Harry Kewell holds the World Cup Twitter ball for Australia in South Africa

Kosmix’s Tweetbeat World Cup provides Twitter insight into Australia’s World Cup campaign

Harry Kewell was Australia’s most tweeted about player during Australia’s one-all draw with Ghana on Sunday morning amassing a total of 6,800 tweets over a three hour period, according to statistics from Kosmix’s Tweetbeat World Cup Twitter filter. Kewell, who ‘held the Twitter ball’ at the start of the game, quickly passed possession to Brett Holman at the 11^th minute when he scored the Socceroos’ only goal. Twitter attention quickly returned to Kewell at the 15^th minute mark where he maintained possession of the most Tweets for the rest of the game.

The number of tweets referencing Kewell peaked during the 24^th minute when he was shown a red-card for handling the ball – a total of 1,769 tweets about Kewell were posted during a five minute period indicating that tweeting Australian World Cup fans were discussing the referee’s decision. The second most tweeted player was a battle between Brett Holman, Tim Cahill, Lukas Neill, and Craig Moore, with Holman taking second place with 617 tweets.

Whilst during the same period, the Socceroos were mentioned in tweets 25,140 times compared with Ghana who totalled 16,517 tweets. Ghana’s most tweeted player was Asamoah Gyan with 917 twitter mentions.

Tweetbeat World Cup filters Twitter in real-time to give fans the best commentary, news and opinions about the games, and to show what people are saying about the tournament right now. Tweetbeat scans up to 2000 tweets per second—more than 65 million tweets each day—to identify the most interesting and important comments about the FIFA World Cup™. Tweetbeat then organises these comments and presents them in real-time, so football fans can follow their team, see the most popular tweets trending now, and read what people are saying about the competition. A speed slider lets you speed up or slow down the flow of tweets displayed on the page, and a scoreboard shows which team has the most Twitter buzz for each game. Fans can retweet the best comments or follow other Twitter users right from the site. A mobile version of Tweetbeat is also available for the iPhone.

How Tweetbeat Works

Kosmix, the creator of Tweetbeat World Cup, has taken a semantic approach to filtering Twitter. Kosmix is one of the few companies with access to the complete Twitter firehose, and it has developed Tweetbeat by running the full Twitter stream through its categorisation engine. With more than 10 million nodes, the Kosmix categorisation engine is among the largest taxonomies of the Web and understands the relationship between things to an unprecedented degree. As a result, Tweetbeat World Cup goes beyond keywords or hashtags to surface tweets about the tournament, teams, players, stadiums and fans—even if the tweet does not contain the term “World Cup.”

Tweetbeat

Tweetbeat on Twitter

Tweetbeat on Facebook

Twitter’s own thoughts on Tweetbeat

Kosmix Blog

Shrek Forever After – the fourth and supposedly the last in the franchise, was released last Thursday (and you can find our review, here), but Paramount has released a couple of new TV spots for the film. Embedded below.

The trailer for the $20 million Aussie adaptation of John Marsden’s teen thriller – embedded below!

The film will be released September 2nd, 2010.

Official Blurb:

“Based on John Marsden’s popular and critically- acclaimed novel which has sold over 628,863 copies in Australia alone, THE AGE refers to the series of books as “The best series for Australian teens of all time” TOMORROW WHEN THE WAR BEGAN’ follows the journey of eight high school friends in a remote country town whose lives are suddenly and violently upended by a war that no-one saw coming. Cut off from their families and their friends, these eight extraordinary teenagers must somehow learn to escape, survive and fight back.”

Rounding Up E3 2010

There is a lot of exciting information coming out of E3. This is the time game companies give a tantalizing peek into the awesome gaming goodness they have in store. Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia demoed Call of Duty: Black Ops, full of spectacular explosions and grit your teeth air to ground action in the form of a helicopter strafing enemy locations. In addition, some claustrophobic Viet Nam tunnel rat action as the player explores an enemy tunnel complex. The tunnels looked incredible with bugs crawling along the walls. Call of Duty: Black Ops is looking like it may just be another blockbuster of a game. The Call of Duty franchise has been pushing onward now for some time. It will be interesting just to see how popular this franchise stays over the next several years and what they can bring to it. There was also an announcement that for the next three years, Call of Duty games and content will release first for the Xbox 360.

