Guitar-Hero
Latest
No Doubt's Activision lawsuit can go to the next level
The LA Times reports a panel of judges, agreeing with a lower court ruling, rejected Activision Blizzard's appeal to throw out a suit by the band No Doubt over the use of its images in the game Band Hero. In a classic example of making sure to "read the fine print" on the contract, No Doubt sued after the band felt it was turned into a "virtual karaoke circus act," when its in-game avatars could be used to sing songs that were not its own. Two years ago, when this whole situation started, the Guitar Hero franchise (and its spin-offs) were adding billions to the Actiblizzard coffers. The Guitar Hero franchise may be dead now, but the lawsuits carry on.
Analysts explain, critique Guitar Hero's demise
Man, these analysts get a whiff of blood and you just can't pull them off the corpse, huh? Formerly beloved franchise Guitar Hero has been dead all of a couple of days, and these jackals are already baring their fangs on Gamasutra and digging in: "It had a great run, but it also had a steep fall and the customer demand just isn't there. That money can be spent on something that has better returns." -- Damn, Eric Handler of MKM Partners, you need to take it easy. "Prudent." -- Hey Michael Pachter, where's your basic human decency? "Declining sales as well as a less appealing profitability profile owing to the inclusion of a lower-margin peripheral hastened the decision to cancel the project." -- You, Edward Williams of BMO Capital Markets, are a monster. ... What's that? You're still not sated? You're no better than them! Here, vulture, go bask in the brutality for yourself.
Harmonix issues statement on ending of Guitar Hero franchise
You might think that the developer of the Rock Band franchise would currently find themselves doing a victory dance over the grave of the recently buried Guitar Hero franchise -- however, Harmonix's John Drake recently posted the studio's very tasteful response to the news over on the Rock Band forums. "We were sad to hear yesterday that Activision was discontinuing development on Guitar Hero," Drake said. "Our thoughts are with those who are losing their jobs, and we wish them the best of luck." The statement acknowledges that sales in the music genre have slowed, but pledges, "In short, the beat of Rock Band marches on." Drake later adds, "It's been a wild battle of the bands since 2007, but we respect and appreciate all of the hard work and innovation of our peers who have shared the music gaming space with us, and we look forward to rocking in the future." Yeah! Maybe one day, after the wounds of battle have healed, you guys could get together, and form up some kind of supergroup-jam-band! You could call it Guitar Band, or Rock Hero, or, perhaps, Damn Yankees.
Guitar Hero and DJ Hero DLC supply over after February
There's been some considerable debate on these here internets about the status of the Guitar Hero franchise. Thanks to "continued declines in the music genre," Activision yesterday announced that it plans to not only "discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011" (read: cancel it) but also to "disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit." But what about the DJ Hero franchise, and the promising DJ Hero 3D, you ask? "We will release no new music or skateboarding games," CFO Thomas Tippl said of this calendar year. It certainly appears the franchise is dead, but some insist it's simply taking a year off. They'll keep making DLC, right? Right? "We will release the previously announced DLC track and mix packs for February, but - unfortunately," a FAQ answer on the official DJ Hero website states, "we will not be able to release new DLC packs beyond what we already have." The question specifically asked, "Are you still going to make new DLC for Guitar/DJ Hero?" Of course, existing DLC will remain available (for now) and existing games will remain available at retail (for now). Perhaps most telling is that one FAQ question and answer was duplicated twice, at the beginning and end, bookending the official response with a rather ominous message. "Does this mean you're no longer making Guitar (and/or DJ) Hero games?," it asks ... twice. "Over the past two years, we have seen rapid declines in the music genre, and unfortunately, based on current demand, we simply cannot continue to profitably make these games given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs." As a means of punctuation, that sounds awfully definitive.
Activision kills Guitar Hero division to the consternation of fake musicians everywhere
Guitar Hero had its time in the sun as one of the most successful franchises in musical gaming. Still, it's been no secret that the once-respected brand, owned by Activision, has experienced pretty steep declines in the past few years, especially on the lackluster Guitar Hero 5. So, surprising or not, the announcement today that Activision would disband the Guitar Hero team and kill off development of the next title in the series is a sad bit of news to hear (though in fact, not as sad as hearing, say, Chinese Democracy). This announcement comes on the heels of larger-scaled layoffs at Activision, and more cuts are rumored in the DJ Hero division, as well. At least we still have Rock Band, right?
Activision: 'No new music or skateboarding games' this year
The grim fates of True Crime and whatever installment of the Guitar Hero series that was in development are known -- but what about Activision's other perennial franchises? A few (equally grim) details surfaced during Activision's investor's call today, during which COO Thomas Tippl explained, "We will release no new music or skateboarding games" during the current calendar year. Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg added some more insight into the company's shift away from the music genre, explaining that even though DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock were well-received, "demand for peripheral-based music games declined at a dramatic pace." He continued, "Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand." However, Activision will continue to support its existing music games with DLC. We're still left with a lot of questions, though (and we're working on the answers). For instance, what does this mean for the 3DS-bound DJ Hero 3D? What about the Tony Hawk series at large? Activision's frequently spoken about its staying power -- and if no Hawk title drops in 2011, it would be the first calendar year in the franchise's history without a new entry since 1999.
