Tag Archives: Guitar Hero 5

During the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick explained how the company gets consumers to pay loads more for a Guitar Hero game, than the initial $50 price tag.

“In the last cycle of videogames you spent $50 on a game, played it and took it back to the shop for credit,” he told attendees. “Today, we’ll you a $100. You might add a microphone or drums, you might buy two or three expansions packs, different types of music. Over the life of your ownership you’ll probably buy around 25 additional song packs in digital downloads. So, what used to be a $50 sale is a $500 sale today.

“And the best of all margins – the 25 percent operating margin business – has the potential as we can see with World of Warcraft to be a 50 percent operating margin business. What used to be a low 20s return on invested capital business is now growing to a plus 40 percent return on invested capital business.”

Wow. Just wow.

More through Spong.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

Guinness World Records has announced that Italy set a new record for the largest number of participants to play a single Guitar Hero session for 24-hours.

This happened during the Guitar Hero 5 : Jump In Jump Out Challenge, where 594 people turned up at the Italian event, to be part of the record-setting activity. Players spanning all ages were prompted to jump in or drop out, or switch difficulty level at any time without interrupting the session through Guitar Hero 5’s Party Play Mode.

“I’m thrilled to see this many fans come together en masse to rock out to Guitar Hero 5.” said Michael Sportouch, senior director ,Guitar Hero Europe. “Achieving this new world record is the perfect celebration for the release of the new installment of Guitar Hero, which promises consumers the ultimate interactive gaming experience.”

Press release is below.

More »

Guitar Hero 5 has beaten The Beatles: Rock Band to No. 1 in the latest UK charts.

Harmonix’s effort didnt even land in the top three, only getting to four in the charts. DiRT 2 and Batman: Arkham Asylum round off the top three.

Top ten is below. You can find last weeks data here.

VG247 has received an official statement from Courtney Love’s attorney, Keith Fink, Esquire, regarding Activision’s use of Kurt Cobain’s likeness in Guitar Hero 5.

Apparently, like we assumed, she is upset over Cobain being used to play other artists’ songs, which she finds detrimental to his image and legacy.

“You are correct in stating that Ms. Cobain is extremely upset at Activision’s use of Mr. Cobain’s image in a video game allowing him to sing songs of others,” Mr. Fink told VG247. “Kurt’s songs have a unique and special meaning to his fans and his image and legacy is extremely important to Ms. Cobain.

“Activision’s statement is not accurate in suggesting that they were given an unfettered use of Kurt’s name and likeness. The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn’t grant them the right to use his name and likeness in ways that denigrate his image.

“We are demanding the trust take appropriate action to protect Mr. Cobain’s image and would hope Activision would do so on its own accord and prohibit users of the game from singing songs of others.”

We have a feeling this is far from over, and you can catch up on all that happened yesterday through here, and here.

Activision has issued a statement, regarding Courtney Love’s outburst on Twitter over the use of Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5.

“Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5,” Activision told Kotaku.

Wonder what the fuss is about then.

We have been trying to contact Love’s manager, PR firm, and personal lawyer since this morning when the news broke to get a statement – just for the sake of fairness and the facts.

Hopefully, we will hear back from one of the three soon.

This is awesome. You knew about Kurt Cobain popping up in GH5, right? Looks like Courtney Love didn’t.

She’s just posted the following tweets:

For the record this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.

And:

WE are going to sue the shit out of ACtivision we being the Trust the Estate the LLC the various LLCs Cobain Enterprises.

Whoops-a-buttercup. Via Perez Hilton and Kotaku.

Update: Acti just came back on this, but declined to comment.

According to this USA Today piece, Guitar Hero 5 owners will be allowed to import up to 35 Guitar Hero: World Tour tracks to their new game. For a charge.

“Immediately, players can import 35 songs from Guitar Hero World Tour for 280 points on Xbox Live and $3.50 on the PlayStation Network,” said the article.

“Later this fall, songs from Guitar Hero Smash Hits can be imported, too.”

Guitar Hero 5 ships on September 11. Just checking this with Acti now.

Activision has announced that Kurt Cobain will be a playable character in Guitar Hero 5.

His likeness, controlled by you, will be performing two of the band’s singles from their 1991 album Nevermind: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and a previously unreleased live recording of “Lithium.”

“Kurt Cobain is one of the most recognizable frontmen in rock ‘n’ roll history and it’s an honor to have two of Nirvana’s masterpieces included in Guitar Hero 5,” said Tim Riley, Vice President of Music Affairs for Activision. “This is the first time the original recording of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ has ever been licensed in an entertainment property and we’re thrilled to offer Guitar Hero® fans exclusive access to the unreleased live version of ‘Lithium.’”

Wonder how much of a cut Courtney Love got out of this.

It’s out next month for the usual suspects.

Press release through the break.

More »

Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has been confirmed for Guitar Hero5, where he will lend is likeness and trademark falsetto to the game’s stage.

