New book predicts a healthy future.
Despite Guitar Hero's bubble bursting earlier this year, the music genre is in great shape and looks set for major growth over the next few years, according to a new book on the genre out this week.
Just Dance
Key events
14th February 2011
11th January 2011
7th May 2010
19th January 2010
26th November 2009
Just Dance 2 a record-breaker on Wii
Best-selling third-party Wii game ever.
Just Dance 2 is the best-selling third-party Wii game of all time, Ubisoft has announced.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood total sales
Ubisoft makes a killing on the dance floor.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood has now shipped 6.5 million copies around the world, Ubisoft has announced.
Coupled with 10.5 million shipped copies of various dance games - Just Dance 2, Just Dance, Michael Jackson: The Experience, Dance on Broadway and Just Dance Kids - and the Ubisoft smile was wider than ever: €600 million revenue for the three months ended 31st December 2010. That's 21.2 per cent higher than last year.
In the six months prior to that - April to September 2010 - Ubisoft had made €261 million.
Just Dance 2 tops 5 million sales
Ubisoft: It's "revitalised" the music genre.
Ubisoft's Wii floor-filler Just Dance 2 has sold more than five million copies worldwide since launch, the publisher has announced.
The franchise has now spent an impressive 45 weeks in the UK top 10 since the first game shimmied onto shelves back in November 2009.
The sequel, which Eurogamer's Oli Welsh deemed worthy of 8/10 when it launched last October, was the sixth best selling game of 2010 in the UK. The original game fared even better, coming in at third and beating out all first party Nintendo efforts.
Win the chance to star in it.
Ubisoft has revealed that a sequel to Wii exclusive Just Dance is on the way.
The news comes via the game's Facebook page, where there's a competition to "win the chance to star in the next Just Dance game".
Auditions are set to be held at "a secret central London location" on 29th May. A panel of judges, including Ashley Banjo of dance troupe Diversity, will choose the winner.
UK charts: Just Dance denies BFBC2
Dancing more popular than war death.
Just Dance is at the top of the UK all-formats chart again, after a week devoid of any noteworthy new challengers.
UK charts go gaga for Just Dance
Ubisoft's budget Wii game on top again.
Ubisoft's budget Wii party game Just Dance has hopped to the top of the UK all-formats Top 40 again.
UK charts: Just Dance staying alive
MW2 still at two, Dark Void plummets.
Ubisoft's surprise chart leader Just Dance has topped the UK all-formats top 40 for another week.
Gonna be surprisingly OK.
"Life after Bush and Gorbachev, the wall is down but something is lost / A fine little girl is waiting for me, but I'm as bent as Dostoevsky." So sang Iggy Pop in 1993. Who could have imagined that 17 years later, actual little girls would be jumping up and down to those words in front of their tellies? But then who could have imagined that Iggy Pop would be selling car insurance by then? Or that the world's best-selling console would be the one with the least processing power? Or that a game for that console, one where all you have to do is wave your arms about like it's 1993 and you're a massive tit, would turn out to be quite good?
At first glance, Just Dance doesn't look like it's going to be any good at all. The menus are low-rent and limited, pulling off old tricks like offering "Quick Play" and "Classic" modes as if they're different. The presentation suggests the development team has played a lot of SingStar and watched too many Apple adverts. The copywriter has tried to fill out the manual with advice about checking your batteries and making sure you have enough space to move, but there are still three blank pages for "notes" at the end.
This is because the instructions for how to play Just Dance could be written on the back of a postage stamp. In crayon. You hold the remote in your right hand and copy the dancer on screen. The end. There are no other peripherals - no dance mats, no balance boards, no bits of neoprene to strap to your thigh, not even any nunchuks. This means all you need for a four-player game is four Wii remotes and not an ounce of dignity between you.
UK charts: Just Dance defeats MW2
Ubisoft's Wii game comes from behind.
An unlikely champion has been found in Ubisoft's Wii game Just Dance, which has ended Modern Warfare 2's nine-week honeymoon atop the UK all-formats chart.
Ubisoft's new Wii workout game.
Ubisoft's new Wii workout game.
Ubisoft doing dance game for Wii
Burn calories safely, at home.
Ubisoft has announced party game Just Dance for release this autumn on Wii.