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Cambridge, Mass. – January 2, 2009- Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the addition of one of the most influential pioneers of rock and roll, Roy Orbison, to the Rock Band® Music Store catalog of downloadable content. Grammy Award-winning Roy Orbison was a singer, songwriter and performer whose distinctive sound scored him an astounding nine Top 10 hits in four years in the early 1960s. Orbison’s historic career began in the 1950s and saw a huge resurgence in the late 1980s, when he became a prominent influence on artists like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Bono, k. d. lang and Traveling Wilburys.

The “Roy Orbison Pack 01″ will include “Oh, Pretty Woman,” “Ooby Dooby,” “In Dreams,” Claudette,” “Mean Woman Blues” and “You Got It.” All six songs will be available for download as individual tracks as well. These six songs featured are hits from Orbison’s incredible legacy of albums including the recently released definitive box set Roy Orbison: The Soul of Rock And Roll (2008) which contains 107 recordings spanning Orbison’s entire career.

“When I was a kid, my world evolved around a black vinyl record,” said Barbara Orbison. “How times have changed! Rock Band and Harmonix have given us a new way to experience music and now everyone can belong to a band. How much more fun could you have, than to play the opening riff of Oh Pretty Woman and try to sing like Roy Orbison?”

These tracks will be available starting January 6, 2009, for the Xbox_360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and January 15, 2009 for PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system. Each individual track will be available for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) and $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points) for the 6-pack.

Release Date: Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360)
Thursday, January 15, 2009 (PlayStation®Store)

Tracks: (Click on track to view music video) 1. “Claudette” 2. “In Dreams” 3. “Mean Woman Blues” 4. “Oh, Pretty Woman” 5. “Ooby Dooby” 6. “You Got It” (All tracks are original master recordings)

Price:$1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track
$9.99 (800 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the 6-pack

Locations:Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 and PlayStation®Network
** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change **

Rock Band 2 is available now for Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 systems and the Wii system. The Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 versions support all previously downloaded content. The groundbreaking music platform that forever changed the face of music video games is committed to taking gaming to the next level with the evolution of the franchise.

There are now more than 500 tracks available to date via disc and download purchase (complete list of tracks at www.rockband.com/music). Rock Band continues to satisfy music fans’ and gamers’ voracious appetite for rock with more than 30 million paid downloads since its launch on November 20, 2007. The Rock Band Music Store allows players to preview and purchase downloadable individual music tracks and packs from the vast selection of offerings available to date without ever leaving the game as they build their own custom Rock Band library.

As a new game developer whose technical expertise is on development, NECT was established by five veteran game developers in January this year. Their first title, “Tears Saga,” attracted a lot of attention during its limited release in the US last June. Currently under development, it is targeted for a closed beta service next year after the in-house alpha testing was completed in just 8 months since development began in full swing.

The most impressive feature of ‘Tears Saga’ is that it shows exciting actions online above all. It is very well-known that realization of exciting actions is highly tricky due to synchronization issues between users unlike console games. But, proudly, ‘Tears Saga’ retains the most exciting actions among existing online action RPGs.

Especially, AMC system created utmost actions as succeeding in making body parts of characters move with the mouse. Normal games can only use set actions when a specific key is pressed. In contrast, “Tears Saga” has enabled the detailed movement of the character according to the movement of the cursor.

As a representative technology of NECT, the AMC (Avatar Mouse Control) System allows the game player to control the angle at which a sword is wielded or the direction a gun is shot by adjusting the movement of an Avatar’s arm and waist. The system applies differently depending on the weapon, and especially when players raise their guns, they can deal with their enemies flocking from everywhere only with mouse without changes in the screen focus on. Also gamers can try dealing with a huge damage by attacking the enemy’s head using this new system or engage in strategic play per instance such as aiming for the legs of the enemies to trip them and prevent them from approaching the player.

Furthermore, if you hit the enemy with a normal attack or a specific skill, the monster floats in air in real time. Subsequently, you can do an air combo or deal additional blows and gain the advantage in combat. The dynamic action similar to playing a fighting game such as Tekken or Virtual Fighter is implemented online.

Currently, NECT is working hard to stabilize and add contents to the game to meet its goal of launching a closed beta service by the first half of 2009.

On December 16, 2008, social gaming leader SGN and Webs, Inc. came to a mutual agreement over the ownership of Mob Wars, resolving litigation with David Maestri and Psycho Monkey LLC. Under the agreement, Maestri and Psycho Monkey are recognized as the sole owners of the game, and both SGN and Psycho Monkey are permitted to build future games using this gameplay template. The parties reached a confidential financial settlement on an amicable basis.

About SGN

SGN is the largest developer of social networking games and applications. SGN’s current network of games commands over one million game players per-day across multiple social networking platforms including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and over 5 million installations on the iPhone. For more information, go to www.sgn.com.

It’s difficult for independent developers to attract players to their games. It can also be difficult for gamers to find new quality independent games. Archive Entertainment hopes to solve these problems with Archive Games, a digital distribution platform that connects independent developers with gamers.

Three new independent studios have partnered with Archive Entertainment to add their work to the Archive Games distribution platform:

Overflow, by Vultrix – Tax your brain with this unique puzzler in which you must redirect the flow of water to safety. Using your mouse and a steady hand, draw bridges and barriers to divert and block the onslaught of water. Includes 25 vividly surreal levels, and a freeform sandbox mode where you are free to play with the water physics.

Space Pizza, by Per Olofsson – As the newest pizza delivery driver, it is your mission to deliver pizzas without crashing into any number of conveniently placed obstacles… all while under a time limit. Fast paced and fun, this is an innovative take on the Lunar Lander concept.

Take Down Online, by 174 Studios – An in-development combat-oriented MMO; capture command points with your team as you travel by foot, humvee, or armed helicopter.

All three games can be freely downloaded now via Archive Games. Archive Entertainment continues to seek new relationships with developers to bring independent games to fans. For more information about Archive Games, please visit http://www.ArchiveGames.net/

Give em all a spin, these guys work hard on their games, if there’s enough buzz about them, the WILL be published, and these independant developers will get the respect (and money!) they deserve.

For anyone wanting to support this cause by running an auction, ChaseTheChuckwagon.com waives all auction fees. In addition, charity auctions run for 30-days to extend the bidding window, while also bringing more exposure to the charity. And even though the Child s Play Charity is the official website charity, members can run auctions in support of any other charity of their choice while paying no auction fees whatsoever.

Starting January 1st, 2008, ChaseTheChuckwagon.com is running their first Child’s Play Charity Auction. This auction is for an autographed copy of Super Fighter Team’s exclusive Sega Genesis title, Beggar Prince. This item was graciously donated by Mr. Brandon Cobb, President of SFT. Here is a link to this auction:

http://www.chasethechuckwagon.com/item.cgi?show_item=0000056144

For information about donating an item to auction off for this cause, please email:socalmike@chasethechuckwagon.com.

ChaseTheChuckwagon.com was launched on March 24th, 2008 and has quickly become a significant destination for buying and selling classic and modern video games.

http://www.ChildsPlayCharity.com
http://www.ChaseTheChuckwagon.com