Aaaaaand We're Back!

Now that everyone has worn down their console's disk drive through execessive playing over winter break (or was that just me?), expect regular posts once again.

• While DJ Hero may have fell short of some of its sales projections, it was still able to garner a rank as the highest grossing new IP for 2009 in the US and Europe in addition to its massive amounts of critical acclaim, and "securing more than 15 Best Music Game Awards in the U.S. alone and was featured in more than two dozen year end "best of" lists including those from Time Magazine, USA Today.com and Official Xbox Magazine," according to Activision. Their CEO Bobby Kotick also recently confirmed to Game Informer Magazine that their will be a sequel and that they are going to " stick with it and get it right. But it's going to be less games, better games. That's our strategy."

• The Ivors a British award for excellence in songwriting and composition will feature a category for game composition for the first time this year. The award ceremony will take place on May 20th 2010. All entries must have at least a third of its composition contributed by a British or Irish composer. Source

• Fender has recently revealed a set of new products to reach out to the music gaming and overall digital age community. The first is its G-DEC 3 amp priced at $299. The amp comes equipped with its own "backing band", which allows the player to play along with previously recording backing tracks from various styles. It also has an SD slot so that users can play with their own mp3s. They've also launched a new site ejamming.com while its splash page is a bit hokey the site provides free software to allow you to jam with and record sessions with others on the site. The first month is free and then a $10 monthly subscription applies. Finally, fender has partnered with T-Mobile to produce an Eric Clapton version of the Android MyTouch. The shell has a sunburst coloring and the phone includes tracks such as Layla and Wonderful Tonight.

• If you ever Find yourself in Australia, or more specifically Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, be sure to look out for The Mana Bar come February. The bars owners, a bartender, a video game critic, a sega games developer and a game blogger and will feature a variety of easily accessable and social games (read a lot of wii play). However the bar will also act as a testing ground for game publishers, as the bar will also feature games still in its final stages of development.