Genius Products Inc. (GNPR)

[fredman]

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ gets new help

Commotion Interactive will work to bring Scratch to the market in early 2010

If you kept up with my posts here, you’ll know how things are going with the DJ industry and the breakthrough it’s going to have in gaming. This happens by the two most anticipated music games and the first two DJ games to come out, DJ Hero from Activision and Scratch: The Ultimate DJ from Numark and Genius. This led to a hot contest between the two, especially since they are going to go head to head on a number of platforms, including PS3 and XBox 360, and unlike DJ Star, the other DJ game I talked about previously, they’re not isolated on a single platform (for DJ Star it’s Nintendo DS).

Also, you’ll know that in a capitalist world with brands the size of Activision, the contests are bound to be borderline unethical, and I even covered a little bit of the legal issues over Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, allegedly started by Activision through some shoving and pushing the developers around. The tactics apparently worked, since Numark and Genius are practically forced to move the release of their Scratch DJ game to the first quarter of 2010, even though a while back they even advertised Scratch will beat DJ Hero on the gaming market.

At least Scratch seems to be coming along nicely, or that’s what Fred Galpern, the Numark gaming products manager wants us to believe :"I cannot comment on anything related to our lawsuit against Activision; however we are confident Scratch will be a superior DJ gaming experience,… It is all moving forward nicely and we will have more music announcements in the future". Undoubtedly the legal issues with Activision had an impact on the game’s release, if nothing else. On the other hand, Numark is confident they’ll use the time well and develop their product to a superior level.

After Activision slid their way through to the Scratch: The Ultimate DJ source code by buying the developer at the time, 7 Studios, Numark and Genius now proceed to get new help for their first DJ game. They’ve decided on the Toronto based Commotion Interactive team, which is, at least theoretically, a good replacement for 7 Studios. Not only is the Commotion Interactive team young and experienced in programming games, with their portfolio spanning games from Rockstar, Ubisoft or EA giants, but they’re also music afficionados who produce hip hop tracks when they’re not making games.

Also, Commotion Interactive feels that Scratch: The Ultimate DJ will have the originality advantage over DJ Hero, as they seem confident they’ll be able to work with Numark to put the previously presented game controller to great use, making Scratch a reliable and realistic DJ experience. Numark showed off their controller for Scratch earlier, in the form of a touch sensitive turntable look-alike with iconic Akai MPC drumpads for the gamers to mix on.

Until 2010, gamers and DJs alike can only hope Commotion Interactive works well with Numark and Genius, so Scratch: The Ultimate DJ will be a DJ and music experience, although DJ Hero will get a nice few months worth of head start on the market. Hopefully for Numark (I told you I’m rooting more for them, just because Activision is all over the place anyway) they’ll manage to turn Scratch into an authentic DJ emulation that’s going to have an edge of some sort over their rivals at DJ Hero. Not long now until the release, so looking forward to seeing what the two games are capable of…

Source: http://www.workingdj.com/2009/08/10/scratch-the-ultimate-dj-gets-new-help/