Tag Archives: guitar hero

Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has told the BBC that the band would possibly consider a music game centered around the band, especially seeing as how the Beatles did it.

“I think we’d consider it,” he said. “Everyone’s looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared.”

The source article for this a bit old, what with Bill Wyman moaning about plastic instruments and such, but you may have skimmed over the Pink Floyd bit, so there it is.

We think the band should just allow Rock Band 2 to offer up Wish You Were Here in it’s entirety instead.

Thanks, Joystiq.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick is his own man. He doesn’t need consoles to shovel his guitar-based brand of music game to the masses. No sir.

“You should expect to see many of our products to be playable on the television independent of a console,” he said this week, speaking at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco.

Like, seriously. He added:

“I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is it maybe equals the playing field a little bit more and gives you leverage with first parties on downloadable content and the business model.”

This’d be awesome. Kotick won’t be able to threaten console manufacturers any more, however, which would be a bit rubbish.

More on IGN.

Rock Band’s bad. Rolling Stone Bill Wyman and Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason say it stops people learning how to actually play musical instruments.

“It encourages kids not to learn, that’s the trouble,” Wyman told the BBC.

“It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument. I think is a pity so I’m not really keen on that kind of stuff.”

Mason described the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero as “interesting new developments,” but added:

“It irritates me having watched my kids do it – if they spent as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they’d be damn good by now.”

We’re saying nothing. You’ll be able to press buttons along to Beatles songs in return for hundreds of pounds tomorrow, don’t forget.

Activision has confirmed that Guitar Hero: Van Halen will not be released in Europe until 2010.

Granted, it comes out in the US on December 22, so “TBD 2010″ could mean January 1. Ya never know.

We know you are bummed over this.

Thanks, Eurogamer.

Activision was quick to talk about its line-up of music-centic games coming this year during its call to investors, and there are loads of ‘em as you would expect.

Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and DJ Hero are all expected before the end of the year and now you can add the elusive Guitar Hero: Van Halen to the mix.

Expected to launch on December 22, the title will feature 19 other bands besides Van Halen, as we’ve told you before, and has 25 VH tracks on the disc with three guitar solos for a total of around 47 songs.

It is to be made available for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Full track list is posted after the break.

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The videogame market’s not only suffering from price fatigue, but music game fatigue as well, according to a report from Gamasutra.

Michael Pachter has issued a report which shows combined revenue from both Rock Band and Guitar Hero during February – June 2009 and it shows a 49 percent decrease in sales year on year, with Guitar Hero down 34 percent and Rock Band down 67 percent.

With discounted hardware and over 20 SKUs on the market, both have plenty of merchandise available to gamers, with the Guitar Hero franchise leading in that area.

Activision Blizzard has released over a dozen Guitar Hero titles from including the handheld version along with themed expansions. Guitar Hero 5 is currently scheduled for release in Fall 2009 and a Van Halen-centric one later in the year and of course, loads of new DLC through console services.

Currently, with different packaging and offerings, there are seven Rock Band titles on consoles or handhelds with The Beatles: Rock Band due September 2009. Harmoix tends to focus on DLC more so than new SKUs entering the market.

That’s loads of plastic peripherals folks.

More through Gamasutra.

Lego Rock Band will work with “current” Guitar Hero controllers, Traveller’s Tales boss Jonathan Smith has confirmed.

“We’re certainly compatible with all the forthcoming new Rock Band instruments – and in the future you’ll continue to be able to use any instruments which are Rock Band-compatible, as are the current Guitar
Hero controllers,” the boss told VG247.

The game, which releases for PS3, 360, Wii and DS later this year, ended up being a Rock Band product rather than a Guitar Hero one due to Harmonix’s enthusiasm for Lego, Smith added.

“The team at Harmonix have passion for Lego, and really pushed the idea forward,” he said.

“The core Rock Band idea of ‘building a band’ is perfectly aligned with the values and playfulness of Lego gaming.”

According to Activision CEO Mike Griffith, the company expects DJ Hero to appeal to a broader base of gamers than Guitar Hero due not only to the different music styles offered, but because the content has wider mainstream appeal.

“It’s certainly hitting a more mainstream and expanded audience from Guitar Hero,” he told GI.biz. “I think it will build on what Guitar Hero has been able to do. If you look at what our Guitar Hero franchise has achieved, we now have 15 million households that are active Guitar Hero users and we continue to satisfy them with more experiences and the chance to indulge in more music and gameplay.

“But outside of those 15 million household’s, there’s another 300 million that haven’t for one reason or another bought Guitar Hero yet. One of those reasons is we’re not reaching new genres and new music audiences in a way that DJ Hero allows us to accomplish.

“DJ Hero is going to be expansive to the franchise and be particularly exciting for Europe where that genre of music is arguably more important than it is elsewhere.”

The game is expected to ship October 27 for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

White Stripes’ Jack White has told NME that bands being forced to use music games to get in front of “kids” is all a bit crushing.

“It’s depressing to have a label come and tell you that ['Guitar Hero'] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music,” said the musician.

He added that he doesn’t care “which format people should get their music in… if you have to be in a video game to get in front of them, that’s a little sad.”

Hey, Jack. Your music’s all over Guitar Hero. Just saying.

Thanks, IGN.

Neversoft has told Eurogamer that it would like to see turntable integration with Guitar Hero in the future.

