Michael Jackson: The Experience Message Board

I started at Ubisoft around the time that we launched the first iterations of Michael Jackson The Experience. Being a longtime fan of the King of Pop, I always hoped that I could experience the game on the road. With Michael Jackson The Experience coming to PS Vita on February 14th, my wish has been granted!

In Michael Jackson The Experience, you’ll experience the King of Pop’s chart-topping tracks as you draw shapes and tap on both of PS Vita’s multi touch pads to the beat and choreography of the Michael Jackson avatar. You’ll play through 15 HD scenes inspired by Michael Jackson’s iconic music videos and short films, including “Smooth Criminal”, “Thriller”, “Remember the Time” and many more, all with high-definition quality graphics. Master each of those performances and unlock collectibles and rewards, including alternative outfits and special effects. Michael Jackson The Experience will also have song-based leaderboards and an online Dance Battle mode, giving you a reason to to keep playing these classics over and over again.

Gamers and Michael Jackson fans can pick up Michael Jackson The Experience on February 14 in preparation for PS Vita’s launch — and just in time for the release of the First Edition Bundle. Thanks for checking out our series of PS Vita launch title posts this week on PlayStation.Blog. As you can see, we’re eager to see the platform launch!

I couldn't tell you who these people are, but they're sure happy to be a part of the Michael Jackson: The Experience launch event! I wonder if the game will sell well in Japan.

#watchthis Experience the excitement. Experience the magic. For the umpteenth time. But in glasses-free 3D. After being released on the PSP, the PS3 (Move), the Xbox 360 (Kinect), the Wii, and the Nintendo DS, Michael Jackson: The Experience is moonwalking its way onto the Nintendo 3DS this fall. More »

Ubisoft's Just Dance and its successful clones like Michael Jackson: The Experience, along with Harmonix's Dance Central, have established the dance genre as a viable market for milking. Now the industry must play the delicate game of sucking the marrow dry without creating a zombie.

Gamasutra hit up go-to industry analysts Michael Pachter and Jesse Divnich for their takes on the sustainability of the genre. Both analysts essentially characterized dance games as part of a bubble that is largely unaffected by critical reception (UK hit Zumba Fitness has a 43 on Metacritic). "In short, yes, the dance category is a bubble," said Divnich, "much like most things in entertainment."

That doesn't mean that the bubble is about to burst -- or that the bottle of suds is close to empty. At least, Ubisoft is planning to keep on dipping in. The publisher's Tony Key teased that Michael Jackson: The Experience is "just the first 'The Experience' brand." He added that there's no reason why "another artist can't make a great dance game under 'The Experience brand,'" but didn't pitch any bright ideas. The Smurfs, anyone?

SAN FRANCISCO - Today Ubisoft announced that Michael Jackson The Experience is now available in North America for both Kinect for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system with Move motion controller compatibility and will hit the EMEA store shelves on April 14th (April 15th in the UK...

Become the King of Pop as the Experience moonwalks onto store shelves on PlayStation Move and Kinect!

Michael Jackson: The Experience -- Just Dance's cousin, once removed on the Ubisoft side -- has sold over three million units worldwide. Ubisoft tells MCV that the Wii, DS and PSP versions have sold 319,000 units in the UK, meaning that the island nation is responsible for 11 percent of the global guilt burden.

The news comes just ahead of the game's PS3 and Xbox 360 Kinect release next week. The latest versions will feature upgraded visuals, some bonus tracks and full body tracking on Kinect -- speaking of which, the "Smooth Criminal" lean is still impossible without the special shoes, so don't feel bad.

The experience of being the King of Pop comes to Kinect on Xbox 360.

Walmart is offering up two exclusives on pre-orders for upcoming games this week. First up, Ubisoft's Michael Jackson: The Experience is available for pre-order on Xbox 360 and PS3 via retailer's site right now. Not only is the game on sale for $46.54, but you'll get the exclusive track "Another Part of Me" -- featured in Captain EO and in the old Moonwalker arcade game -- as part of the deal.

There's also a promotion going down with SOCOM 4, where you can pre-order the game and get an exclusive SU90-S Shotgun to use right away (as opposed to, say, GameStop's exclusive map). Let's see: a gun or an entire map? Hmmm ...

Michael Jackson's music is legendary. It makes sense that such magnificent work would find its way into videogames, which happened last year with Michael Jackson: The Experience. The Wii, DS, and PSP versions were all released in late 2010, but the PS3 and 360 versions have yet to come. If you want to dance to hits like Billie Jean, Thriller, and Smooth Criminal, read on...

Ubisoft today reported sales figures for its fiscal-year third quarter, which ended December 31, 2010. For the period, the French publisher recorded €600 million ($809 million) in total software sales, up just over 21 percent from the same quarter in 2009 (though factoring in constant exchange rates -- nearly 60 percent of sales were made in North America -- year-over-year growth was closer to 15 percent).