Activision axing Guitar Hero and True Crime; Freestyle Games reportedly hit with layoffs [update]
Despite a recent cover story in EGM, United Front's True Crime: Hong Kong won't make it to retail. Activision's latest earnings report confirms the game's cancellation, as well as the end of the Guitar Hero franchise. "Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," Activision said in its financial statement. The statement goes on to confirm the cancellation of True Crime. "The company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong. These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences." Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg went into a bit more detail on today's investor call: "Despite a remarkable 92 rating on DJ Hero 2, a widely well-regarded Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as a 90-plus rated release from our most direct competitor [Rock Band 3], demand for peripheral-based music games declined at a dramatic pace. Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand. Instead, what we'll do is focus our time and energies on marketing and supporting our strong catalog of titles and downloadable content, especially to new consumers as the installed base for hardware continues to grow."Hirshberg continued, saying that True Crime's development, "was't going to lead to a title at or near the top of the competitive open-world genre." To put things more directly, Hirshberg added, "To be blunt, it just wasn't going to be good enough." If that weren't enough bad news, Eurogamer also reports that DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games has suffered "severe layoffs," though it's unclear whether the rhythm series has been affected by the alleged redundancies. We'll update this post as we learn more. [Update: An earlier version of this post was based solely on Eurogamer's report, which has since been partially confirmed by Activision.] [Update 2: United Front Games has commented on the cancellation of True Crime]
DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock drop prices like it's hot
Activision has dropped the retail price for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 standalone software and bundles. Warriors of Rock is now $49.99 (-$10), $79.99 (-$20) and $159.99 (-$20) for the game, guitar bundle and band bundle, respectively. DJ Hero 2 has been reduced to $49.99 (-$10) for the game and $59.99 (-$20) for the single turntable bundle. If you've waited this long to pick up those games, you can probably hold out until the deep discounts start popping up in the coming months like they did last year.
FireHero brings the danger back to video game rock
Just as the popularity of Dance Dance Revolution allowed Guitar Hero to enter the market, Interpretive Arson's Dance Dance Immolation has given way to FireHero, an interactive "sculpture" that uses a guitar controller to control five jets of flame. Chris Marion hooked up a microcontroller to a Guitar Hero guitar, and programmed it to control solenoids on five propane "fire poofers." The "game" part was much simpler to implement: "the player simply watches a video of the Guitar Hero chart and plays on the guitar accordingly." Marion plans to convert Guitar Hero note charts to MIDI files for the next version, something he says will allow a program to interpret them automatically -- and thus autoplay the song. But that's enough reading about the crazy fire machine. Head to Marion's site to see video of the synchronized flames shooting out in time to "War Pigs."
Music game sales continue plunge down the charts
If this sounds like a familiar tune, it is: Music game sales have plummeted for a second-straight year. But this year, the tune is way more off key. According to analysis by Gamasutra, which looked at the period from January through October in each of the past three years, music game revenues in the U.S. have taken a phenomenal nose dive from an epic height of $1.6 billion in 2008 to where they've landed today: under $250 million for the year. "Short of a Christmas miracle," concludes analyst Matt Matthews, "music games won't break $400 million for all of 2010." Ohhh ... so that's why Viacom's hawking Harmonix.
Guitar Hero celebrates Rocktober with free track pack and Rocky Horror
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock may be composed of "ancient gameplay mechanics shrouded in a campy heavy metal veneer," but for those who picked it up on Xbox, it's about to be that, with three free songs. Which is objectively better. A three-track pack is available today for Gold members, featuring Disturbed's "The Infection," Muse's "Resistance," and My Chemical Romance's "Na Na Na." It's free now, and will be available for purchase by Silver Live users on October 19. On October 26, Activision will release a seasonally appropriate DLC pack: three songs from the Rocky Horror Picture Show! Soundgarden doesn't really have anything to do with Halloween, but selected individual tracks from the "Telephantasm" album will also be available for purchase that day -- though Activision didn't mention which tracks. See the list of known DLC after the break. [Image: Rockyhorror.com]
Frostmourne makes an appearance in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
"Hold, lad. There's an inscription on the fret bar ..." The newest Guitar Hero game isn't doing so hot critically, but maybe we can blame that cool reception on the fact that there's a rather familiar icy zweihander hanging out as an unlockable "guitar" in the game's instrument store. This marks the second time we've seen Frostmourne in an Activision game (the first being its appearance in the Wolverine game). It's also not the first time we've seen WoW references in the GH series: the Elite Tauren Chieftain song "I Am Murloc" is available as downloadable content for Guitar Hero 3. Clearly, Activision is big on brand recognition. As long as it doesn't go the other way around, I'm fine with little cross-promotions like this -- though, to be honest, if we're going with the "axe" theme for guitars, I think I know a weapon that might've fit the bill just a little better. Thanks for the tip, Valek!