The track Plug in Baby from the band’s 2001 second studio album, Origin of Symmetry, will be present in the game as well.

Game is scheduled to hit store shelves on September 1 for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

There is a video of Bellamy’s in-game posted below.

More »

Activision has told D’toid that Guitar Hero 5 downloadable content is not compatible with World Tour.

This does not mean,though, that it will not be compatible with other Hero titles.

“Guitar Hero 5 downlodable content will be compatible with future Guitar Hero and Band Hero games,” a rep told the site. “However, the advancements and innovations made to the franchise do now allow for downloadable content to be backwards compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour.”

Previously purchased DLC is compatible, and it’s also possible to export songs from Guitar Hero World Tour and Smash Hits to play in Guitar Hero 5. But, you will need to download tracks with the updated Guitar Hero 5 features.

It’s out September 1.

More through the link.

Activision’s doling out the preorder offers for Guitar Hero 5.

As you know, in the US you’ll get GH: Van Halen free when you preorder, but now comes word that UK gets World Tour for free.

All you have to do is preorder the Guitar Hero 5 Guitar Bundle to get the game. Mind you, it’s the game only.

Amazon UK has more.

Thanks, OXM.

If you hadn’t heard, Guitar Hero 5′s set to finally include a song importing feature. This means that your golden oldies from GH: World Tour and GH: Smash Hits can be transferred to GH5, which is obviously pretty cool. So, how’s it going to work? Joystiq recently got the full scoop.

On Xbox 360 and PS3, you’ll simply need to download a free update to enable song imports, followed by a “nominal re-licensing fee” to rip songs from each disc. Ripped tunes will be stored on the hard drive.

On the Wii, the song remains mostly the same, but system’s lack of a hard drive complicates things a bit. Songs will have to be re-downloaded, either to the Wii’s internal memory or an SD card.

In both cases, songs will be updated to include GH5′s suite of rockin’ new features.

Interestingly, only 152 of a total 158 tracks will be able to make the jump. Our guess? Licensing issues.

More through the link.

Johnny Cash’s likeness will be featured in Guitar Hero 5 – you knew that already though.

Since the fella is no longer around, Cash tribute artist Terry Lee Goffee provided the motion capture for the game, and the video of the result is posted after the beak.

The Man in Black looks rather good pixilated.

Game’s out for the usual suspects in September.

Via Kotaku.

More »

Speaking with IGN, chief creative officer at Vicarious Visions Karthik Bala said that Guitar Hero 5′s Wii tour won’t be hindered by in-game friend codes.

“For GH5, we’ve implemented support for your global Wii Friend Codes. If you’ve got friends in your Wii address book, they’ll automatically be added to your friends list in game, so you can easily connect up with them in online multiplayer games,” he explained.

“It’s much easier to maintain a single list of friends on your Wii that you only have to enter once and use that address book directly in-game for invites, etc.”

Tons more through the link.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Activision’s confirmed to Eurogamer that Miis will work for the Wii version of Guitar Hero 5, exactly in the same capacity that Avatars will work the game’s 360 version.

However, plans to do the same for the PS3 version, using avatars from Home, are unlikely: the publisher has said as much.

“While there are no plans to have Home avatars for the PS3 version, the US has confirmed that Wii owners will be able to rock out with their Miis in Mii Freestyle Mode,” said an Acti rep.

Avatars for the 360 edition of GH5 was confirmed last Friday.

Xbox 360 Avatars will be available as playable characters in Guitar Hero 5, Activision just confirmed.

That’s it, really. It’s got 85 tracks, yada yada. IGN just posted a video of it all working: get it, and a press release, after the break.

More »

Activision hs sent us over a presser unveiling all 85 songs present on the Guitar Hero 5 retail disc.

Loads of goodies in there too if you are still interested in this sort of thing.

Highlights include Beck, Johnny Cash, Garbage, Megadeth Muse, Queen, The Killers, Bob Dylan, Hendrix, Iron Maiden, Kings of Leon, Frampton, Smashing Pumpkins, and many others you may like.

Full press release is after the break along with the list.

It ships September 1.

More »

Activision sent us a mailer announcing that Garbage’s Shirley Manson has lent her likeness and vocal stylings to Guitar Hero 5.

Apparently, she will be preforming Only Happy When it Rains in the game.

God no, Shirley, not you too.

Game’s out September 1.

Update: We have bowed down to peer pressure and added the video featuring herself chatting about being in Guitar Hero 5. We must say, the folks there did a grand job of rendering her. Watch after the jump.

More »

You have already seen pictures of Carlos Santana in Guitar Hero 5.

Now watch a video of the guitarist in pixialted action over on Eurogamer France.

It’s Santastic.

Game’s slated for a September release on the usual suspects.

Activision has confirmed Carlos Santana will feature in Guitar Hero 5 later this year.

You’ll be able to play along to ‘No One To Depend On’ from his ‘Santana’ album.

To celebrate, Acti put out a couple of images of you to look at. They’re over at Destructoid.

Take a look.