In 2010's three-month holiday period alone, Ubisoft shipped a staggering 10.5 million copies of dance titles, which included Just Dance, Just Dance 2, Just Dance Kids, Michael Jackson: The Experience and Dance on Broadway. Additionally, the company claimed an 18 percent market share of the Kinect platform in the US (and 21 percent in Europe), following its push to become the "top third-party publisher" for Microsoft's successful motion-control add-on. Ubisoft put its Kinect game shipments at over 2 million -- "a very nice level of profitability," CEO Yves Guillemot said in an investor call today -- for the fiscal third quarter.

Add in all those copies of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Ubisoft outsold its projected quarterly sales total by €80 million ($108 million), bringing its nine-month fiscal 2010-11 year sales up to €861 million ($1.16 billion) -- a marked increase over the €661 million in sales generated during the same period in 2009, and making it a near certainty that the company will return to profitability at the end of its current fiscal year (on March 31, 2011). With a relatively quiet fourth quarter of scheduled releases, however, the publisher anticipates its total fiscal-year sales to reach only €1.02 billion. Still, "cash flow generation is expected to be positive."

Someone whose name has been lost to history once said, "Don't stop 'til you get enough." And that's exactly what Michael Jackson fans have done with Ubisoft's Michael Jackson: The Experience. Fans have not stopped buying the game to the tune of two million copies so far -- what Ubisoft's declared a "global holiday hit" -- in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, across the currently available Wii, DS and PSP releases.

As for the forthcoming PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, Ubisoft has announced you'll be able to pantomime along to the hits using Kinect or Move on April 12 in North America, and on April 14 in EMEA territories. Additionally, the "Blood on the Dance Floor" and "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" songs will be exclusive to these versions, "with additional tracks to be revealed soon."

He's still got it.

Gran Turismo 5 ran out of gas after its debut week, dropping 61 percent in sales and into fourth place on Chart-Track's UK All Formats chart. The top three titles were Call of Duty: Black Ops, FIFA 11 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The big premieres for the week were Donkey Kong Country Returns and Super Mario All-Stars 25th Anniversary at 13 and 22, respectively.

So, last week we almost neglected to mention Disney Epic Mickey, because it didn't make the Top 40. We thought its performance might have been an anomaly ... until it missed out again on the Top 40 and maintained its place at #11 on the Wii Chart. Not a good sign.

Comparatively, Ubisoft's Michael Jackson: The Experience, which debuted down at #38 last week, had a thriller of a second week, shooting up to sixth place. It's now holding hands with Ubisoft's stalwart Just Dance franchise, which had its numerical sequel in the fifth spot. Find the full UK top ten after the break.

We haven't heard much about the actual quality of Michael Jackson: The Experience's DS iteration, but its anti-piracy measures are absolutely top-notch. Pirates who have downloaded ROMs of the game -- for ... some reason -- have reported that two major problems have found their way into the illicit version of the game: Many of the game's touchscreen controls are rendered non-functional, and also, oh yeah, a vuvuzela just happens to be blaring over all the songs.

While the infamous party horn adds a little something something to MJ's mixes, it probably makes it a little difficult to keep up with the dancing. Check out a brief, off-screen video of the anti-piracy horn in action posted after the jump.

MJ's dance game reportedly offering a creative solution to piracy.

#ds Some publishers of Nintendo DS games like to install their own anti-piracy measures, which while being unable to prevent pirates from physically copying a game, can prevent people from enjoying those pirated copies. More »

Does it do justice to the King of Pop?

- Michael Jackson: The Experience mall tour - started late last month and runs up until Christmas Eve - stops at Queensgate in Peterborough, The Oracle in Reading and Bluewater in Kent - TV ad campaign running up until Christmas, - first spot appearing on The X Factor this weekend - Print ads will run in weekly women’s magazines - MSN [...]

Is it just us, or are the glowing, blank-faced dancers in the Just Dance games kind of uncanny-valley creepy? If you feel the same way, consider this a warning: this trailer features a bunch of gameplay from Michael Jackson: The Experience for Wii, which shares that style. Music's great, though.

A portion of a Nintendo Life review… While there’s enough fun to be had with the iconic routines to please fearless fans, there’s a disappointing lack of extras to elevate this beyond anything more than a glorified Michael Jackson track pack for Just Dance. It’ll rock with you, just don’t expect anything more.

People who buy the first run of the Wii version of Michael Jackson: The Experience will receive a sparkly glove. But one lucky Michael Jackson: The Experience owner will get an even more ostentatious (and valuable) glove, in addition to the regular one. A pair of gloves -- how unusual!

Five "golden tickets" are distributed in copies of the game, each one constituting an entry in a drawing for this replica Michael Jackson glove. Five additional contestants will be awarded entries on the game's Facebook page. Yes, it's a random drawing whose prize is an entry into another random drawing.

The glove is identical in design to a limited number of replicas given to celebrities to autograph and auction on Celebrity Buzz (the "Experience the Glove" campaign, Ubisoft and the Jackson estate are calling it), with proceeds going to a children's charity of that celebrity's choice. Currently, the only such glove on the site belongs to Whoopi Goldberg -- handily taking care of holiday shopping for that Whoopi Goldberg superfan in your family with the notoriously cold right hand.

Full track list revealed; Special Edition Glove included in initial Wii release, available while supplies last.

The magical golden glove for kids.