Apparently, the DJ Hero turntable becoming compatible with the game is not too far-fetched, nor is bringing drums to DJ Hero now that you can use little plastic guitars with DJ Hero.

“When we started putting guitar and rock tracks into the mix, they sounded good but it felt that there was something natural missing,” said DJ Hero studio boss Kevin McSherry.

“The piece came when we worked out a way to keep a guitar track in its entirety and mix in a DJ set to it. So you get a truly authentic Guitar Hero experience and a truly authentic DJ Hero experience within the same mix.”

Guitar Hero 5 and DJ Hero are slated for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 this September and October, respectively.

The Guitar Hero Smash Hits demo is now available to all Xbox Live users, not just those with Gold accounts.

“Rock and Roll All Night” by KISS, “Take Me Out” by Franz Ferdinand and “Woman” by Wolfmother” are the tracks you can try out using bass, drums, guitar and vocals.

Full game is out for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 on June 16.

Thanks, Shack.

A huge, in-depth survey into teenager’s gaming habits and the relationship to civic engagement has shown that the five most popular games played in the US are Guitar Hero, Halo 3, Madden NFL, Solitaire, and Dance Dance Revolution.

The wide spread of genres on display is not uncommon, says the survey:

80% of teens play five or more different game genres, and 40% play eight or more types whilst 55% of daily gamers play eight or more types of games; just 33% of less frequent gamers do so. Girls play an average of 6 different game genres; boys average 8 different types.

Through this link are more stats about US teenage gaming habits than you could shake a stick at. Get the coffee ready and dive in.

Activision CEO Mike Griffith has revealed that Guitar Hero has sold for more than $1 billion in the company’s pre-E3 conference yesterday.

He goes on to say the install base is now over 15 million and the company is looking to increase those numbers.

Guitar Hero 5 will have more than 20 top 10 hits, apparently and the company is excited about the launch of Guitar Hero: Metallica in Europe.

Thanks, Gamespot.

What appears to be the full list of artists for Guitar Hero 5 have surfaced on the official website.

Some you already know about, some you may not. Either way the list is rather extensive.

We have A-B listed listed here, and the rest after the break.

It’s out September 1.

Thanks, GoNintendo.

• 3 Doors Down
• A Perfect Circle
• AFI
• Arctic Monkeys
• Attack! Attack!
• Band Of Horses
• Beastie Boys
• Beck
• Billy Idol
• Billy Squier
• Blink-182
• Blur
• Bob Dylan
• Bon Jovi
• Brand New
• Bush

More »

Activision has announced that it’s releasing a Guitar Hero Metallica bundle exclusively for Europe.

The Guitar Hero Metallica Solo Guitar bundle will include a copy of the game, a wireless guitar controller and an exclusive faceplate with the Metallica skull design.

Game’s out in Australia and Europe May 22, and the UK on May 29 for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii.

Read on for the press release.

More »

Bobby Kotick said in the Activision Blizzard Q1 earnings call last night that Guitar Hero sales have no passed $2 billion.

The franchise is only the third to do so, the other two being Madden and Mario.

The company also said that 34 million tracks have now been downloaded for Guitar Hero products.

Get all the rest of the news from the call here.

Activision boss Mike Griffith said in the Acti Blizz Q1 earnings call last night that Guitar Hero is now responsible for more than half of all rhythm action sales in the US and Europe.

“This quarter, we further extended our advantage for the Guitar Hero franchise,” he said. “We ended the quarter with a 55% share of all rhythm and music based games in North America and Europe, up 10 full points from the prior year, as we took share from Rock Band in both North America and Europe.”

Griffith wasn’t done with the Rock Band-bashing.

“In Europe, where expansion of the franchise remains a strategic priority, quarterly sell-through was up over 80 percent year over year, with Guitar Hero outselling Rock Band by 10:1,” he added.

“Our competitive position should further improve next month when we launch Guitar Hero Metallica in Europe.”

You go, girl. Get the rest of the news from the call here.

Reuters, citing “people familiar with the discussions,” is reporting that Acti Blizz is working on movie deals for its rhythm action “Hero” games, World and Warcraft and Call of Duty.

“They are being talked about for the big screen,” said one source.

In an interview before yesterday’s quarterly earnings conference call, company boss Bobby Kotick wouldn’t comment on the speculation, but when asked specifically about the Hero franchise said, “It might make for a good TV show or a good concert tour.”

There’s a bit more through there.

Acti Blizz has reported that over 34 million songs have been downloaded for the Guitar Hero franchise, and over 14 million bits of user-created content have been made through Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The company, speaking in its Q1 earnings call today, said that because of the popularity of music games, the genre is now an integral part of the company’s long term expansion plans.

Because of the demand, DJ Hero is being released to give gamers wanting a variety in music something else to play in their living rooms.

During the conference call, we think it was mentioned that more people buy music through the game than any other form of media. We’ll check the transcript when it is released to make sure, so don’t quote us just yet.

One thing that is a positive – more Guitar Hero and other rhythm-based games are in Acti Blizz’s future with a bomb.

Activision announced it’s music game line-up for the fall this morning, but missing from the press release was confirmation of Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

That information was sent out in a separate mailing, apparently.

According to Shack, the game will be released during “the second half of this year”, and includes hits from Van Halen along with guest acts blink-182, Queen, Queens of the Stone Age, The Offspring and Weezer.

We’ve put a call into Activision requesting more information, so hopefully they will get back with us soon.

The Activision year-end financials conference call to investors is this evening, we may know more then as well.