‘Strong’ Beatles: Rock Band sales bolster Viacom results

GameSpot reports that the release of Harmonix’s The Beatles: Rock Band has helped Viacom reverse its trend of slumping rhythm game sales.

 

Recap of 10/20 “State of the State” NE Games SIG Event

Thanks to everyone who attended our 10/20 State of the State: Video Games in Massachusetts event last week. We’d also like to thank Jason Schupbach and Terrence Masson for speaking! Jason and Terrence both shared some wonderful resources with attendees, which we’ve summarized below. Please feel free to add your own resources to this list by commenting!

• MassItsAllHere.com
• Northeastern Creative Industries
• Create Boston
• Massachusetts Tech Leadership Council
• Boston Post Mortem
• Design Industry Group of MA
• PoweringUpBoston.com
• Penny Arcade Expo East (TICKETS NOW ON SALE!)

There was some confusion among event attendees regarding MIT Enterprise Forum Membership. We apologize for any misunderstandings and have added a SIG Membership page to our blog here to help clarify event fees and Forum membership.

 

Innovation Day at the MA State House – Tomorrow 10/15!

Sponsored by the Legislative Biotech Caucus and hosted by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council, MITX, and other local organizations, Innovation Day at the State House will be held tomorrow, October 15^th, from 10am to 12:30pm in the Great Hall. The event will garner participation from a variety of tech industries, including the game industry. From the organizers:

We are pleased to present a day of innovation, education, and celebration of the venture-backed innovation community. Innovation Day is an opportunity for legislators and their staff to have hands on interaction with venture-backed companies and the venture community that supports this vital part of the Massachusetts economy. Please join us for the any or all of panel and showcase. 

10AM

Innovation Company Showcase Opens

Welcoming Remarks (Sec. Greg Bialecki, Housing & Economic Development; Sen. Karen Spilka; Rep. Mike Rodrigues)

10:30AM

Panel: Innovation Under the Big Tent: Cool MA CEOs and the Cool-Headed VCs That Back the Innovation Stars of the Commonwealth (rapid fire Q&A with audience participation)

Moderator: Scott Kirsner, Boston Globe, confirmed
 
Michael Greeley, Flybridge Capital Partners and Chairman, NEVCA
Carl Stjernfeldt, Castile Ventures
Amir Nashat, Polaris Ventures
 
Eran Egozy, co-founder, Harmonix (the makers of Rock Band) in Cambridge
Ellen Rubin, Founder, CloudSwitch in Southboro
Don Young, President & CEO, Aspen Aerogels in Northborough
Scott Savitz, CEO, Shoebuy.com in Boston
Jim Luchese, CEO, EchoNest in Somerville 

11:15 AM  

Company Showcase Resumes (CEO, VC, Legislator Networking, Q&A)

Company Showcase Participants will include:

Harmonix Music Systems- Cambridge

Turbine, Inc.- Westwood 

HubSpot-Cambridge·        

Springpad-Charlestown 

Aspen Aerogels-Northborough

Ze-Gen- Boston     
Trophos Energy-Watertown

CloudSwitch-Burlington·       

uTest-Southborough
Envista Corp.-Beverly 

Rapid Micro Biosystems-Bedford 

Immuneering-Boston

NuOrtho-Fall River

The MTLC Robotics Cluster-Burlington 

EchoNest-Somerville

Concert Pharmaceuticals-Lexington

 

xConomy Profile of Jason Schupbach – MA Creative Economy Industry Director (and Our Next Speaker!)

If you’ve been to any of the recent NE Games SIG, MassTLC, or other gaming related events in Mass, chances are you’ve probably seen or spoken with Jason Schupbach. Jason is the Creative Economy Industry Director within the Massachusetts Office of Business Development and he is tasked with helping local businesses in the creative sector find the resources they need to grow in the state.

Wade Roush recently posted an extensive interview and profile of Jason on xConomy.com. Jason also happens to be one of our featured speakers at our upcoming October 20^th event, ‘State of the State: Video Games in Massachusetts.”

Check out the full xConomy article here.

 

Next Boston Post Mortem – Tomorrow at 7pm!

The October meeting of Boston Post Mortem will be held tomorrow night (10/13) at 7pm. Jeff Ward of Orbus Gameworks give a talk titled, “I Can Slack Off, My Code’s Compiling!” which is a preview of a presentation to be given at the upcoming GameX Industry Summit in Philly on October 24 – 25. The BPM meeting will be held at the Microsoft New England Research and Design Center in Cambridge. For more information, visit the BPM site.

 

Game Prototypes from Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab – Check ‘Em Out!

For eight weeks teams of MIT students worked together to develop games from scratch over at the Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab using only research guidelines as a starting point. Over the next six weeks, the GAMBIT Game Lab blog will be hosting a game of the week extravaganza, highlighting each of their 6 summer prototypes for a week at a time. The Game of the Week content can be explored here: http://gambit.mit.edu/updates/gotw/. They’ll be posting behind the scenes coverage of the design process, including video, postmortems, concept art, music, and more. Check it out!

 

Video Game Design Degrees Continue to Rise in US (ESA)

According to a post over at IndustryGamers.com , the ESA claims that video game design degrees are now offered by a record number of US Colleges. California leads all states with 46 schools offering game degrees, while other states in the top 10 include New York and Massachusetts. Check out the article for more information or come to our October 20^th NE Games SIG event to learn more about the local video game education scene when Terrence Masson, Northeastern University’s Director of Game Design, will join us for a discussion about video games in Massachusetts. For more information or to register, click here.

 

Beatles Rock Band Outsells Guitar Hero 5 2:1

GameSpot reports that Wedbush Morgan projections have Fab Four game outselling Activision’s latest nearly 2:1 in debut month; EEDAR says both titles exceeded expectations.

 

Beatles: Rock Band sales beating forecast

GameSpot reports that Harmonix’s The Beatles: Rock Band has been shifting units faster than even its own internal expectations. 

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference this week, Philippe Dauman, CEO of Viacom, the parent of Rock Band publisher MTV Games, said “In the first week, we’ve sold about 25 percent of our inventory, and we’ve had tremendous excitement around this game. It’s selling well across all platforms, Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii. And, in fact, the pricing change that was made on PlayStation has helped sales on that platform.”

 

Conduit Labs Raises $3M in Funding

Great news for Cambridge, MA based Conduit Labs…the company has raised an additional $3 million in a second round of funding, according to paidContent. Conduit is the company behind Loudcrowd, a virtual world/ social game and community of music-lovers.