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SingStar Brings Karaoke To America

Danny Masterson & friends performing at the SingStar Lounge outside the T-Mobile Tone Def party at Coachella. (Photo: Chris Polk)

This weekend at Coachella, the good folks at PlayStation let us get a peek at the PS3 version of SingStar—their karaoke game that’s already sold 13 million units worldwide—before it comes to North America on May 20.

If you’re unfamiliar with the older PS2 version, SingStar is basically a sing-along karaoke game that comes with two microphones. The object is to hit all of a song’s notes while the music video plays. The more accurately you match the pitch of a song, the more points you get. The game also utilizes the PlayStation Eye camera, letting you play back your finest performances.

The genius of the PS3 version is the community aspects—along with the release, they’re launching My SingStar Online, a community where you can upload your videos and view other hilarious performances from around the world. You can even make videos with multiple cuts by pausing your recording every few seconds and changing your set up, in effect creating your own music video.

Their song selection is growing—while they plan on launching with 200 song/video combos, 25 to 50 new ones will be added each month. Songs will be available for download on the SingStore for $1.49 each. The game itself is retailing for $59.99 (with two mics). After the jump, watch some dorks singing “Hey Ya” in the game’s trailer.