Sonic Solutions has just announced that it will begin offering movies from its catalog to Fujisoft's streaming Wii video service, Minna no Theater Wii. The Roxio CinemaNow service, as offered through Minna no Theater, will offer both new releases and older titles from the Paramount archives, to users of the downloadable WiiWare video streaming application, which is currently available only in Japan. Though Lionsgate content isn't specified in this agreement, it's worth noting that Cinemanow also distributes movies from that company, an executive of which predicted an agreement much like this.Minna no Theatre is one of two WiiWare-based streaming video offerings, the other being Nintendo's Wii no Ma Channel, which is currently focused on original programming. Fujisoft has indicated plans to release Minna no Theater in North America.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

It looks like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison have more to do with The Beatles: Rock Band than thrilling journalists at Microsoft's E3 media briefing. In an interview with Crispy Gamer, the game's lead designer, Chris Foster, intimated that the former Beatles, along with Ono and Harrison, have shared quite a bit of input with the team at Harmonix.Foster calls the group "the shareholders," and states that they helped put together the song list, its venues and gave input as to whether the game's "dreamscapes" adequately supported the songs. "They looked over all the characters, the animations ... they really kept us honest on whether we were capturing the spirit of the band as they were performing, which was a huge challenge for us," says Foster, noting that it's necessary to capture the joy that The Beatles expressed when playing.According to Foster, seeing the former Beatles and their widows at Microsoft's E3 briefing "is about as validating as everything." He adds, "They don't get together for almost anything ... it has to be something important, something they believe in."Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The artist who helped inspire the graphic style of the Wii and PS2 versions of Ghostbusters is angry for being omitted from the game's credits. According to a blog post by artist Dan Schoening, Sony and Sierra -- the original publisher of the game before it was picked up by Atari, following the Activision/Blizzard merger -- "100% guaranteed" he would be credited for his help in shaping the final look of the two versions of the recently released title. "For a game that in many ways is heavily influenced by my work, is it too much to ask for some acknowledgment?," Schoening wrote over the weekend.Yesterday, Red Fly Studio (the team behind the Wii/PS2 versions) CEO Dan Borth defended his company's position to Kombo. According to Borth, many people responsible for the game were omitted for the simple reason that there wasn't enough room. "After Sony, Vivendi, Atari all got their credits we had few spaces for ourselves and the others who worked on the games with us -- Zen Studios, War Drum studios, etc," Borth said. "Many people didn't make it and they worked many, many more hours on this game than Mr. Dan I can assure you. Does that make it right? No it doesn't. That's just how it played out.Borth admits that Schoening's name was omitted, but is adamant that it was not done intentionally. While not having "space" for the artist's credit is one of the saddest attempts at an excuse we've ever heard, Borth apologized to Schoening for the omission and thanked him for his work on the dev's official blog.[Via TrueGameHeadz. Image credit: Dan Schoening]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

It seems as though there are dissenting voices coming from the cast of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen regarding Nintendo's Wii console. Why, just the other day, Shia LaBeouf expressed to the world his discontent with the system and those employing it for gaming -- that group of people apparently including his cast mate, Megan Fox. In an interview with WhatTheyPlay.com, Fox said, "I'm totally a fan of the Wii, I'm just not good at it." As LaBeouf (S. Beef to us) noted in his interview with Joystiq sister site Big Download, the two were playing LEGO Star Wars most recently, though Fox has some rather specific complaints about the game, telling the interviewer, "One thing I don't like about that game is that if one person is lagging behind and wants to check something out, and you're running ahead, you drag the screen with you -- you can't stay separate when you're playing on a team together ... that becomes annoying." Point taken! Apparently the lady knows her games, eh? Care for a guest column, Ms. Fox?Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments