. Kotick blows me up. Almost literally. Not only does Blizzard already have an extremely successful milking cow (actually, they have more of those, but one in particular here has 10 million subscribers), but the company will try, with the soon to be released Starcraft 2, to increase their earnings even further. Much further.

You’ve probably heard about in-game advertising, and if you didn’t you should be shot in a leg. Well, Kotick (which, for those of you who didn’t read the last Activision/Blizzard related news regarding a future CoD MMO, is Activision’s CEO), stated loud and clear that, although advertising in games hasn’t been a successful business yet (but sure as hell will be), his company is eyeing, while also salivating like a true Pavlovian dog, the big bucks that could come out if they implement it in Starcraft 2.

So prepare yourself for some nice Coca-Cola banners, while you try to take over Aiur, or whatever other planet hasn’t been yet obliterated by the Zerg. I’m feeling a bit sad right now.

"[Blizzard] has been thinking about how StarCraft, because it is a short-session experience, can actually be the model for in-game advertising and sponsorship and tournament play and ladder play for the future,"

IGN scoop.

There I was, getting my hopes (and other things) up that Blizzard will be allowed to carry on with its own franchises, after the merger with Activision will be complete. Well, me and the others who thought about that were tremendously stupid, to say the least.

Having a nice chat with some hungry for gossip analysts, Bobby Kotick, Activision’s almighty CEO, pointed out the “possibility” that Call of Duty, Infinity Wards’ awesome FPS, could receive the MMO treatment in a near future.

He started by taking a look at the MMO market as we see it today, and what he saw was a bit grim: after the dreaded World of Warcraft launch, most other companies that tried to fit in the market only managed low-selling titles, canceled titles, or failing titles. Of course, with some little exceptions. Now Kotick looks down into Blizzard’s yard, hoping that his team(s) will learn a good deal from their veterans, plus the fact that Activision has a chance to “borrow” some of Blizzard’s subscriber base.

In short, Kotick kinda said: “Fuck Blizzard’s projects, ours are more important.”

Which would explain why the vast majority of MMOs in recent years were relative failures, and why the situation won't change much for those upcoming hot-shots, either (I'm not giving names... *cough*). After all, who on Earth is so filthy rich to afford spending up to $1 billion, just to make a WoW-killer MMO, instead of buying a couple of African countries and playing a real-life war-game.

The billion-dolar figure was estimated by Activision's CEO, Bobby Kotick speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium 2008 Conference this Tuesday, as reported by GI.biz.

"We don't think that even if we made the USD 500 million or billion-dollar investment to get a product out [to compete with WOW] that we would even be successful doing it. (...) When you... Look at all the money that's already gone to these businesses that have failed (ed. - EA, Microsoft, Sony & co.), there didn't seem a likelihood that even a well-managed company like Activision would have the prospect for profit any time soon in this category."

When you look at it that way, Activision were really the smartest guys around. Honestly, why spend a crapload of money and waste people's time trying to develop a WoW-killer, when you can just merge with Vivendi-aka-Blizzard-aka-WoW itself. Kind of makes you wonder how much Funcom is investing in Age of Onan...

For every guitar that Fender throws on the market, there is an idiot thinking he’s the next Yngwie Malmsteen. And it seems that, from now on, for every fucking Guitar Hero game released, there will be a band that will take advantage of it. Rumor has it that there will be no less than four Guitar Hero titles emerging in 2008, the first being dedicated to all-time favorite (not mine, but hey, I don’t hate them or anything) rock band, Aerosmith.

The game will be released this summer, more exactly in June, and will give the fans a chance to follow in the footsteps of their beloved idols, from the time they were a bunch of kiddies dreaming of greater glory, right until they got showered in cash and began to afford about any hooker they could lay their eyes upon. It seems that only Joe Perry, Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton will be “playable” characters here, with Stevie-boy and Kramer-kun deciding to pass this one out.

To start all things straight (not that we would ever question their sexual orientation in any way), the ladies at Activision will be providing Guitar Hero III owners with Aerosmith’s hit “Dream On”, starting today, with the possibility of download being available until February 18. That means you have just about two days to get your hands on it.

So, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be available in June for all the platforms, developed by Neversoft (PS3, X360), Vicarious Visions (Wii), and Budcat Creations (PS2). Rock on, or something.

1UP scoop.

- Red Faction III was confirmed during THQ's latest investors call. Exactly one year after CEO Brian Farrell practically said the same thing. Only this time, we know with relative certainty that it's developed for the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360. By Volition, duh.

- Steam reaches 15 million accounts. For some odd reason, players keep making new accounts after getting their asses banned, or forget their password. Or username.

- Activision confirmed various sequels for their top franchises, from Call of Duty, to Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Bond and other kiddie games. Or we could've just said "Activision confirms Call of Duty 5", since we don't give a crap about any of the others.

- The Club demo is out of for the PC. So is the full game, but only on the PS3 and Xbox 360 momentarily. Good luck clearing 2 GB for the demo!

- "We at EA blew it" (with Bullfrog, Origin and Westwood). No, you didn't blow it. You fucked it up. You fucked it up!

- Okami Wii is completely playable by now, but Capcom is still not giving a firm release date. March? Maybe. By the way, this game should've been made for the Wii from head start.

- StarCraft II and WoW: Wrath of the Lich King also playable, if you can hold your breath until the end of June, and find your way inside Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational event from Paris.