Cultural Differences Prevented Rock Band from Being Huge in Japan

A while back, Rock Band came out of nowhere and exploded in popularity all over the United States, Europe, Australia, nearly everywhere....except for Japan. There must be a reason for why the Harmonix's biggest introduction to music-themed video games didn't make its way to the land of the rising sun.

According to this article on Kotaku, there are several reasons

PS Vita Games show up at Tokyo Game Show, Shape Looks Oddly Familiar

At the Tokyo Game Show, companies like Sony and Nintendo are displaying their latest games and soon-t0-be-released consoles. One of the most interesting things coming out of TGS is the Playstation Vita. Now, when it comes to portable handheld consoles, I'm a Nintendo fanboy (despite I own the first generation DS that's the size of a brick and sometimes I am skeptic of buying a 3DS). But when the images of Sony's booth at the show were shown on the internet, I noticed something about the

Metacritic gives Gears of War 3 a high 91+ rating.

So as of now, a lot of the largely known video game review sites like Giant Bomb and Official Xbox Magazine have gotten their review copies of Gears of War 3 and have likely ran through most (if not all) of the game's story content and probably did a few private online multiplayer matches. And it seems like they spared no time to get their word out there about Epic Games latest release to raise more attention in the general gaming public. Here's what the reviewers are saying:

The Kinect is being used to monitor your elders' health.

Before we venture into this topic, I have to say this: the idea of being alone in your older years is a horrible idea to think about, especially when you are getting on your years. With technology and society changing at every second and minute, we will barely be able to keep up with everyone and everything.

However, group of researchers at Missouri University came up with an interesting idea. They are looking to use the Kinectas a vital monitoring solution for our problems as we get older. The concept of the whole thing is fairly simple: Kinect

Research and Science is used to Determine the Xbox 360's Scariest Game (sadly,
Viva Piñata didn't make the cut)

There are tons of video games that claim to be the scariest. Amnesia, Dead Space 2, Silent Hill: Homecoming are to name a few of them. Developers can always claim they made the scariest game of all time, but lets have science have a word on what is the scariest game on the Xbox 360.

User experience studioVertical Slice went and did research

Gears of War 3 promises to continue the bloody, action-filled combat of the two previous titles. The games have produced some of the goriest fighting sequences in the gaming universe, and where there is gore, foul language is sure to follow. Fortunately for parents, and young gamers, Gears of War 3 features a mature content filter that allows you to eliminate gore and foul language. Each option is controlled independently, which gives parents the option to filter whatever content the feel is inappropriate for their children.

As far as foul language is concerned, Gears of War 3 has its moments of vulgarity, but with Locust hordes on the offensive, who can blame the characters for using salty phrases. When

FFX coming to Sony's next generationportable and the PS3

So it's been about ten years since we were graced with Final Fantasy X. I don't know about you, but I liked that game and its sequel. So recently announced at the Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix will bring the PlayStation 2 role-playing game to the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3, the company announced today, giving the 2001 video game a high definition makeover.

The game's publisher called the HD remake of the game a "special 10th anniversary

The world's largest MMORPG hasn't reached its peak and has lots of potential, according to Blizzard.

Back in 2010, World of Warcraft obtaineda high number of 12 million+ subscribers to its game. But recently, the company's most recent stats show that the game has lost nearly 600,000 members. It is probably due to the rise of F2P (free to play) games showing up and taking people away from WOW, which runs on a paid subscription platform.With the rising number of free-to-play games, some think WOW's gone the way of the gaming industry's

Gearbox Software gives away free copies of Borderlands 2 at their PAX panel.

Randy Pitchford and the rest of the top staff of Gearbox Software decided to give a surprise for everyone who attended their panel at Pax Prime last week. It wasn't a preview on any new content for the first Borderlands nor was it free convention-only DLC content. They pulled off an Oprah and gave everyone in the audience

Hype for the upcoming Battlefield 3 release gets an added boost today, as the Physical Warfare Pack Trailer has been posted across the Internet. The newest Battlefield 3 promotional release highlights some of the games newest weapon classes, and demonstrates their devastating impact. EA is trying to demonstrate the intensive thought that went into making the game, and with recent increases in competition between EA and Activision this trailer is meant to display the best attributes of Battlefield 3.

Three devastating weapons are highlighted by the video, and I must admit that the game play and weapon classes are more than impressive; they are downright amazing. The type 88 LMG is introduced by a drop shot accompanied by at least a quad spray, and the weapon features a high rate of fire