Speaking of the Xbox 360, the new Xbox 360 slim with a 250 gig hard drive looks sleeker and even more futuristic than its older brother does. The new consol has larger ventilation slits on the top and one side of it. The better to keep it cool my dear. It also sports three USB ports in the back, and two in the front…. a connection port for Ethernet, it does also have built in WiFi, 802.11n Wi-Fi card the fastest Wi-Fi standard at this time, and a dedicated port for the new Kinect. You know that device that makes the player the actual controller. The Kinect will work with the original Xbox 360, the only difference being that it would need an additional power supply. The new Xbox 360 Slim 250 gig version does not need an additional power supply for the Kinect device. Further, the new consol has HDMI and AVI connections, as well as an optical digital sound port. It also has a laptop lock down security feature so you can lock up this new consol with a security lock if you feel the need to. This box is a piano black with some chrome highlights. The Xbox 360 slim is sleek and futuristic though a bit of a finger print magnet. That’s ok, because this is one nice game consol. Silent running, in fact the only real noise to speak of is one a game disk spools up to be read.

The new Kinect peripheral will be launched on November 4th.

While advancements in technology are always good, some people may be a bit disappointed in that the new hard drive is internal. The hard drive is accessible by a port on one side of the consol and comes out easily. It is a new and smaller hard drive design so the hard drives for the old system and new is not interchangeable. Not all is lost; remember the hard drive migration kits? They are back. So transferring your data to the new system should be a snap.

With over 300 exhibitors at E3 it is very hard to just spot light just a few things I am looking forward too. Spiderman Shattered Dimensions looks spectacular. If the actual game play matches the concept and sneak peeks thus far, that will be one wicked cool game. It is effectively four games in one. Players will be able to play in all of the dimensions, with each gaming dimension having its own atmosphere and looks. In each dimension, each Spiderman must retrieve a piece of some mystical artifact. Those pieces have fallen into the hands of some villains and they have gained some extra powers. It will be interesting to see how this one pulls off. Being a fan of the past games, even with the mix of good and bad, we are hoping this latest incarnation maintains that feeling of being Spiderman. No matter what dimension we are in.

The latest Medal of Honor was inspired by Tier 1 operators and will be pitting players against some of the most unforgiving terrain and enemies around. Present day Afghanistan is where the bullets will fly.

Assassins Creed Brotherhood from Ubisoft particularly looks spectacular. Just check out the game footage and player walkthrough here http://impulsegamer.com/?p=6607

One wonders will this be the final chapter in this very cool series. I for one would love to see an adventure and characters in Medieval Japan. Ninjas anyone?

Killzone 3 looks impressive; too bad we have until 2011 for that title.

Well it is going to be awesome gaming coming our way.

Have fun play games.
Edwin Millheim
United States Editor
Impulse Gamer

PC Manufacturers Triple the Number of Platforms that Feature VISION Technology from AMD ¹
AMD Refreshes Notebook Platforms and Introduces VISION Technology for Desktop PCs
Thirty Percent More Ultrathin Notebooks and 109 New Mainstream Notebooks Based on VISION Technology ²

Sydney, Australia: June 18, 2010 – AMD today announced a complete refresh of its desktop and notebook platforms based on VISION Technology for consumer and commercial customers. The new notebook platforms offer up to eight hours of battery life while delivering an outstanding visual experience at a great price for the mainstream and ultrathin markets. ³

“With VISION Technology from AMD, we are finally connecting how people use their PCs with the way people purchase them,” said Nigel Dessau, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of AMD. “Today, after little more than 200 days in market, our partners are introducing more VISION-based PCs than ever before; a testament to both the competitiveness of AMD platform technology and the simplified marketing approach.”

Introduced in October 2009, VISION Technology from AMD simplifies the PC buying process at the point of sale by focusing on how consumers use PCs, rather than relying upon the confusing “speeds and feeds” technical specifications that many people find difficult to understand. VISION also denotes the powerful visual experience AMD systems enable; an important feature as more consumers use their computers as entertainment hubs for sharing photos, music and videos with friends and family, watching TV and HD videos, and playing games.

AMD 2010 Mainstream and Ultrathin Notebook Platforms
In 2009, 96 million people worldwide bought PCs for entertainment purposes4. The AMD 2010 Mainstream Notebook Platform lets consumers enjoy their movies, music and games in stunning color and clarity, seamlessly connect with friends on social networks, and edit videos and photos. The 2010 Ultrathin Notebook Platform makes it possible for consumers to enjoy a full-featured PC experience, including HD playback, in sleek and affordable notebooks that can deliver up to eight hours of battery life. Examples of the benefits the platforms provide to consumers include the following:

In testing with HQV 2.0, a VISION-based system with AMD integrated graphics achieved a video experience score almost 2x that of a comparable Intel-based system. 5 Additionally, a VISION-based system with AMD discrete graphics scored 50% better than a comparable Intel-based system with Nvidia discrete graphics.

