GIN INC JOURNAL

Activision has formally announced DJ Hero, a Guitar Hero-esque game where players create original song mixes using a new custom turntable controller.

Although games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are certainly popular, not everyone wants to sling a six-string or try to win points fake-shredding along to old fogey dinosaur rock. Darnit, some music has moved on from the 1950s tech of electric guitars: where's the hip-hop, the modern r&b, the house, the electronica? Where's the popping and scratching and the DJ with the turntables?

Game publisher Activision is looking to tap into that market, and has formally announced DJ Hero, a long-rumored expansion on the Guitar Hero franchise. Although Activision has released few details, the game will use a new custom turntable controller and enable users to act as DJ's who dominate the club scene with their original mixes of popular songs and music from popular recording artists and DJs. DJ Hero will feature music from multiple genres—including r&b, hip-hop, Motown, dance, and electronica—and promised to bring Guitar Hero's "social gaming" to whole new audiences.

Activision hasn't announced any release dates for DJ Hero, but industry watchers expect it to be available in time for the end-of-year holiday season.

Activision has also announced two new installments in the Guitar Hero franchise: Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero. Guitar Hero 5 will feature contemporary and classic rock tracks, and enable players to drop in and out of songs as well as change band members, instruments, and difficulty levels as they play. Band Hero will aim at the family audience, with an E10+ rating and a soundtrack compared of mainly Top 40 hits. Users will be able to play together (at different difficulty levels) using guitar, drums, bass, and a microphone.

The description of the game Baby Shaker in the iPhone App Store read:

"On a plane, on the bus, in a theater. Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be! They're always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it. See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!"


Shaking the iPhone would eventually bring red Xs over the baby’s eyes. You won. In fairness, it came with a warning never to shake a baby. The app for the phone, from Sikalosoft, cost 99 cents, and went on sale on Monday. On Wednesday it was removed after being noted by the Krapps website and receiving protests, including one from Sarah Jane Brain Project, one of whose founders, Patrick Donahue, wrote to Steve Jobs and Apple:

"As the father of a three-year-old who was shaken by her baby nurse when she was only five days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury, words cannot describe my reaction."

Apple withdrew the game and issued a statement saying:

"This application was deeply offensive and should not have been approved for distribution on the App Store."

"We sincerely apologize for this mistake and thank our customers for bringing this to our attention."

There was no comment from the game developer.

The question, of course, is how it came to be approved. It’s not long since Apple was almost Puritanical in its outlook, even rejecting an app that made farting noises, but of late it had relaxed a little.

Last last year, Nintendo announced a partnership with Japan's largest advertising agency Dentsu to bring a video distribution service to the Wii gaming console. Now, industry reports have Nintendo getting set to launch the service on May 1 in Japan under the name "Wii no Ma Channel"—and, reportedly, the service will include support for the Nintendo DSi handheld as well.

Nintendo's original plan had been to offer original content for the service, rather than redistributing existing television or movie programming, with an emphasis on family-oriented content. The Wi no Ma Channel will appear on-screen like a family room, where Mii avatars can congregate. The service will offer both free and paid-for content (although no specific titles have been announced yet). Perhaps more interestingly, the Wii no Ma Channel will also extend to the Nintendo DSi handheld via an application called "Dokodemo Wii no Ma" (roughly, "Wii no Ma Anywhere"), which will enable users to download video from the Wii to the DSi for portable viewing. Users will also be able to download sponsor coupons—say, for a fast food restaurant—that can be scanned from the DSI screen when a user wants to redeem it.

Nintendo has not announced any plans to launch a Wii video service outside Japan.