In a sit down discussion with developer iNiS's Keiichi Yano, the chief creative officer for karaoke game Lips, Joystiq learned quite the factual load of Lips information. Informative highlights including mention that Lips will support both the Zune and iPod but will not use DRM'ed music, the microphone is in fact dongle'less, every song included will be a master track and feature the original music video and game scoring will be enabled with all custom tracks. You can jump towards the break to view Joystiq's compiled Lips information fact sheet. Lips'tastic!The microphone
- The wireless microphone will bind with the Xbox 360, no dongle required.
- It's unclear if it will work with other music games. When asked about Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour, Keiichi Yano told us, "That's a great idea. We would love to do that." Alas, it's up to those third-party devs to implement support for this peripheral.
- A second player can shake the microphone to instantly "jump in" to the song, no menus needed.
- They use 2 AA batteries, just like the Xbox 360 controller. Yanno said that, despite the motion-sensitivity and the lights, the battery life is pretty impressive already, on prototype hardware.
- Lips will be bundled with a black and a white controller
- Though they were only showing off the streaming functionality through a Zune, they assured us it would work just as simply through an iPod. When asked why they couldn't use one now, Yano responded, "Trust me. It works." We then crossed our arms and fell backwards into his waiting arms ...
- DRM'd songs can't be used, regardless of the DRM scheme used. So no Zune or iTunes songs.
- Lips will perform "vocal reduction" on your own songs, though they weren't showing the functionality off.
- You can be scored on your own songs.
- Audio from a Zune or iPod is streamed only, not downloaded, so you'll need to keep it nearby
- After telling us that they "actually don't know" if Lips will be able to read directly from your streaming media library (think iTunes) the way the Xbox 360 can, Yano said they'd like to implement the feature, which he followed up by saying "hint hint, wink wink, say no more." We asked him to repeat that in a British accent and he was all too happy to oblige.
- When asked if you would see your Avatar singing on the screen in the absence of a music video, they said they weren't talking about Avatars now.
- No word on how they'll implement lyrics or a beat chart for the songs, though Yanno promised it would be "very, very compelling."
- There are only three confirmed songs: "Mercy" by Duffy; "Young Folk" by Peter, Bjorn & John; and "Bust a Move" by Young MC
- All songs will be master tracks and will include the original music videos
- Rap songs work a little differently, it's not just about rhythm.
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
7-19-2008 @ 11:25PM
Tiptup300 said...
Companies don't want you to buy music! Why do you think DRM exists!?
7-19-2008 @ 7:18PM
Dwag said...
LOL who has a IPod and uses songs from ITunes when we got limewire?
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7-19-2008 @ 8:21PM
Jackattaak said...
Me? Limewire is great if you want a nice new virus but a decent song is worth paying 80p for, and if it isn't decent why do you want it?
Not trying to set off a piracy 'debate' here! Just my two pence.
7-20-2008 @ 9:45AM
SadisticHam said...
You're both wrong. It's called Torrents. Safe, grreat quality and free. Hell most of the time you can find Albums days, sometimes weeks before they even hit store shelfs. ;D
7-20-2008 @ 3:40PM
daddycool said...
Both of you thieving bastards are wrong. It's called Amazon MP3 and eMusic. Between those two you can get damn near anything, legal free of DRM.
I can see some misguided youths still using iTunes, but not Zune Marketplace (And I have a ZUne) If you've made this mistake, then QT Fairuse is what you need.
7-19-2008 @ 7:18PM
T-BoNe254 said...
LOL DONGLE.
anyway, cool.
ps. Anticrawl is right, the pic is not very good.
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7-19-2008 @ 7:20PM
Dwag said...
Still sounds gay to me.
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7-19-2008 @ 8:12PM
Jonah Falcon said...
Sounds gay? You mean it sounds awesome?
7-20-2008 @ 8:46PM
Arnon said...
Sounds... happy? I'm confused.
7-19-2008 @ 7:22PM
Water said...
^
People still use Limewire?
Wow...
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7-19-2008 @ 7:26PM
mrlittledebbie said...
youve purchased 1600 songs. holy crap.
torrents FTW.
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7-19-2008 @ 7:29PM
mrlittledebbie said...
i might actually get this game now. seems fun. kinda.
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7-19-2008 @ 8:08PM
The BS Police said...
So I guess I can sing along to my favourite bands like Def Leppard, The Cars, Styx, and Pink Floyd?
If it's a yes... awesome!
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7-19-2008 @ 8:12PM
Jonah Falcon said...
(sigh) If you're going to use Lips, either use:
http://blogs.dfw.com/startle_grams/images/stones_1.jpg
or this:
http://www.rockymusic.org/img/rhpsphotoscolor/RHPS-Lips.jpg
Reply
7-19-2008 @ 9:53PM
Clinton oxendine said...
this still seems stupid and thats a nasty arse picture. need to change it
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7-20-2008 @ 12:14AM
e.Missark said...
I don't understand these music games like Lips (Singstar) and Rockband. I just don't get what the hype is all about.
10 years ago, when Konami released a Guitar Hero-type game for the PS1 nobody cared. Now everyone is into these games. IMO it's a fad and nothing more.
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7-20-2008 @ 5:36AM
whistlepig said...
kinda like the wii ?
7-20-2008 @ 1:40AM
beavers_blake said...
I want the link to that pic O.O
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7-20-2008 @ 4:11AM
sevik said...
I'm looking forward to this one - It's about time we had a couple of social games.
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7-20-2008 @ 5:36AM
Dirty Whirlwind said...
From the looks of the trailer it didn't get the music from the guide. However it would be kind of weird to just make it compatible with Zune and iPod, but on the other side it would be stupid to market it as a
Zune or iPod only thing, if it actually had worked with other music devices. So, I guess this is a limited feature.
Fear not though, expect it to work kind of crappy if you want to sing along to lyrics.
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