Enjoy photos with greater color, clarity and definition by cleaning up photos up to 20 percent faster with Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 than competing mainstream notebooks.6
Transfer entertainment fast and convert DVDs to play on game consoles in up to 37 percent less time than a comparable competitive mainstream notebook.7
Experience up to 80 percent smoother gaming performance in Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare™, compared to a comparable competitive mainstream system.8

AMD 2010 Desktop Platform
AMD’s new mainstream and enthusiast desktop platforms are designed to deliver superior performance while alleviating unnecessary spending associated with competing platforms. The new platforms are enhanced with the latest graphics technology for stunning HD digital media and immersive 3D entertainment, and multi-core performance for seamless multi-tasking, including the new six-core AMD Phenom™ II X6 processor. Examples of the benefits the platforms provide to consumers include the following:

Share movies with friends 30 percent faster than with comparable competing PCs.9
Organize digital libraries 40 percent faster, using facial recognition to categorize photos, than competing desktop PCs.10
Build a complete AMD-based system featuring the AMD Phenom™ II X6 processor with all the necessary components and monitor for less than the price of our competition’s only six-core desktop processor.11
Systems featuring these notebook and desktop platforms with VISION Technology from AMD will be available beginning today and through the end of the year from original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and System Integrators including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, MSI and Toshiba.

Resources:

AMD at the Cannes International Film Festival
VISION Technology from AMD
AMD 2010 Mainstream Notebook Platform for Home and Work
AMD 2010 Ultrathin Notebook Platform for Home and Work
AMD 2010 Desktop Platforms
AMD Phenom™ II X6 processors
See how VISION Technology from AMD can make a real difference in your life; these videos are just a few examples of the incredible experience made possible by VISION Technology
AMD at Home blog
AMD Worldwide Channel Blog
AMD Facebook
Follow AMD on Twitter at @AMD_Unprocessed, @AMDDesktop, and @AMDNotebook,

About AMD
Advanced Micro Devices is an innovative technology company dedicated to collaborating with customers and technology partners to ignite the next generation of computing and graphics solutions at work, home and play. For more information, visit AMD.

Kosmix Tweatbeat is Australia’s Real-Time Source for World Cup Action

Tweetbeat World Cup filters Twitter to show what’s happening in the tournament right now

Sydney, Australia, 18^th June 2010: Socceroos fans can now keep track of every second of the action in South Africa, with the introduction of Tweetbeat World Cup, a new Twitter filter from Kosmix. Tweetbeat World Cup filters Twitter in real-time to give fans the best commentary, news and opinions about the games, and to show what people are saying about the tournament right now.

Tweetbeat scans up to 2000 tweets per second—more than 65 million tweets each day—to identify the most interesting and important comments about the FIFA World Cup™. Tweetbeat then organises these comments and presents them in real-time, so football fans can follow their team, see the most popular tweets trending now, and read what people are saying about the competition. A speed slider lets you speed up or slow down the flow of tweets displayed on the page, and a scoreboard shows which team has the most Twitter buzz for each game. Fans can retweet the best comments or follow other Twitter users right from the site. A mobile version of Tweetbeat is also available for the iPhone.

How Tweetbeat Works

Kosmix, the creator of Tweetbeat World Cup, has taken a semantic approach to filtering Twitter. Kosmix is one of the few companies with access to the complete Twitter firehose, and it has developed Tweetbeat by running the full Twitter stream through its categorisation engine. With more than 10 million nodes, the Kosmix categorisation engine is among the largest taxonomies of the Web and understands the relationship between things to an unprecedented degree. As a result, Tweetbeat World Cup goes beyond keywords or hashtags to surface tweets about the tournament, teams, players, stadiums and fans—even if the tweet does not contain the term “World Cup.”

Tweetbeat ranks tweets about the World Cup to eliminate spam, reduce the noise and to show what’s resonating right now. Tweet ranking is automatically determined by measuring a variety of signals including the number of retweets, who tweeted and retweeted, how many similar stories are trending up, and how fast the tweet topic is growing.