Activision and EA trade barbs over corporate cultures
Activision's Bobby Kotick and EA's Jeff Brown engaged in a little Battlefield of Duty: Corporate Warfare 2 match this week, lobbing sound bites back and forth at each other. Kotick was first, boasting in the latest issue of Edge (via Next-Gen.biz) that his company allows its studios to maintain their independent cultures; citing Treyarch, the embattled Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games as examples. Kotick suggested that EA doesn't offer this luxury, and that's why Activision has successfully hired developers from its competitor's ranks. "We have no shortage of opportunity to recruit out of EA," he said. "That's their biggest challenge: Its stock options have no value. It's lost its way." Of course, Brown, EA's corp comm VP, was quick to respond: "[Kotick's] company is based on three game franchises -- one is a fantastic persistent world he had nothing to do with; one is in steep decline; and the third is in the process of being destroyed by Kotick's own hubris." Though Brown didn't clarify which franchises he was referring to, we'll throw out three names for you -- and you can play the matching game! Here goes: Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. The two suits probably had more to say to each other, but at that point the other players muted them both, and a few seconds later the actual match started up.
Guitar Hero iPhone gets Weezer pack
A Weezer DLC pack has been released for the iPhone version of Guitar Hero to mark the release of the band's new album, Hurley. The collection includes the new track "Memories," as well as "Buddy Holly" and "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To" from the Weezer back catalog. You can pick up the set for $1.99. ... What's that? You're saying we posted this news just so we'd have a threadbare excuse to embed the new Weezer-centric Auto-Tune The News after the break? Why, we're positively scandalized by your assertion.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock gets a bump from Megadeth's Dave Mustaine
Worried that Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock had forgotten about one of rock and roll's primary warriors, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine? Fear not! Megadeth -- and a new song made just for Warriors of Rock, titled "Sudden Death" -- will be present when the game ships on September 28.
Get new Soundgarden album early with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock [update]
Here's how out of touch we are with the music world: we get our music news from game industry announcements. We had no idea that Soundgarden was reuniting, nor that the group was releasing a retrospective album, Telephantasm, in October. Now you know about it too! Pretend you didn't already so we don't feel lame. Here's what you may not have already heard: Activision is giving away the album with the first million North American copies of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. In fact, buying the game will allow you to get the CD a week before it's released elsewhere! Not only that, the album will be available as Guitar Hero DLC at launch. Cool musical bonuses like this are likely to do much more to pique interest in the latest Guitar Hero game than, say, pig monsters. Update: Turns out the DLC won't be free! Activision's Dan Amrich changed his announcement post to reflect this corrected information. There's no word on the actual price yet, except that it's not free.
Guitar Hero Monthly: August DLC
With Activision planning to launch Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock in September, this month allows you to build up your collection of forwards-compatible DLC, or simply bolster last year's Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero. Expect 15 DLC tracks throughout August from bands The Used, Sum 41, Weezer, Megadeth and P.O.D. As always, make your way past the jump to see the full list of songs, release dates and prices.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock's song list (so far)
Formerly known as Guitar Hero 6, Warriors of Rock promises the largest on-disc set list so far, with over 90 songs. Here's a look at the list of songs that have been announced to date.
Breaking Benjamin, Weezer and more added to Guitar Hero iPhone store
"Hello, Apple Customer Support, this is Janice speaking. How may I help you?" "Does my iPhone replacement plan cover ... um, if I accidentally jammed my thumbs through my screen?" "If you jam your -- sir, I have to ask ... were you attempting to play 'My Name is Jonas' on Expert on the Guitar Hero App?" "How on Earth did you know?" "Sir, you're the twentieth person to call with that issue today. Oh, and the answer to your question is of course not." Click past the jump to see all the tracks from Breaking Benjamin, Coldplay, Rise Against and Weezer which were recently added to the Music Store on Guitar Hero for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Also, be gentle with those thumbs, okay?
Guitar Hero Pop Pack, DJ Hero Party Mix DLC available today
Lady Gaga! Wait -- it's a trap dude! Can't you see? Today's Guitar Hero "Pop 1 Track Pack" is actually the Beast in disguise, casting a Top 40 enchantment. Never forget: the Demigod of Rock still awaits, imprisoned in stone, his most awesome axe lost in the void. We must unite, man -- transform! Become Warriors of Rock. And we must appeal to our DJ Hero kinsmen -- we need their street cred in tact. They, too, are scratching and clawing to keep it real, as the urge to go Gaga grows ever stronger today. Are you with us? Resist the bestial cry to "Just Dance." No, don't do it -- don't you dare click past the break for this week's Guitar Hero and DJ Hero DLC details.
