When bands leave their managers, there's usually a bitter aftertaste involved. In the case of old partners Harmonix and Activision, a similar predicament has risen. A royalty dispute concerning Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, PC) was taken to court but was quickly withdrawn. Details follow right after the jump.

Despite Activision's optimistic US$ 250 million sales estimate for the end of Q3 for fiscal year 2007, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter seems to think that the Santa Monica-based publisher's projections were a bit modest. In fact, Pachter believes that with last quarter's spillover success of Transformers: The Game and RedOctane's Guitar Hero II, Activision should expect to net a whole lot more.

A note entitled Encore: Activision Rocks the Quarter, Again authored by Pachter ran numbers for Guitar Hero II's sales estimates, and the guitar rhythm title has already gained a consolidated 3.5 million unit sales on both the Sony PlayStation 2 and Microsoft's Xbox 360, leading to at least US$ 270 million in gross sales.

Pachter does admit that the publisher's lineup has but a few big titles that could have warranted the throttled projection, but he does acknowledge that id Software's Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars and RedOctane's Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s would have uplifted the performance by some degree. Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PS3, Microsoft Windows PC) has yet to make landfall in North America, so it would contribute to Activision's Q4 sales.

Overall, the analyst pegs a more optimistic target of US$ 300 million (59% increase from last year's quarter performance) to be nabbed in sales for this quarter, due to a predicted 122% increase in sales for the publisher's current products. In a short note, Pachter added, "We think guidance is extremely conservative and recommend that investors opportunistically add to positions."

Looks like his confidence is placed, but investors may still have to ponder this one out.

In an official statement, Activision said that fans in Europe will have to wait until November 23 to get their hands on the game.

Despite this almost one-month gap between the North American and European launches of the game, RedOctane Europe General Manager Zach Fountain still sounded optimistic about the launch. He said:

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the first time the franchise has released simultaneously across multiple formats, so we're delighted to be able to confirm a single street date for all home consoles. The game introduces a host of innovations on each format - no matter what your console of choice.

Speaking of features, it was announced a couple of weeks ago that all guitar peripherals for Guitar Hero III are going to be wireless. The one for the Nintendo Wii is somewhat different compared to others though, as the Wiimote should be inserted inside the guitar. Aside from that, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock also sports co-op career mode, battle mode and a wide array of characters.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock will be available in North America this coming October 28 on the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and Windows PC platforms.

Axe and you shall receive (ok, that was an awful pun). But seriously, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii) gives everyone the chance to rock in style as they offer a customized KISS-themed guitar controller for the game.

Art Guitar is offering to produce limited editions of the AG Riff Master Guitar Controller, the official RedOctane "axe" for the game. These thematic controllers will be modded from actual guitars with the fret buttons and strum bar still intact. The strings will, of course, be removed to make way for players to jam to their heart's content.

The design for the body itself will feature the legendary band, KISS. Having spanned through all the incarnations of Guitar Hero, they make another encore performance for this latest iteration with their song, "Rock and Roll All Nite" in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The controller isn't without a hefty price tag attached to it however. This pretty little piece is priced at US$ 399 and Art Guitar is currently accepting pre-orders for it already. Also, for those looking into a little more variety, Art Guitar will be announcing more varied styles in the coming months.

 

2K Games' BioShock is still riding waves of success, being top pick for various gamers around the world. The Swedish are no exception either, for the first-person shooter from 2K Games Boston and Australia steals number one spot for their all platforms chart - well the Xbox 360 version, that is.

It also managed to squeeze through four popular PC, MMO games in the region, which include NCSoft's Guild Wars expansion Eye of the North, Creative Assembly's Medieval II: Total War expansion Kingdoms, and Blizzard Entertainment's two-hit combo - World of Warcraft and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade - in that order from second to fifth.

BioShock's Games for Windows version settled into sixth place, while Insomniac Games' Resistance: Fall of Man and Revolution Studios' Motorstorm also found a place in the top ten titles, having grabbed a solid seventh and eighth respectively. 

Counter-Strike 1: Anthology from Valve Software at ninth closed the PC game count to six in PC-dominated charts, while PS2 title Guitar Hero 2: Rock the 80's from RedOctane concluded the top ten games. In essence, Guild Wars: Eye of the North topped the PC list, Resistance: Fall of Man trumped the PS3 list, BioShock rocked the Xbox 360 chart, and Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Twilight Princess was king of the Wii mountain.

In the handheld scene, Nintendo's Pokemon Diamond was favored in the DS list, while WWE Smackdown vs RAW 2007 from THQ crushed competition in the PSP chart. Here's the top ten in the Swedish multi-format charts:

1. Bioshock (360)
2. Guild Wars Eye of the North (PC)
3. Medieval II Total War Kingdoms (PC)
4. World of Warcraft (PC)
5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (PC)
6. Bioshock (PC)
7. Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
8. Motorstorm (PS3)
9. Counter-Strike 1: Anthology (PC)
10. Guitar Hero 2 Rock the 80´s (PS2)

Buy: [Bioshock (Games for Windows)]
Buy: [Bioshock (Xbox 360)]

And the votes (and sales figures) are in! Here's the data from Amazon.com as of July 8 that gives us the latest list of the top 5 games in America all across your favorite platforms. With all three next gen consoles vying for your hearts and thumbs, let's see if you're favorite game made the list.

  

Top 5 Games in America per console:

Nintendo Wii
Pokemon Battle Revolution didn't manage to get into the top 5 and is not likely to catch up with Super Paper Mario which is also a hit in Japan.

1. Wii Play (Nintendo)
2. Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition (Capcom)
3. Mario Party 8 (Nintendo)
4. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)
5. Super Paper Mario (Nintendo)

Xbox 360
Although Forza Motorsport is still strong, sales are starting to drop.

1. The Darkness (2K Games)
2. Guitar Hero II Bundle (RedOctane)
3. Overlord (Codemasters)
4. Gears of War (Microsoft)
5. Forza Motorsport 2 (Microsoft)

PlayStation 3
There seems to be a revitalized interest to the PS3 thanks to Ninja Gaiden Sigma.

1. Ninja Gaiden Sigma (Tecmo)
2. The Darkness (2K Games)
3. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas (Ubisoft)
4. Resistance: Fall of Man (SCEA)
5. Transformers: The Game (Activision)

Click on the full article to get the top 5 games on the DS, PC, PS2 and PSP!

While Activision's acquisition of indie publisher RedOctane for US$ 91 million last year certainly made some big waves in the videogame industry, just as big was the news that MTV Networks bought Guitar Hero developer Harmonix for US$ 175 million. Today we've gotten word that another big player will be joining in the drama.

According to GameSpot, EA Partners VP David DeMartini has announced that Activision rival Electronic Arts and Harmonix have inked a deal where EA will distribute Harmonix's upcoming MTV-branded game. Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopoulos also confirmed the deal while speaking to attendees at a GDC press reception last night.

While both Rigopoulos and DeMartini declined to give further details regarding the upcoming game, Rigopoulos said that this current project is "by far, by far our most ambitious undertaking ever." With both Harmonix and MTV behind the yet-to-be-announced game, we expect it to be a music-based title, and with EA's involvement, expect it to become a franchise. Keep checking back here at QJ.net for more details as they surface.