Courtney Love also speaks out, but game's publisher claims she agreed to the use of Cobain's likeness.By James Montgomery

Nirvana's Kurt Cobain Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

To those who grew up idolizing the man and his music, the news that late, lamented Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain would appear as an unlockable character in "Guitar Hero 5"  one that strikes rock-star poses and rocks out to Bon Jovi tracks, mind you  seemed particularly disrespectful to his legacy, not to mention a tad bit ghastly.

Now, imagine how you'd feel if you were his widow, his former bandmates or his friend.

Because over the past week, all those people  Courtney Love (who, in addition to being Cobain's widow and the mother of his child, is also the arbiter of his estate), Nirvana's Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and author/friend Everett True  have weighed in on the subject, each expressing their disgust at the way Cobain's likeness is used in the game and some even threatening legal action against its publisher, Activision.

It all started when True  author of "Nirvana: The Biography" and the man who, as legend has it, introduced Cobain to Love in 1991 at a Butthole Surfers gig  published a profanity-laced missive about the game on his blog and accused Love and Grohl of sanctioning the use of Cobain's likeness.

Love responded to True's claims via her Twitter account, writing that she "never signed of [sic]" on Activision's use of Cobain's likeness in the game and threatened to sue the publisher for "breach of contract" (she also took more than a few potshots at Grohl, writing, "If there's a hell, he's going. I'm not").

"For the record, this 'Guitar Hero' sh-- is breach of contract on a bully's part, and there will be a proper addressing of this," Love wrote. "We are going to sue the sh-- out of Activision. 'We' being the Trust, the Estate, the LLC and the various LLCs of Cobain Enterprises."

Of course, this drew a response from Activision itself, who, in a statement released Thursday (September 10), denied Love's claims and said they had attained all the necessary agreements to feature Cobain in the game.

"Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain's likeness as a fully playable character in 'Guitar Hero 5,' " the statement read.

And, in an interview with the U.K.'s Guardian, Activision Vice President Tim Riley took it one step further, saying Love was "great to work with" and "supplied us with videos and photos [of Cobain]" for use in the game.

"She picked the wardrobe and the hairstyle, which turned out to be the 'Teen Spirit' look, then we went back and forth over changes  some subtle, some not so subtle," Riley told the paper. "[Love wanted] a sort of athletic definition, but not overly so."

And finally, late Thursday night, Grohl and Novoselic waded into the fray, releasing a joint statement that said that while they were disappointed by the entire situation, they had no control over the use of Cobain's likeness in the "Guitar Hero" game. But they did ask Activision to make amends by "re-locking" the Cobain character.

"We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the 'Guitar Hero' game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate  we have no control whatsoever in that area," the statement read. "While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future.

"It's hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists' music alongside cartoon characters," the statement continued. "Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better."

A spokesperson for Activision has not responded to MTV News' request for comment on Grohl and Novoselic's statement.

For more on "Guitar Hero 5," check out Multiplayer.MTV.com.

• Nirvana

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1621271

Three-song pack, including 'Know Your Enemy,' will be available July 7 through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.By Russ Frushtick

Green Day Photo: Marina Chavez

After several non-denial denials and premature band reveals, Harmonix and MTV Games announced Thursday (June 11) that Green Day music will be coming exclusively to "Rock Band."

Available July 7 through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, the first Green Day release on "Rock Band" will be a three-song pack taken from their latest album, 21st Century Breakdown. The songs will include "21 Guns," "Know Your Enemy" and "East Jesus Nowhere." Future releases are planned, but details on those remain hush-hush.

Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong seems pretty pumped about the project: "We are excited to be working with MTV and Harmonix. They are leaders and visionaries in the world of music and video games, and 'Rock Band' is a really cool way for fans of all ages to experience our music."

This will be the first time Green Day songs will be playable in a music or rhythm game. Up until now, die-hard fans have been forced to create hacked versions of the songs and add them to modded versions of "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" (a practice that isn't exactly encouraged by the games' developers or artists).

This isn't the first time "Rock Band" has managed to wrangle exclusive big-name artists. "The Beatles: Rock Band," which launches in September, will be the first time music from the Fab Four will be featured in a rhythm and music game.

