Lips details, Lips facts and Lips love

by Dustin Burg { Jul 19th 2008 at 6:15PM }

In a sit down discussion with developer iNiS's Keiichi Yano, the chief creative officer for karaoke game Lips, Joystiq learned quite the factual load of Lips information. Informative highlights including mention that Lips will support both the Zune and iPod but will not use DRM'ed music, the microphone is in fact dongle'less, every song included will be a master track and feature the original music video and game scoring will be enabled with all custom tracks. You can jump towards the break to view Joystiq's compiled Lips information fact sheet. Lips'tastic!

The microphone

The wireless microphone will bind with the Xbox 360, no dongle required.
It's unclear if it will work with other music games. When asked about Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour, Keiichi Yano told us, "That's a great idea. We would love to do that." Alas, it's up to those third-party devs to implement support for this peripheral.
A second player can shake the microphone to instantly "jump in" to the song, no menus needed.
They use 2 AA batteries, just like the Xbox 360 controller. Yanno said that, despite the motion-sensitivity and the lights, the battery life is pretty impressive already, on prototype hardware.
Lips will be bundled with a black and a white controller

Your music

Though they were only showing off the streaming functionality through a Zune, they assured us it would work just as simply through an iPod. When asked why they couldn't use one now, Yano responded, "Trust me. It works." We then crossed our arms and fell backwards into his waiting arms ...
DRM'd songs can't be used, regardless of the DRM scheme used. So no Zune or iTunes songs.
Lips will perform "vocal reduction" on your own songs, though they weren't showing the functionality off.
You can be scored on your own songs.
Audio from a Zune or iPod is streamed only, not downloaded, so you'll need to keep it nearby
After telling us that they "actually don't know" if Lips will be able to read directly from your streaming media library (think iTunes) the way the Xbox 360 can, Yano said they'd like to implement the feature, which he followed up by saying "hint hint, wink wink, say no more." We asked him to repeat that in a British accent and he was all too happy to oblige.
When asked if you would see your Avatar singing on the screen in the absence of a music video, they said they weren't talking about Avatars now.
No word on how they'll implement lyrics or a beat chart for the songs, though Yanno promised it would be "very, very compelling."

Its music

There are only three confirmed songs: "Mercy" by Duffy; "Young Folk" by Peter, Bjorn & John; and "Bust a Move" by Young MC
All songs will be master tracks and will include the original music videos
Rap songs work a little differently, it's not just about rhythm.

Tags: inis, lips, microphone

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Anticrawl @ Jul 19th 2008 6:36PM

That image is terrible, first thing I thought was that she had some sort of disease or something. Nasty.

Philip @ Jul 19th 2008 6:55PM

I saw the salt from mini pretzels

Tess @ Jul 19th 2008 7:06PM

I see the salt from a margarita glass....... In my near future.

Pyrobi @ Jul 19th 2008 7:20PM

Haha, not if I beat you to it =D

dylan @ Jul 19th 2008 8:35PM

It made me worry about chafing...

Bauer22 @ Jul 19th 2008 9:04PM

It made me think about what would happen if I ever got the "20 dollar" service from her...... OUCH!

Mr.ESC @ Jul 19th 2008 9:50PM

I must say I thought the same then I realized it was sugar or Salt.

Xepherys @ Jul 20th 2008 12:49AM

It is pretty nasty... but the game might not be. I guess we shall see...

http://www.xepherys.net/wordpress/?p=10

007craft @ Jul 20th 2008 1:46AM

heres a much better deliscious picture to use for lips.

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/4560/sprinklelipsiq8.jpg

BananaBoat @ Jul 21st 2008 12:33AM

Unless the "20 dollar service" is something a little more involved than a service involving lips, you are paying too much.

Speaking of which, where did I put that Onna Cup...

Bennyishere @ Jul 19th 2008 6:42PM

Does it only work with iPods and Zunes, or other devices as well? I have all my music on my Sony Ericsson, which streams nicely to the 360, but will it work with Lips?

Pyrobi @ Jul 19th 2008 7:19PM

If it works through the guide on the 360 as is now, I can't imagine a scenario where it wouldn't work with Lips.

CharleyTony @ Jul 19th 2008 6:49PM

Im wondering how "differently" rap song will be implemented ...
gesturing with the mic maybe ?