Kosmix is applying these techniques to the World Cup teams and players as a showcase of what its technology can do. Later this year the company will release a full version of Tweetbeat across all topics.

Tweetbeat World Cup Twitter Stats

According to Kosmix, since the beginning of the tournament the Socceroos have been tweeted 72,464[i] times, the 5^th most tweeted team in the tournament, amongst a total of 2,448,988 tweets about the World Cup. This number is expected to jump dramatically as the Socceroos take on Ghana on Sunday morning. Additional key statistics[ii] include:

• The England team is the most tweeted so far with 178,055 tweets
• In second place is the USA and Brazil, with 163,818 and 128,760 respectively
• The most tweeted player is Argentinean, Lionel Messi with 39,083
• Whilst Portugese star, Christiano Ronaldo has been tweeted about 32,108 times and is the second most tweeted player
• Tim Cahill is the Socceroos’ most tweeted player at 17^th with 6,359 tweets

Quotes from Kosmix Co-Founder Anand Rajaraman

“Because we show you only the most interesting and important tweets, you’ll never see comments about what someone in the stands is having for lunch…unless that someone happens to be Maradona,”

“Very few other services have access to the Twitter firehose and offer the type of language processing Tweetbeat does. For the World Cup, our taxonomy, which has been under development for five years, knows the players, their nicknames, the teams they play for, past players, World Cup stadiums and much more. For example, we’d recognise a tweet about Harry Kewell as a tweet about the World Cup and the Socceroos. And if @Socceroos tweets, the tweet will appear in Tweetbeat’s real-time stream with no measurable delay. Most World Cup filters and widgets rely on hashtags such as #WC2010 which miss important tweets and are susceptible to spam tweets.”

“Tweetbeat World Cup is most fun when a match is happening because you can see what people are saying about the game as it’s played whether you’re at home, at a World Cup party, or the pub.”

Links

Tweetbeat

Tweetbeat on Twitter

Tweetbeat on Facebook

Twitter’s own thoughts on Tweetbeat

Kosmix Blog

Sydney, Australia – June 18, 2010 – Razer, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals, has joined forces with Blizzard Entertainment, a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games, to introduce an entire suite of peripherals designed specifically for the release of Blizzard Entertainment’s highly anticipated real-time strategy (RTS) game StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty™.  Featuring a look and feel inspired by the StarCraft universe, this line of peripherals includes the Razer Spectre™ StarCraft II Gaming Mouse, the Razer Marauder™ StarCraft II Gaming Keyboard and the Razer Banshee™ StarCraft II Gaming Headset.

“We are all huge StarCraft players here at Razer, so we are really excited to give gamers a first glimpse at the StarCraft II gaming peripherals,” said Robert “Razerguy” Krakoff, president, Razer USA. “The peripherals were created with our newly developed APM (Actions-Per-Minute) Lighting System™ and feature a gaming-optimized design inspired by the StarCraft universe to complement the on-screen action.”

The Razer Spectre, Razer Marauder and Razer Banshee are all packed with features designed to enhance gamers’ play experience. All of the Razer StarCraft II gaming peripherals feature an APM (Actions-Per-Minute) Lighting System that provides the gamer with feedback on performance, providing a fully integrated gaming experience that responds directly to the player’s performance and speed. Each peripheral also features a gaming-optimized design with an emphasis on portability for tournament play, and is stylized with design elements from the StarCraft universe.

Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition

Journey back to 1912 and experience the Titanic’s maiden voyage. Explore detailed reconstructions of the ship’s interior including the Grand Staircase and first and third class cabins. Discover how the ‘unsinkable’ ship met its fate and connect with the personal stories of people on board as you view artefacts recovered from the ocean floor. See treasures never before presented in Australia in this Melbourne-only showing.

Date: Until 17 October 2010 (open until 9pm Thursdays)

Cost: Adult $24, Concession $18, Child $16, Family $66 (includes entry into Melbourne Museum)

Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition is presented by Melbourne Museum and Frontier Events in association with RMS Titanic, Inc.

600 Million Years: Victoria evolves 

The newest exhibition in the redevelopment of the Science and Life Gallery, 600 Million Years: Victoria evolves explores the big question: how did life on Earth come to be the way it is? Taking you on a journey through time, 600 Million Years brings the story of Victoria’s evolution to life through animation, animatronics, models and multimedia interactives. Over millions of years Victoria has moved from the tropics to the Antarctic circle and now to the temperate zone. It has been shaped by periods of volcanic activity and major climate shifts. Featuring fascinating fossils, gold, coal, dinosaurs and whales, the exhibition highlights the processes that make Victoria the special place it is today. 