For more "Rock Band" news, check out Multiplayer.MTV.com.

Game's trailer features Young Jeezy, but track list has not been announced.By Russ Frushtick

Young Jeezy Photo: Frank Micelotta/ Getty Images

Wonder how you stack up against Jay-Z, Mos Def and Dr. Dre? Good news: You'll get your chance with the upcoming release of "Def Jam Rapstar" from 4mm Games later this year.

The title will let you step behind the mic and perform karaoke hits from Def Jam recording artists.

Speaking with IGN, 4mm CEO Nicholas Perrett mentioned the goals for the game and whom they're designing it for. "I think, at the highest level, we're trying to make a game that appeals to a very broad audience of anyone who has really enjoyed hip-hop music at any point in the last 30 years."

Perrett went on to describe some of the features that will be revealed at next week's E3 Expo, saying that gamers will be able to continue the playing even after they've finished the song, and that there will be a strong community following behind the title to ensure that it has a long lifespan.

The partnership with the record label opens up a lot of possibilities, as well. "Def Jam means hip-hop. And I think it goes right to the core of why we're in partnership with Def Jam  why hasn't anyone made this game yet?  all comes back to, it's difficult, because there's only a few people who could probably pull it off."

The song list is, unfortunately, still unconfirmed, but a new trailer for "Def Jam Rapstar" on IGN featured Young Jeezy's "Put On." It's important to note that it won't just be new artists featured in the game. Perrett said, "If I had a grandma who was into a particular type of hip-hop song, I want to know that I've got that as much as the one that my 14-year-old nephew is listening to."

There's no word yet on how the game will actually play, but we're going to be getting a closer look at the title at E3 next week, so stay tuned.

For more video game news check out our gaming blog at Multiplayer.MTV.com.

• Young Jeezy
• Jay-Z
• Mos Def
• Dr. Dre

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1612381

Visuals from the upcoming game were played on huge screens during Paul McCartney's set.By Stephen Totilo

Paul McCartney performs at Coachella on Friday Photo: Kevin Mazur/MPL/WireImage

In a world of shaky cams and YouTube, what happens on a rock-concert stage is going to reach the world.

Over the weekend, the first video game footage from "The Beatles: Rock Band" debuted in massive fashion as legendary Beatles bassist Paul McCartney rocked through a set with his band at California's Coachella music festival.

The footage spread across the Internet, first as a rumor that the visuals behind McCartney were a hint of this September's MTV-backed "Rock Band" spin-off. Later came confirmation on McCartney's Web site that this was, indeed, the most unusually staged debut of video game footage ever.

A post on the site read: "It was a night of firsts and was the unexpected, unannounced world premiere of the images from the coming Beatle 'Rock Band' game, which played on vast screens throughout 'Got to Get You Into My Life.' "

The footage looked like the background visuals one sees in a "Rock Band" game. The members of the Beatles sang and played with vintage instruments in their hands and period clothes on their backs. The footage probably isn't exactly what players of the game will see when they play "The Beatles: Rock Band." It did not show the signature scrolling-note highways that players need to stare at to know which buttons to press on their guitars, pads to hit on their drums or words to sing.

MTV Games and development studio Harmonix have released no official video of the game.

The Coachella footage was the second incident in two months that suggests major music game news will be breaking during concerts throughout the year. Activision's "DJ Hero," a long-rumored project, proved to be much more official in March when a banner for the game was hung behind DJ Shadow's set at South by Southwest.

"The Beatles: Rock Band" will be released for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii on September 9. For more information, check out the game's site.

Check out the Multiplayer blog, updated daily, for even more gaming coverage.

• M.I.A., The Killers, Lupe Fiasco, More At Coachella 2009

• The Beatles

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1609590

Gamers, 'GTA' publisher Take Two and GameStop weigh in on what went wrong with the DS game.By Stephen Totilo

"Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" Photo: Rockstar

Sometimes it snows in July. Sometimes men bite dogs. And sometimes a new "Grand Theft Auto" appears to flop.

"Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars," the best-reviewed game in the five-year history of the Nintendo DS, is now being labeled by some gamers and critics as a sales disappointment. The game, developed by "GTA" series creators Rockstar Games, sold 89,000 units in the U.S. between its March 17 launch and April 4, the end of the first monthly reporting period for the game's sales tracked by the NPD group.

That compares to 805,000 units of "Pokémon Platinum" sold on the DS by Nintendo from its March 22 launch through April 4. It's also far lower than the 2.85 million copies that "Grand Theft Auto IV" sold, according to NPD, in that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game's first month on the market back in April 2008. The DS has sold 100 million units worldwide, including 6 million in the U.S. just since October.

What went wrong for "Chinatown Wars"?

The game's publisher, Take Two Interactive, doesn't publicly state that there's a problem. "We're confident in the game, and we think it has long-term potential for success," company spokesman Alan Lewis told MTV News. "We're trying to pioneer mature games on the platform."

Lewis dismissed comparisons to the kid-targeted "Pokémon," instead casting "Chinatown Wars" against the handful of other M-rated games released on a system that is commonly associated with children and moms. He said "Chinatown Wars" outperformed those other M-rated DS games at launch and is already the second-best-selling M-rated game on the platform.

That may make "Chinatown Wars" a success compared to "Dementium: The Ward" or the DS version of "Resident Evil," but it doesn't compare to the performance of portable "GTA" games on Sony's PSP. The first "GTA" on that platform, "Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories," sold more than a million units in its first year. Earlier this year, Sony's head of marketing for the PSP, John Koller, told MTV News that putting a "GTA" out on the DS "raises some eyebrows in a lot of areas."

MTV asked gamers why they might have refrained from buying the game. Through Twitter and our gaming blog, they blamed rampant DS piracy, the game being too big or not as visually stimulating as the Xbox 360 and PS3 "GTA" games, or simply not getting around to buying the game yet.

Among the replies was a comment from a reader posting under the name Sting Wolf, who dismissed the piracy issue and focused on marketing and development issues, which resulted in "Chinatown Wars" looking more like the less-popular original "GTA" games than the ones that have been global phenomena this decade: "It couldn't possibly have been the fact that the reason GTA completely blew up in popularity [in 2001] was its shift to 3D [graphics] in GTA3," he wrote sarcastically. "And those same people who loved that won't necessarily enjoy the 2D format of old. It also couldn't possibly have been the fact that there's little-to-no market for M-rated games on Nintendo systems anymore. ... I look forward to the day when this [piracy] excuse is removed from everyone's mind and industry execs can get back to taking blame for bad marketing decisions themselves, instead of looking for others to blame."

There are plenty of other possible reasons for the performance of "Chinatown Wars." It could be "GTA" burnout. It was released just a month after "Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned," the Xbox 360-exclusive "GTA IV" expansion that was heavily promoted on TV and looks more like the "GTA" games the public recognizes. ("I don't think one has to do with the other," Lewis said.) It could be that a 2-D "GTA" game just doesn't show well in ads and TV commercials.

The nation's biggest gaming retail chain expressed confidence in the title. " 'GTA: Chinatown Wars' is exceeding our expectations and illustrating the power of the franchise on a new platform," GameStop spokesman Chris Olivera said in an e-mail to MTV News. "We've seen a solid lift in sales of 'Chinatown Wars' following the launch of the DSi and believe that the product will continue to enjoy a long life at our stores as the buzz around the new handheld gaming experience continues to grow." Nintendo's DSi model of the DS platform was released a day after NPD's sales-tracking window for March.

The one thing no one seems to be able to knock "Chinatown Wars" for is the game's quality. It received rave reviews, including from MTV.

Last month, Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, told MTV News that the DS demographics shouldn't doom the fortunes of M-rated games, including "Chinatown Wars": "We certainly believe that there's an 18-and-above consumer opportunity with DS, just as we believe there's an 18-and-above consumer opportunity with Wii."

Take Two still expects a long-term success from its "GTA" DS debut. Can it get there? For the first time in a long time, the triumph of a "Grand Theft Auto" is not a sure thing.

Check out the Multiplayer blog, updated daily, for even more gaming coverage.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1609501

Designer Alan Flores tells head-bangers how to best play the new game, in Multiplayer.

