Play! Concerts Expand, To Feature Kondo, Uematsu

The organizers of the PLAY! series of video game concerts have announced both an expansion of their concert series, which is now coming to multiple U.S. cities, Canada, and Europe, as well as some notable special guests for certain stops on this summer's tour. The full line-up for the concert series, which is produced by JMP Productions, and was originally announced last November, now includes stops Chicago, Stockholm, Philadelphia, Vienna (Virginia) and Toronto this summer. In addition, it's been announced that Nintendo video game composer Koji Kondo is going to attend the world premiere of PLAY! A Video Game Symphony on May 27, 2006, in Chicago at the Rosemont Theatre. His attendance apparently includes "some exciting surprises for his fans", and the concert series overall will include exclusive arrangements of the Super Mario Bros and Legend Of Zelda series, originally composed by Koji Kondo. It's also been confirmed that former Square composer Nobuo Uematsu will attend the Chicago evennt, and music from the upcoming Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon, which is scored by Uematsu, will be performed exclusively for the first time there. In addition, the presentation of Blue Dragon at the concert will include never before seen visuals from the Xbox 360 title.