Date: Opens 26 June 2010

From Little Things Big Things Grow: Fighting for Indigenous Rights 1920-1970

This exhibition tells the story of a group of Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who worked together to fight for justice for Aboriginal people. It celebrates the people who took part in the struggle and examines some key moments of Aboriginal activism, such as the 1938 Day of Mourning and Protest, the 1965 Freedom Ride, the Gurindji ‘walk-off’, and the 1967 Referendum.

A National Museum of Australia travelling exhibition

Date: Until 7 November 2010

Winter School Holidays

Journey back to 1912 and experience the Titanic‘s maiden voyage at Melbourne Museum’s Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition. Visit The Engine Room play space and build your own ocean liner or learn about the behaviour of icebergs. Discover some of the stories behind the people who set sail on the Titanic in a special story time.

Date: 26 June to 11 July 2010 (11am – 3pm)

Big Kills, Big Killers – Free public lecture

Big predatory animals capture our imagination like few others, yet the deadly denizens of the deep sea remain shrouded in mystery. It is these predators that evoke primordial feelings of awe and terror. How and when did they evolve? What makes them such deadly predators? What does their future hold? And just who is the ultimate predator of all time? Despite being at the top of food chains for over half a billion years, predators are also very vulnerable. Who takes the top spot has changed dramatically through the ages, and not always in predictable ways. What evolutionary novelties as well as mass extinctions have overturned who gets to be the biggest and baddest? Join three Museum Victoria scientists to hear an exciting evolutionary tale which will answer all of these questions (and more) and challenge some of your ideas of life’s big predators and their place in nature.

Date: 6pm 8 July 2010

Cost: Free (Bookings essential phone13 11 02)

20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant – Ilbijerri Theatre Company: A Retrospective.

20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant. celebrates the 20th anniversary of the longest running Indigenous theatre company in Australia.“It all started with a group of Indigenous actors sitting around in a backyard saying ‘we need our own theatre company to tell our stories our way’,” says Rachael Maza Long, Ilbijerri’s Artistic Director. From this passion, a professional theatre company was born, whose plays explore a range of complex and controversial issues from a uniquely Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspective. This belief in “the power of black voices telling black stories” still drives the company. The exhibition will feature elements of sets, props and photography from previous productions as well as a behind the scenes look at life in Ilbijerri.
Part of the Bunjilaka Community Exhibitions Program.
Date: 9 July until 7 November 2010 

Jacky Jacky in the Box

First performed in 2008, Jacky Jacky in the Box is a confronting performance in which an Aboriginal performer goes on display in the museum galleries, challenging audiences to reconsider perceptions of Indigenous Australia as an anthropological curiosity. Take a look inside Ilbijerri’s glass museum cabinets at Bunjilaka and you won’t see a boomerang, a stone tool or a black statue in a lap. You might see a young professional in a three-piece suit. You might see a girl listening to an ipod. You might see more than you bargained for. Jacky Jacky in the Box is showing for three days only as part of the exhibition 20 Years: Bold. Black. Brilliant.

Date: 11am – 3pm, 9 July to 11 July 2010

Glenn Murcutt: Architecture for Place

Glenn Murcutt is one of Australia’s most internationally recognised architects. Murcutt’s works are at the forefront of contemporary architecture, focusing on the sustainability of the natural environment. Glenn Murcutt: Architecture for Place explores a selection of his buildings through his drawings and working methods. Photographs by Anthony Browell capture the harmony between building and nature that resonates through Murcutt’s designs. The exhibition offers visitor a chance to discover many of Murcutt’s houses, private residences that are not open to visitors.

Date: 15 July until 3 October 2010

Presented by Architecture Foundation Australia with the support of Visions of Australia

Zmood: designing Holdens

The Zmood display celebrates the career and legacy of one of Australia’s most successful designers, Phillip Zmood GM Holden’s first Head of Design. Zmood commenced his career with Holden in 1965 working as staff designer on the HR, HK, HT and HQ range of vehicles. He is credited with creating the major design elements of some of Holden’s most iconic muscle cars. The collection features original sketches of the GTRX and the Torana as well as Zmood’s childhood sketches, studio photographs and product brochures.

