Category: Puzzled Over

Strange, odd, or otherwise WTF.

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Puzzled Over

MTV To Buy Out Harmonix

[New York Times reporting](http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/business/media/22mtv.html):

>MTV, the cable TV channel some critics have accused of straying too far from its musical roots, is to acquire Harmonix Music Systems, a maker of music-oriented video games, for $175 million in cash.

Harmonix, of course, are the programmers behind Guitar Hero, Karaoke Revolution, Frequency, and Amplitude.

This is not an entirely unexpected move – MTV has had its own line of mostly-crap music games for years – but is at least odd in the sense that we now have RedOctane/Activision on one side, and Harmonix/MTV on the other.

Interesting times indeed.

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Puzzled Over

RedOctane Gets Nasty

Gamespot [is reporting](http://www.gamespot.com/news/6157917.html?part=rss&tag=gs_news&subj=6157917) that RedOctane and Activision are doing something that seems mighty familiar:

>Last month, RedOctane and new parent company Activision filed suit against The Ant Commandos, a Chino, California-based company selling a lineup of wired and wireless guitar controllers for use with the PlayStation 2 edition of Guitar Hero. The developer and publisher of Guitar Hero allege that The Ant Commandos are guilty of a litany of offenses, including unfair competition, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair and deceptive trade practices, false advertising, unjust enrichment, and more. The suit also names Hong Lip Yow as a defendant, saying The Ant Commandos is a shell company and that for all intents and purposes, he and the company are one and the same.

There’s something really, really hilarious to have RedOctane – a company that built its initial fortune on making 3rd party controllers for basically every Konami music game – suing another company for making 3rd party controllers. Base level irony. It is, as some would say, a hoot. A fucking hoot.

(This is ignoring the amount of inspiration In The Groove took from Dance Dance Revolution, and ignoring the amount of inspiration Guitar Hero took from Guitar Freaks. And don’t take this as a statement of which game is better in either case.)

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Puzzled Over

Okay, Seriously, Who The Hell Is This?

Okay, Seriously, Who The Hell Is This

I’m in Neighborhoodies today at the Seaport, waiting while Katie’s getting something. I wander over and am staring at the wall of polaroids they have, all showing people wearing their creations.

Then I see this one, and I nearly shouted a surprised obscenity. (For those outside the Bemani community, Bad Boy Bass is an awesome song from Beatmania IIDX.)

So, anyone want to fess up to this awesomeness?