If you had asked us what Ozzy Osbourne had in common with Bret Michaels just yesterday, we would have only been able to come up with "relentlessly unwatchable reality shows." But today we learn that both are members of the proud fraternity of artists featured in Guitar Hero games that aren't really known for playing guitar. G4 reported today that Ozzy would appear in Guitar Hero: World Tour, as would his tracks "Crazy Train" and "Mr. Crowley."

Arguably, Ozzy makes for a more logical addition now that the game includes singing as well as shredding. But we're still happy to hear that he'll be bringing actual guitar hero Zakk Wylde along for digitization.

[Via ScoreHero]

With Brett Favre booked for a one-way ticket out of retirement and into New York (as a Jet!), Madden NFL 09 will look decidedly vintage when it releases next week with Favre on the cover ... as a Packer. Some may attribute the gaffe to evidence of the "Madden Curse" at work (c'mon, it can do better than that!), but EA Sports boss Peter Moore assures, "There's a plan."

While IGN has already confirmed there will be no second printing -- Favre will remain a Packer on the surface of Madden 09, at least -- a Crispy Gamer interview with Moore and marketing director David Tinson published last week addressed the possibility of Favre switching teams; to which Moore offered his vague assurance. "It will ship with what you've seen. Yes. And then we'll have a plan if he's not [a Packer]," Tinson added. Day-one roster update confirmed!

Update: EA will indeed release a day-one update placing Favre on the Jets (and reflecting any other relevant roster changes), reports MTV Multiplayer. But that's not all: "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," a company spokesperson revealed to MTV. See, EA did have a plan! ... But if you're not feelin' it, why not make your own cover?

[Image credit: FirstCuts]

Ready to "beat it" with fire-lit butterfly wings? (Note to self: That came out wrong.) The latest issue of Stuff Magazine (via Guitar Hero Community) has a Guitar Hero World Tour preview, which lists nine confirmed tracks and five more confirmed artists. Although we already knew a few of those songs, five of them are new, including The Doors' "Light My Fire," Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" and -- yes, really -- Michael Jackson's "Beat It."

Additionally, two of the listed artists with "unknown" track contributions already have confirmed songs (Foo Fighters' "Everlong" and Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher"). Newcomers include Muse, Beastie Boys and Nirvana. We've compiled a list of confirmed GHWT tracks after the break.

The PS2's library is about to get a bit more toxic, as Atlus announced that it will localize Japan's Poison Pink in North America, calling the strategy RPG by the less interesting title, Eternal Poison. In typical Atlus fashion, the game looks decidedly niche, though if its promise of "a uniquely dark aesthetic" and "classic tactical gameplay" isn't enough to win you over, note that each copy will also come packaged with a soundtrack CD as well.

Developed by Flight Plan, the studio behind Summon Night, Eternal Poison may be difficult to cure, but you have until the game arrives at retail on November 11 to get inoculated. Until then, check out some screenshots and the game's opening movie below.

Here we are again, another month, and another 31 days of gaming possibility. August of 2008 is actually faring a bit better than stinky, unsatisfying predecessor July of 2008, with a handful of titles we can't wait to take for a spin, and a few that we might carve out a few minutes for.

So, what are we waiting for? Read on, savvy shopper! Read on!

We were about to hit this week's new releases, but then we thought "Hey, aren't there enough video games on Joystiq? Wouldn't it be better if we took a time out to talk about other stuff people like? Like books?" So, let's do this. ... Wow, so, books, right? Don't you totally love them? Like the way you have to hold them up to your face to see the squiggles? And the way you can't see them in the dark?

ARRGGH! OK! We give! We can't pretend like we know how to read for one second longer, we just couldn't face the prospect of elevating one of this week's games above the others. Do you know how bad things have to get before you consider letting the Cheetah Girls and Hannah Montana share the title? Pretty freaking bad, that's how bad. If you need proof, see the full list after the break.

We've grown quite content to simply sit on our fat surpluses and crank out Japanese hardware sales charts to the enraptured masses week after week -- however, the all-important figures you see at the bottom of every entry seem to always get lost in a maelstrom of eloquent prose. We thought long and hard about how to improve the format of these posts without changing the time-tested formula that has served us so well over the years -- surprisingly, we decided to take a cue from the MMO market. Yes, after months of silent development, we're proud to announce the first ever expansion to this distinguished feature: Japanese Hardware Sales: Rise of the Lavender Fluke.

This exciting addition is currently in ultra-secret closed epsilon testing, and the feedback we've been receiving has been entirely positive. Well, except for all the complaints, bug reports, vulgar e-mails, death threats, and one actual attempt on our lives. Aside from that, we're pretty optimistic that we can hit the Q1 2009 release date we set for ourselves -- though our development team mistook Q1 2009 to mean "one quinquennium from 2009", so it should actually be arriving sometime in 2014. Trust us, it's worth it.

We've got the full list of updates and changes featured in JHS:RotLF posted after the jump. Make sure you check them out -- but not before paying your dues to the facts and figures posted below. We would hate for you to miss any of the excitement.

