Microsoft has told CNET that at least 2 million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook through Xbox 360 in the week since the two services were integrated, and that half a million Last.fm accounts were created in the first 24 hours of availability.

No figures have been released on Twitter use through 360, but according to a rep, there have been “tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live.”

A tenth of all Live users have accessed Facebook through 360 in a week? Amazing scenes.

No Doubt sues Activision over use in Band Hero

Matthew Hopson
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Rock group “No Doubt” have filed a law-suit over the band’s appearance in Band Hero, Activision’s latest spin-off of the Guitar Hero video game franchise. The group contend that the game has transformed them into “a virtual karaoke circus act,” singing the songs of other bands.

In the suit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Country Superior Court, No Doubt allege that Activision broke the contractually agreed use of the in-game likenesses of band members Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont and Adrian Young.

Band manager, Jim Guerinot said, “The band are bitterly disappointed that their name and likeness was taken and used without their permission. They agreed to play three No Doubt songs as a band. . . . Activision then went and put them in 62 other songs and broke the band up [and] never even asked.”

According to the LA Times, No Doubt’s contract with Activision allowed the Santa Monica-based company to use the band’s avatars in no more than three of their own songs. The game allows players to place them, as a group or individuals, into more than 60 songs, “many of which include lyrics, contained in iconic songs, which are not appropriate for No Doubt and have not been and would not have been chosen by No Doubt for recordings or public performances.”

It specifically notes that the game allows Stefani’s image to sing the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.” The complaint says, “While No Doubt are avid fans of the Rolling Stones and even have performed in concerts with the Rolling Stones, the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes.”

The complaint also alleges that executives at Activision failed to disclose the character-manipulation feature, refusing to remove or disable it for the No Doubt avatars once the band learned of it. According to the suit, Activision told the band that it would be “too expensive.”

The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of actual and punitive damages, a temporary restraining order against the game, as well preliminary and permanent injunctions against distribution of the game, including a recall of existing copies.

A spokesman for Activision told the LA Times that they had not seen the complaint and had no comment.

In September, the widow and former bandmates of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain complained about the use of his likeness in Guitar Hero 5. In that case, Activision said they had received written permission from his widow to use him as a fully playable character, however she Twittered that she

“never signed [off] on the avatar.”

By MATT RICHTEL; Compiled by DAVE ITZKOFF

Published: May 15, 2009

Video game sales in the United States totaled $1 billion for April, 17 percent lower than in April 2008, according to NPD, the market research firm. This is the second consecutive month in which sales have fallen sharply compared with a year ago, suggesting that the industry is not as recession-proof as it had hoped. Software sales fell 23 percent, while sales of consoles and handheld players dropped 8 percent. In a news release Anita Frazier, an analyst at NPD, said, “This year’s performance still represents the second-best performance for the industry in the month of April.” But it also represents a sharp drop-off, as sales of major consoles have been falling month after month. In February Nintendo sold 753,000 Wii machines but sold only 601,000 in March and 340,000 in April. Microsoft sold 391,000 Xbox 360s in February, 330,000 in March and 175,000 in April.  story source

video game adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, shot up an easy win at the box office, even as two of the weekend’s other new releases — The Secret Life of Bees and W. — performed nicely, finishing in line with their respective estimates.

The No. 1 action flick grossed $18 million from Friday through Sunday. Although not quite on par with the debut totals of some other game-based movies, like the most recent Resident Evil films, which blew away more than $23 mil in their premieres, Max Payne’s premiere number is a marked improvement on the first-weekend sums of Wahlberg’s previous two gun-totin’ flicks, last fall’s cop drama We Own the Night ($10.8 mil) and early 2007’s Shooter ($14.5 mil). And here’s another sort of backhanded compliment: It’s a good thing the movie earned as much as it did this weekend, for its lamentable CinemaScore grade of C portends a limited audience in the coming weeks.

Quarterback Brett Favre will be available to play as a New York Jet on the day “Madden NFL ‘09” is released next week. We just got word from EA that the game will still ship with Favre on the cover in his old Green Bay Packers uniform, but the following updates will make him a Jet.

Fast work on EA’s part, given that the Favre deal only made the news several hours ago.

Here are the details we got from EA, in the words of a company spokesperson:

**Madden NFL 09 will hit stores on Aug 12 with Brett Favre on the cover in his Green Bay Packers uniform.

**We do not plan to re-issue packaging, but WILL offer a free downloadable cover in the coming days on easports.com featuring Brett Favre in a Jets uniform. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09. Fans can print this new cover out and insert it into the case of Madden NFL 09.

**We’ll have a roster update available on August 11 with Brett Favre on the NY Jets. The game ships with Brett on an all-time greats team, but with the roster update that will be downloadable when product is available at retail, Brett Favre will be the starting QB for the New York Jets. The roster update is not mandatory - unless you are planning an online head to head game, or online league.