Today's round-up includes news of Red Octane releasing a wireless
Guitar Hero controller for the PlayStation 2, Jack Thompson's ire for
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and Chris Kramer leaving SOE for Capcom USA, as well as the latest Game Career Guide updates, GameSetWatch posts and Gamasutra job postings.
- Representatives from
Guitar Hero publisher, and recent Activision acquisition, Red Octane announced that the company will release a wireless guitar controller for its popular
Guitar Hero and upcoming
Guitar Hero II for the PlayStation 2. The wireless guitar controller will be available starting in November and will cost $59.99. Speaking with Red Octane, company representatives told Gamasutra that the initial run of the new controller (which will come in a white glossy finish) will be limited, and is expected to sell out quickly.
- On the heels of lawyer Jack Thompson's
struggles against Rockstar and its recently released
Bully, the anti-game crusader has issued a cease-and-desist letter to major publisher and developer Midway Games concerning the company's recently shipped
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. In a letter sent by Thompson to Midway, and copied to politically minded video game site
GamePolitics, the lawyer noted that the fighting game “contains an unauthorized commercial exploitation of my name, photograph, image, and likeness,” and that Midway was “commanded to cease and desist immediately from the distribution of this game because of this unauthorized, illegal content...” Interestingly it appears the image in question, detailed on enthusiast site Gaming Target, is based not on in-game content, but rather on a player designed character created using
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon's “Kreate a Fighter” mode.
- According to information received by Gamasutra and further confirmed by a report on consumer game site GameSpot, Sony Online Entertainment's Chris Kramer has left the company to join Capcom USA in an executive role as senior director of corporate communications. Kramer was the long-time Director of Public Relations for SOE, and is part of a continued restructuring at Capcom which recently saw THQ licensing exec Germaine Gioia
move across to the Japanese-headquartered publisher.
- The latest updates on Gamasutra sister alt.gaming weblog GameSetWatch include
a look at the tabletop game Carcassonne, info on
soundtracks to imaginary games, and
articles from the JumpButton game culture magazine.
- Posts on Gamasutra-related education site
Game Career Guide include information on
the 'Beginning Math Concepts for Game Developers' book, as well as a feature
discussing school choices for those wanting to get into games.
- Also updated today: the
latest Gamasutra job postings, including openings from Activision, Clairvoyant Systems, Datascope Recruitment, Destineer, Incinerator Studios, NaturalMotion, PlayFirst, Sucker Punch Productions, and TimeGate Studios.
