When a gaming company manages to churn out a hit franchise, we'd most probably think that they hit paydirt, like what Activision did when they came up with the Guitar Hero series of games. However, the benefits of coming up with a great title may be a bit of a bane as well.

According to analyst Mike Hickey from Janco Partners, the emerging competition resulting from Activision's Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk franchises may prove to be "damaging for growth prospects".

Of course, when talking about Guitar Hero's and Tony Hawk's competition, it can only mean Harmonix' Rock Band (for the Xbox 360, PS3) and EA's Skate (also for the Xbox 360 and PS3). Hickey said that Rock Band may prove to be a compelling option in the console music gaming genre, which may eventually mean trouble for Activision itself.

Hickey said that analysts are expecting the Guitar Hero series to develop and evolve with the addition of new music peripherals in the near future, which will help the franchise in staying afloat in the midst of competition.

International Cyber Marketing Inc. has just revealed the final roster of games that players will be able to compete in at the upcoming World Cyber Games 2007 to be held in Seattle this October. Last month, we gave you a brief update on three more games that were added to the list of playable games, namely FIFA 07 Soccer, Age of Empires III, and Age of Empires III: the War Chiefs.

So with no further ado, here's the full list of games to be featured in the upcoming WCG 2007:

PC:

• WarCraft III: Frozen Throne
• StarCraft: Brood War
• Half-Life: Counter-Strike
• FIFA Soccer 07
• Need For Speed: Carbon
• Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
• Age of Empires III: The WarChiefs

Xbox360:

• Gears of War
• Dead or Alive 4
• Project Gotham Racing 3
• Tony Hawk's Project 8
  

Jake Shears and the rest of Scissor Sisters will be performing alongside an amazing line up of DJ and snowboarding talent playing in a series of unique Game with Fame events at the Xbox Big Day Out in Val d’Isère, France.

The band will team up with the likes of French DJ and producer Martin Solveig, UK superstars Fabio & Grooverider and Quiksilver riders including Mathieu Crepel, Danny Wheeler and Jakob Wilhelmson to take on gamers across Europe, direct from the Alps later this month.

If you want to take these guys on, click on the "full article" link below. The events will take place following each day’s competition on the slopes on February 27, February 28 and March 1.

More info after the jump!

It's the first day after Christmas, but who says the parties need to be over? If you'll head on to Target online, you'll see that it's just about to get rolling, in fact. Starting at 7:00 a.m., December 26 to 30, you might want to check some cool deals on games for your freshly unwrapped Christmas next-gen consoles gifts.

We heard some titles will be sold for around US$ 39, so we thought we should share it with you guys. For the Wii, you can grab the blockbuster title Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. As early as now, Chicken Little: Ace in Action as well as Wii Shrek Smash 'N Crash already carries that tag. For the Xbox 360, Gears of War is in the list.

The other titles you can grab at this bargain are Final Fantasy XII, Tony Hawk's Project 8 as well as Marvel: Ultimate Alliance.

Douglas Perry over at IGN made a list of the games released since September for the Xbox 360. There were six exclusives (three of them were Burger King games). Here's his list:

• 6 exclusives: Gears of War, Viva Pinata, Dead or Alive Extreme 2, three Burger King games (Sneak King, Big Bumpin', Pocketbike Racer)
• 2 games on Xbox 360 but not PS3: Splinter Cell Double Agent, WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2007
• 6 games on Xbox 360 before PS3: F.E.A.R., Rainbow Six: Vegas, Need For Speed Carbon, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Tony Hawk's Project 8, Call of Duty 3

The big title there is Gears of War. Microsoft's other big fall title is Viva Pinata - you knew that, Microsoft said this title would, along with Gears of War, capture the end-of-year shopping season. And what did IGN have to say about the rest of the games - well, the following don't sound too good:

• Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 won't sell half million copies in the next six months, said Perry, because it's just a "girlfriend simulator" and "soft core niche material."
• Splinter Cell is an "exclusive by default" that was cancelled for PS3 because it couldn't be done on time.
• Tony Hawk, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Call of Duty 3, are all sequels ("as dull as you can get," said Perry, "predictable, unoriginal, and franchise material"). It's the third Call of Duty, and the Tony Hawk title is Tony Hawk Project 8 - and it's eight years running - it's got its fans, but that's it. Ultimate Alliance is "the same old Diablo-style button-mashing action-RPG."
  

As we were reading Perry's article, we kept thinking, "It's no big deal, Halo 3 and Lost Planet are coming out next year" - Perry did eventually mention these games at the end of his article - and we also kept thinking "Microsoft knows what it's doing" - Perry did eventually come to that. In other words, these are common thoughts and doubts for any Xbox gamer.

But what's the big problem? Perry is concerned that Microsoft will not win the console war if it continues to have such thin line-ups. While we agree with him that this second-year line-up is a bit thin, who's to say that every year's line-up will be like this fall? Surely Microsoft will continue to try to get exclusives. Surely they'll try to get more successful titles like Gears of War.

In the end, we're not too concerned. Not after reading Robbie Bach's interview where he showed that Microsoft really does have a plan. Yes, Dead or Alive isn't as, um, "big" as Gears of War. And Marvel plays like an RPG. But they each have an audience. And they're still fun and worth playing - it's not like they're hurting the console; they're still helping it along.

Also, the second-year games line-up of a console is not all there is to determining the fate of the Xbox 360. Because it's not all there is. The future has more games. The present has Xbox Live, good gaming (not a lot of titles, but enough), excellent value for your money... And we're still here, the Xbox 360 community: still going strong.

