Guitar Hero 3 News

High profile games such as BioShock and Heavenly Sword usually have both demos and trailers. If you bought either game (or both, for that matter), which would you say was the selling point - the trailer you watched, or the demo you played?

According to a new study by the Electronic Entertainment Design and Research Group (EEDAR), gamers are more likely to buy games if publishers only release trailers for it. So Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has the right idea?

The study suggests that studios shouldn’t release a demo, and should only release trailers if they want to sell more games. Their data (images above) show that trailer-only games sell, far and away, more than games that have demos, or both trailers and demos.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that studios should do away with demos. There are some games that just do better with demos than they do with trailers. But that’s just one guy’s opinion. What do you guys think?

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Microsoft gets the upper hand in Europe with the release of Rock Band. Harmonix announced a few days ago that the Xbox 360 version will arrive in Europe on May 23. PlayStation 3, PS2, and Wii gamers have to wait a bit longer though.

According to Electronic Arts, the release date for the Sony and Nintendo platforms in Europe is on August 29, making the game an Xbox 360 exclusive for a good three months. On the other hand, Xbox 360 gamers will have to wait for longer before they’ll see deals and discounts for the game.

Europe gamers will have to endure a higher price for the game than the US version because of VAT and shipping. While we’ll naturally see prices go down over time, it’s not likely we’ll see it go down anytime before (and a good time after) the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions come out.

Buy: [Rock Band (PS3)]
Buy: [Rock Band (Wii)]

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Kim Krogh, the game director of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC) Fragile Alliance mode recently spoke about the new, free downloadable content (DLC) called The Dope Bag which is slated for an April 17 release on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network.

Perhaps the biggest announcement regarding The Dope Bag is the fact that it will be released with a software update for some of the issues in the original game. This includes the connectivity problems and bugs players have been complaining about. In addition, friendly fire between re-spawned players have also been removed which nerfs one of the more annoying online tactics found in the game.

Achievement junkies will be pleased to know that The Dope Bag will have additional achievement points. While Krogh didn’t give any specifics on this, it probably isn’t too much to wait until April 17 to find out.

Unlike downloadable content for other games, the developers provided this content for free. Krogh explained their stand on this, stating that they just wanted to support the fans of Kane & Lynch:

People have already paid for the disc, and have been asking for extra maps for a very long time. I find providing the DLC for free, a super cool way to keep the characters and the game alive.

Finally, the question of why the new maps were restricted to the Fragile Alliance mode was also answered by Krogh. According to him, “it would simply not fit the Kane and Lynch characters to add a few extra maps with some out-of-context rescue mission.”

Well, we’ve still got a couple of days until The Dope Bag goes live. We know how slowly time will be creeping for gamers anxiously waiting for the update, so to help tide you guys over, here’s a little trailer of the DLC in action:

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Sony has announced that there will be a scheduled maintenance for the PlayStation Network. The network - including the PlayStation Store - will be offline on April 14, 2008 from 8 AM PST until 11 PM PST of the same day. The announcement notes that “it is not anticipated that this will affect other PlayStation Network services.”

During the scheduled maintenance, upgrades to the PlayStation Store will finally take place, bringing new content and aesthetic and operational changes. The revamped PlayStation Store will be launched on April 15, but before users can access the store, they will first be prompted to update their Sony PS3 firmware to 2.30.

Sony has already announced the changes and features that the new PlayStation 3 firmware will give us, namely DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio features for Blu-ray movies. In our previous report about these changes to be included in PS3 firmware 2.30, we were also treated by Sony to a short video showing the revamped PlayStation Store.

Check back for updates on the PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Store.

Thanks to PolishPride212 for the tip!

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