July 12th, 2008

Rock Band…Disturbed!

Developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games, and distributed by EA Distribution, Rock Band is one of those video games I'd kill for. Currently, the only thing keeping me away from it is the fact that Rock Band is only available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, and the Wii, but I will take care of that, I have no worries for the future. Sooner or later, I'll have to get a game console, no matter how much I despised this idea in the past.

Anyway, today we won't talk about how cool Rock Band may be, because there are some problems we should know about - Konami is suing Harmonix, Viacom and MTV Networks. Well, here we have the disturbed Rock Band...or Rock Band disturbed, whatever, because I am sure this is not something to overlook for the targeted companies.

According to the complaint filed yesterday in Marshall, Texas, Konami is trying to get cash compensation and an order to block Viacom and Harmonix from using the peripherals included in the game, since its 2002 and 2003 patents covered simulated musical instruments, as well as a "musical-rhythm matching game."

I know the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series are better known to the gaming community, but Konami also has its own Guitar Freaks series, first released back in 1999 in arcades, and then moved to PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Anyway, the conclusion is...there's no conclusion yet, since Viacom has yet to receive a complaint from Konami, so there's nothing else to say, for now.