To celebrate the release of Tony Hawk's Project 8 in Australia, Activision and MySpace would want to shower you with goodies and all sorts of prizes. What goodies? What prizes? Well, you could be at the receiving end of over AU$ 40,000 worth of prizes including killer clothes, Nixon watches, Element Skateboards, and a Soft Top Jeep Wrangler Sport.

So what should you do and what do you need to enter this contest? You need a video camera and a MySpace account. Contestants need to visit a MySpace page before January 10, 2007 and upload videos of themselves doing whatever it is they do best (keep it wholesome, you guys). Just make sure that it is creative, innovative, and helps spread the Project 8 word.

Plus, the most creative vids with the most views have a chance of winning some gears for Element and Nixon. An Xbox 360 is also up for grabs. The three best customized MySpace pages will also receive Element clothes and skateboards, and Nixon watches. So come on, Aussies! Live up to the challenge!

The Internet is for pr0n, the Internet is for pr0n... Xbox Live is for Arcade, Xbox Live is for microtransactions... Xbox Live is for cheating - not anymore! And in an interview with Xbox Community Network, and picked up by Xboxic, Tony Hawk Project 8 project lead Brian Bright reveals one more thing the Internet Xbox Live is good for:

XCN: Will the analogue trick based system allow for more of an individual style rather than the million points do the same trick in a circle thing? Do you think that the original games essentially became about high point exploits?

Bright: ... The games have been about skill and navigating the lines in the world. If someone finds a bug in the game to get a high score, as in the demo, we can title update. That’s the beauty of Live. The ability to fix issues that could spoil the experience of the online players down the road... There are entire clans out there whose main mission is to find exploits in our games. Now with Live we can stop them and even the playing field!

There are entire clans out there who're not going to like that revelation from Mr. Bright. Oh, well. THP8 will also have a more robust leaderboard than American Wasteland. There will be 8-player online, career mode leaderboards, best combo, longest grind, so on and so forth. "The addition of these boards extends the replay ability beyond even the sick ending of the game." We'd like to ask: any leaderboards for the most painful nutters?

One thing Xbox Live is not for, as far as Neversoft's THPS8 is concerned, is downloadable content. Bright tells XCN that from the start, they've decided to provide "the best value for the consumer in the box. We are not currently planning to do downloadable content for Project 8". Now that's very much old-school thinking right there, and given some recent developments in Xbox Live, we're probably going to hear a few cheers in the comments.

There're more details about Tony Hawk Project 8 for the Xbox 360 in the XCN interview (picked up by Xboxic) that you can catch by simply clicking "Read" below. But everything on this page's about the online part of the game, and besides, we're still busy singing with Trekkie Monster. The Xbox Live is for...

From the fellows at Joystiq comes this strange and potentially annoying tidbit for 360 and PS3 gamers. According to the German gaming site Games-Aktuell, two of Activision's latest titles aren't running as well as they should be.

Call of Duty 3 and Tony Hawk's Project 8 are apparently running at less than 720p. In this case, COD 3 is running at 1040x620 pixels, while Tony Hawk's latest skateboard game is at 1040x580. Not exactly the kind of stellar looks one would expect to see on new Xbox 360 titles.

In either case, it doesn't seem to be for the purpose of increasing framerates as Project 8 still has framerate woes, so Joystiq asks a rather pertinent question. Additional follow-up reveals that Activision Germany is looking into the problem, though they weren't aware of it originally.

Now, how does this affect PS3 gamers? Well, if the same little problems that popped up in the Xbox 360 versions are a result of bad coding, then there's a pretty good chance new owners of PS3s will not be getting the kind of gameplay they were expecting from the two titles upon purchasing the system. Not exactly the response to Gears of War that Activision was hoping CoD 3 could be, but oh well. Still, here's to hoping they find out what's wrong and fix it.

Tony Hawk seems to be following Tiger Woods' footsteps. No, Tony won't drop his skateboard for golf clubs mind you, it's just that after we got hold of a Tiger Woods PS3-360 comparison video, here comes yet another one. But this time, it's Tony Hawk's Project 8 (PS3, Xbox360) that'll be put up for comparison.

Now, this is not to spawn yet another console war, but rather, this is to see whether there really are differences in the way the game was developed for both consoles. It's kinda funny though 'coz personally, I don't see much difference. The video quality is kinda crappy so it comes out pixelated, but seriously, if you don't pay attention to the lower left hand corner where it shows which console the clip is taken from, you probably won't notice the difference too. I mean there were no snappy "Ah! That's on PS3!" comments.

But hey, that's just me. So check out the vid yourself and let us know what you think.

Didn't your mother ever tell you never to release a game if Gears of War has an Emergence Day? Tee-hee. We kid. Tony Hawk's got a lot of backing on his games, too. Heck, he's cool enough to even release the PS3 version of his next game even before the console is out!

Anyways, yes folks! Despite the tidal wave of Emergence Day posts that we've posted, we won't let a sports game like this pass by. As of now, Activision's Tony Hawk's Project 8 for the PS3 and Xbox 360 has been shipped to retailers and is available for US$ 59.99 (either which version). While the next-gen versions are already out, the PSP one is still wrapped up for a late-November release.

Now you can get to compete with the world's top amateurs and climb your way into Tony Hawk's Project 8 Team. It's going to be a skate-match to be the best of the best. And no, it's not about the gears of war...it's about the tricks of skating.