Zoot Suit Jedi @ Jul 20th 2008 12:03AM

You will be required to drop the microphone after each performance.

cranium @ Jul 20th 2008 12:04AM

the microphone will emit a small electric shock that intensifies if you continue rapping. thus, Lips will make the world a better place

Tony @ Jul 19th 2008 6:52PM

A lot of Zune Marketplace MP3s don't have DRM. I think you can pay extra for DRM-free songs on iTunes too. I'd imagine those would work fine?

kdubbb @ Jul 19th 2008 7:16PM

Actually sounds kinda cool now. I wonder how you'll sing to your own songs (will the game automatically detect lyrics)?

If it works well, it will be a very compelling game. You'll never have to buy their songs, just use your own library. Unless you want the accompanying music video playing in the background I suppose.

zach @ Jul 19th 2008 7:17PM

..wtf so all my 1600 purchased songs are basically useless with this game cause of that DRM crap..way to go lips your basically forcing me to pirate music.

Pyrobi @ Jul 19th 2008 7:21PM

Or, burn all your DRM'd iTunes (I'm assuming iTunes) songs to CD and import them again ;)

MrMuggs @ Jul 19th 2008 10:34PM

You sir, are an absolute idiot for purchasing 1600 DRM'd songs. What did you think would happen when you depend on something as stupid as DRM to allow you to listen to music that you paid for and you own?

Tiptup300 @ Jul 19th 2008 11:25PM

Companies don't want you to buy music! Why do you think DRM exists!?

Dwag @ Jul 19th 2008 7:18PM

LOL who has a IPod and uses songs from ITunes when we got limewire?

Jackattaak @ Jul 19th 2008 8:21PM

Me? Limewire is great if you want a nice new virus but a decent song is worth paying 80p for, and if it isn't decent why do you want it?

Not trying to set off a piracy 'debate' here! Just my two pence.

SadisticHam @ Jul 20th 2008 9:45AM

You're both wrong. It's called Torrents. Safe, grreat quality and free. Hell most of the time you can find Albums days, sometimes weeks before they even hit store shelfs. ;D

daddycool @ Jul 20th 2008 3:40PM

Both of you thieving bastards are wrong. It's called Amazon MP3 and eMusic. Between those two you can get damn near anything, legal free of DRM.

I can see some misguided youths still using iTunes, but not Zune Marketplace (And I have a ZUne) If you've made this mistake, then QT Fairuse is what you need.

T-BoNe254 @ Jul 19th 2008 7:18PM

LOL DONGLE.

anyway, cool.

ps. Anticrawl is right, the pic is not very good.

Dwag @ Jul 19th 2008 7:20PM

Still sounds gay to me.

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 19th 2008 8:12PM

Sounds gay? You mean it sounds awesome?

Arnon @ Jul 20th 2008 8:46PM

Sounds... happy? I'm confused.

Water @ Jul 19th 2008 7:22PM

^
People still use Limewire?

Wow...

mrlittledebbie @ Jul 19th 2008 7:26PM

youve purchased 1600 songs. holy crap.

torrents FTW.

mrlittledebbie @ Jul 19th 2008 7:29PM

i might actually get this game now. seems fun. kinda.

The BS Police @ Jul 19th 2008 8:08PM

So I guess I can sing along to my favourite bands like Def Leppard, The Cars, Styx, and Pink Floyd?

If it's a yes... awesome!

Jonah Falcon @ Jul 19th 2008 8:12PM

(sigh) If you're going to use Lips, either use:

http://blogs.dfw.com/startle_grams/images/stones_1.jpg

or this:

http://www.rockymusic.org/img/rhpsphotoscolor/RHPS-Lips.jpg

Clinton oxendine @ Jul 19th 2008 9:53PM

this still seems stupid and thats a nasty arse picture. need to change it

e.Missark @ Jul 20th 2008 12:14AM

I don't understand these music games like Lips (Singstar) and Rockband. I just don't get what the hype is all about.

10 years ago, when Konami released a Guitar Hero-type game for the PS1 nobody cared. Now everyone is into these games. IMO it's a fad and nothing more.

whistlepig @ Jul 20th 2008 5:36AM

kinda like the wii ?

beavers_blake @ Jul 20th 2008 1:40AM

I want the link to that pic O.O

sevik @ Jul 20th 2008 4:11AM

I'm looking forward to this one - It's about time we had a couple of social games.

Dirty Whirlwind @ Jul 20th 2008 5:36AM

From the looks of the trailer it didn't get the music from the guide. However it would be kind of weird to just make it compatible with Zune and iPod, but on the other side it would be stupid to market it as a
Zune or iPod only thing, if it actually had worked with other music devices. So, I guess this is a limited feature.

Fear not though, expect it to work kind of crappy if you want to sing along to lyrics.