Daily Marauder

GAMING

The breakout success of Activision’s “Guitar Hero” and MTV’s “Rockband” video games is providing a major boost to the recording industry as well as the bank accounts of some rock ‘n’ rollers from the old days. Case in point: Aerosmith, which recently signed off on “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,” sold 2,041 digital copies of its 1974 song “Same Old Song and Dance” last December and Alice Cooper has sold more than 12,000 digital copies of his 1972 anthem, “School’s Out.” (Advertising Age 7/2)

Sony acknowledged Wednesday that it had taken back its firmware 2.40 update for PlayStation 3 after customers began complaining about bugs shortly after its release Tuesday. A company spokesman, who said a “limited number of consumers” saw problems, said Sony would “identify a solution before we put the firmware back up.” (InformationWeek 7/2)

AOL has launched BigDownload.com, which will offer more than 400 free game downloads, trailers and demos in an effort to reach serious players who are searching for more niche titles beyond the top 25 or so available at AOL’s GameDaily.com site. The move is consistent with AOL’s strategy of attracting more ad revenue by building specialized sites to reach the increasingly fragmented online community. (MediaPost Communications 7/2)