- PSP: 67,452 6,572 (8.88%)
- DS Lite: 56,968 2,437 (4.47%)
- Wii: 41,024 221 (0.54%)
- PS3: 10,692 561 (4.99%)
- PS2: 9,291 244 (2.56%)
- Xbox 360: 4,941 733 (17.42%)

[Source: Media Create]

See: The pre-expansion archives

Last year's Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia was one of the strangest titles we'd ever played from NIS America, and coming from a company that let us possess watering cans in Phantom Brave and do turn-based strategy as a side-scroller in GrimGrimoire, that's saying something. Offering equal parts role-playing and old school adventure, it was the included dating sim-style mechanics and the game's near-constant stream of sexual innuendo that gave Ar tonelico its unique, acquired tasted.

NIS America now drops word that it plans to release the sequel this December for the PS2. According to the publisher, this time around Ar tonelico 2 will challenge players by having them manage relationships between the game's sultry mechanical dolls known as Reyvateils, adding that "if their emotions are more closely synced, the stronger the magic becomes." We knew there was a reason to keep the PS2 around...magic lesbian robots.

[Thanks, Dennis]

In an effort to create more realistic fake instruments, Logitech is partnering with Activision on a line of "premium" peripherals for the latter's upcoming Guitar Hero World Tour. Multiple products are in development, although Logitech would not comment on exactly what they are, confirming only that the first of them will hit this year. Given that it already has the market cornered on USB microphones (nearly every music game's mic is made by Logitech) we're guessing all educated-like that guitars and drums are the core of the lineup. Also, while this news is obviously geared toward hyping World Tour, we're looking into potential Rock Band compatibility for the products.

The peripherals are being designed to work with every platform Guitar Hero World Tour is launching on, specifically PS3, 360, Wii, and PS2. Logitech gaming devices VP Bruce Lancaster likens this move to the one the company made with steering wheels for Gran Turismo, saying, "A few years ago, Logitech refined the consumer steering wheel market with high-end controllers that enhance racing games. Now we are looking forward to elevating the market for premium music-based video game controllers in a similar fashion." Here's hoping that one of the "premium" drumkit features is a steel kick pedal like the one used by our house band, the Blueberry Muffintops. What would you like to see?

Monolithic publisher EA has reported the preliminary financial results for its first fiscal quarter, ended June 30, 2008, and noted a dramatic increase in net revenues. Despite sales rising $409 million to $804 million (more than double that of Q1 2007's $395 million), the publisher still suffered a net loss of $95 million, which according to our admittedly rudimentary mathematical abilities, is smaller than the previous year's $132 million. We want net loss to be smaller, right?

EA's rise in sales can be attributed to the strong commercial performance of titles like UEFA Euro 2008, the "continued strength" of Rock Band and Battlefield: Bad Company, which managed to shift 1.6 million copies. "We are now seeing the early returns of the change agenda we started last year," stated CEO John Riccitiello. He went on to use words like "innovation" and "quality" to describe EA's forthcoming lineup, calling it "the best title portfolio in the company's history." We would totally agree, especially after experiencing the publisher's strong E3 showing ... but we're worried that doing so might just trigger Armageddon.

OK, Sony fans, there's good news and there's bad news, which do you want first? ... Bad? OK. Sony's profits from April to June dropped to ¥34.98 billion ($326.9 million), which is about half as much as it made during the same period last year. (Ouchers!) The problems came from the lack of a big summer hit like Spider-Man 3, poor performance from Sony Ericsson and other factors.

So what's the good news? Well, the video game division (earnings dead weight for quite some time) actually battled back to put up ¥5.4 billion (around $50 million) in profit after PlayStation 3 shipments rose to 1.56 million, a far cry from what we were hearing last October. It ... lives!

Yesterday's news that Activision Blizzard was only holding onto a select few Vivendi/Sierra properties going forward didn't look good for those awaiting the seemingly triumphant return of Ghostbusters. We contacted Sierra about the game's absence from Blizzavision's "to keep" list, and whether said omission spelled doom for the Ecto-1 crew. Good news, everyone: the game's not giving up the ghost.

A spokesperson for Sierra confirmed that, "First and foremost, the game is absolutely not canceled." But does it have a publisher? "[Sierra] is reviewing its options regarding those titles that it will not be publishing," we were told.

While not explicitly stated, it definitely sounds like Sierra has begun the process of shopping its remaining titles around to other publishers. These include Double Fine's hotly anticipated heavy metal adventure Brütal Legend. We're still awaiting word on its fate, but can't imagine Tim Schafer and crew letting a little publisher scuffle stop the rock.

OK, so you can color us confused. The end of the stunningly rad Spider-Man: Web of Shadows trailer we've put right after the jump seems to end with a glimpse of an alien symbiote bonded with lovable gruffster Wolverine. But we could have sworn the last time that happened the symbiote was forced out by Logan's mutant healing factor. Are we alone here?

OK, niggling continuity issues aside, if the combat is half as cool in Shaba's game as this video makes it look, we could finally be in for a game where we feel like the Webhead both when we're spinning webs any size and catching thieves just like flies. And we can't wait.

Try as we might to fully embrace the idea, the inclusion of Yoda and Darth Vader to the Soul Calibur series still feels like something we would have dreamed when we were 12, told our friends about and then been mercilessly teased for. In fact, we won't be entirely sure the whole thing's not an elaborate prank being pulled on us by Namco-Bandai until we get our hands on a retail disc, which, appropriately enough, will be this week.

Also this week, Sam and Max come to the Wii, as does the completely mystifying Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge. We hear you can train to be the top runner guy and get the platinum medallion for running challenges.