Date: 16 July until 8 August 2010

Melbourne Museum, Nicholson Street, Carlton. Open daily 10.00am – 5.00pm. Admission: Adult $8, children and concession FREE. For further details phone 13 11 02 or visit museumvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum

HARMONIX, MTV GAMES REINVENT MUSIC GAMES WITH ROCK BAND™3

Rock Band 3 Features Announced, including amazing soundtrack plus access to the most music available in any video game with more than 1,500 tracks and growing, three-part harmonies for up to seven players rocking together, Rock Band Pro Mode and much more!

18 June 2010, Australia – Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game developer and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks have announced features for Rock Band™3, the next generation of the ultimate social and interactive music gaming platform.

Featuring an incredible 83-song setlist and access to far more music than any other music game, as well as innovative new gameplay modes, Rock Band 3 will change the way fans think about and play music games. This next iteration in the Rock Band platform has something new for everyone and also supports traditional Rock Band gameplay with players’ existing instruments.

The Most Music.
The Rock Band 3 disc soundtrack contains 83 of the best bands from around the world, including bands that have never appeared in a music game, as well as support for existing Rock Band tracks (Rock Band and Rock Band 2 discs, downloaded songs, track packs, AC/DC Live: Rock Band™ Track Pack, LEGO® Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band™).

Additionally, Rock Band 3 will give players immediate access to a music library approaching 2,000 songs by launch, with new content added regularly. Rock Band’s gigantic music selection dwarfs that of any other music game on the market.

Announced Tracks:

2000s:

Metric, “Combat Baby”
Rilo Kiley, “Portions for Foxes”
Them Crooked Vultures, “Dead End Friends”
The Vines, “Get Free”
The White Stripes, “The Hardest Button to Button”
Phoenix, “Lasso”
Ida Maria, “Oh My God”
Juanes, “Me Enamora”

1990s:

Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing”
Smash Mouth, “Walkin’ on the Sun”
Spacehog, “In the Meantime”
Stone Temple Pilots, “Plush”

1980s:

Dio, “Rainbow in the Dark”
Huey Lewis and the News, “The Power of Love”
Joan Jett, “I Love Rock and Roll”
Night Ranger, “Sister Christian”
Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again”
The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”
Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”

1970s:

Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”

1960s:

Jimi Hendrix, “Crosstown Traffic”
The Doors, “Break On Through”

Redesigned Library for Better Music Management
Rock Band 3 allows players to create and save setlists and share them with friends, both in-game and through RockBand.com. New song filters make it easier to find the types of songs fans want to play and hide the songs they don’t, while a built-in song recommendation system will suggest tracks from Rock Band’s colossal music library, based on personal fan preference.

Go Pro: Play Just for Fun or Rock for Real with Rock Band Pro
Rock Band 3 empowers players to develop actual musical skills through the fun of fully scalable Rock Band Pro gameplay. Fans can dive in on Easy to try out basic skills and work their way up to Expert for real mastery.

Something for Everyone (New Gameplay Modes!)
For the casual player, Rock Band 3 has great new party modes that allow fans to get rocking with friends quicker than ever, including party shuffle and persistent drop-in/drop-out and difficulty selection from any gameplay screen. For the serious player, the revamped Career Mode features 700+ goals and rewards and seamless leaderboard integration for an endlessly deep campaign experience. Rock Band 3 also adds a suite of social networking tools to the game so fans can engage friends and fellow rockers over Facebook, Twitter and more. Whether players want to jump in for a quick song or take their band to the top, Rock Band 3 has a mode for everyone.

Developed by Harmonix, the world’s premier music videogame company, published by MTV Games, and distributed by distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), Rock Band 3 will ship simultaneously worldwide this holiday season for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Wii™ system from Nintendo, and Nintendo DS™.

Rock Band 3 will be compatible with all Rock Band and The Beatles: Rock Band peripherals, as well as most third-party instrument and microphone controllers. Mad Catz is the official peripheral manufacturer and distributor for Rock Band game controllers.

The Rock Band platform stands next to none in music content, with more than 1,500 songs already available from more than 400 artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, AC/DC and Green Day, who are exclusive to Rock Band. With more choices for fans than any other music-based videogame, Rock Band is, without question, the industry leader in providing the best selection of interactive musical content, songs and artists. Rock Band pioneered offering content in a variety of ways, through on-disc gameplay, game export, downloadable content and the Rock Band Network. The Rock Band platform allows fans to interact with their favourite music in a unique and hands-on way, as well as giving artists the ability to reach fans through a whole new channel.