Photo: Activision

• Metallica

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1608113

The Multiplayer blog has Take Two's full list of games for the company's fiscal year.

Photo: Rockstar Games

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1606752

Game set for release on 9/9/09.

Photo: MTV News

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1606357

'50 Cent: Blood on the Sand' is out Tuesday on Xbox 360 and PS3.By Stephen Totilo

50 Cent Photo: MTV News

NEW YORK  This week, 50 Cent's big game is a gun-filled adventure in the desert. Next time? It could be a special G-Unit version of "Tetris."

The hip-hop icon talked to MTV News in the G-Unit offices near Madison Square Garden about "50 Cent: Blood on the Sand," out today on Xbox 360 and PS3.

You may think of 50 Cent first as a rapper, but the man's life is now filled with video games, including titles of his own. First there was "50 Cent Bulletproof," then a PSP spin-off and now "Blood on the Sand." The latest takes 50 to a Middle Eastern-looking city to chase down a crystal skull that's been stolen from him and his crew. The new game has 18 unreleased 50 tracks, plus hits from several G-Unit and 50 albums and a score from Swizz Beatz.

"The game is an intense experience," 50 said. It was developed by the British studio Swordfish, but it's 50 who came up with the skull bit. "The crystal skull actually exists," he said. "It's a diamond, an artifact. I saw it in a magazine in Dubai. I took it and said, 'Make this what they're after.' "

Video games are everywhere for 50. He's got video games on the tour bus, an Xbox 360 in the front and a PS3 in the back. He doesn't play them as much as the rest of the G-Unit. They're giving the PS3 more time than the 360 lately because they just got it. They're playing lots of sports games.

He's got the games he battles Eminem in. "We have different versions of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and regular Pac-Man in Detroit, in the studio where me and Em record at," 50 said. "We sit there and we pride ourselves on who actually has the higher score on those games."

Eminem has the advantage on 50 right now. "He cheats because he's developed the patterns and sh-- ... After a while you get enough time playing it and you develop these strategies and patterns in the actual game and it's kind of like cheating. I don't get as much time to play in the arcade game."

50's got a lot of video games he wants to make after "Blood on the Sand." You might be surprised at what he's thinking about: "I'd like to be a part of developing, marketing and promoting a game I'm not actually in," he said. "It could be like Tetris. It's one of my favorite games."

He's even got games in his beefs. His video for "I'll Be the Shooter" amps up his beef with Rick Ross thanks in part to the inclusion of virtual firefights from "Blood on the Sand." Gaming as part of rap-battling? It broadens the means of expression, he said.

"So it's not misinterpreted that hip-hop is a negative art-form, I'll take it to somewhere where they can see a sense of humor and where it's productive at the same time."

However, that doesn't mean that 50's going to keep tying his games into his beefs. "I'm not sure, and if I tell you now, they'll be waiting for it. My whole thing is being unpredictable when it comes to each altercation or situation."

And let's not leave this out: He's got the video game he wants to turn into a movie. "I am actually optioning the rights to 'Saints Row' to do a movie about that game," 50 said, referring to the "Grand Theft Auto"-like series from "Blood on the Sand" publisher THQ.

Oh, and 50's got a Wii  we'll have more on that tomorrow on our MTV Multiplayer blog. But today, the game 50 most cares about is "50 Cent: Blood on the Sand," out on the Xbox 360 and PS3, rated M and the latest release in one of hip-hop's most powerful brands.

For more on "Blood on the Sand" and other video games, check out our gaming blog, Multiplayer.

• "50 Cent: Blood On The Sand" Screen Shots

• 50 Cent
• G-Unit
• Eminem
• Swizz Beatz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1605736

We have an exclusive clip from 'Ready 2 Rumble Revolution,' on the Multiplayer blog.

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1605539

'The End Is Nigh,' due out in March, serves as a prequel to the highly anticipated movie.

Photo: Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1604879

The setlist for the turntable video game also includes songs by the Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas and more.

Photo: Kevin Parry/ WireImage/ Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/games/video_games/news/story.jhtml?id=1604880