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DS/Wii connectivity in Band Hero detailed
If you're the proud papa (or momma) of your very own Wii and DS, then know that Activision's upcoming Band Hero will have some connectivity between the two devices. IGN got a demo of the new Wii game and informs us of some pretty nifty features, namely the DS Party Play option. Building on the social aspect of the rhythm game experience, DS Party Play allows one to use an empty DS to set up and edit custom playlists while folks rock out on the TV and can even produce some trivia for those wanting to exercise their brains along with their voices, fingers and -- whatever it is you tap to play drums in these games. Gamers will even be able to adjust the difficulty of songs on the fly, with each notification popping up on the TV so that everyone knows it was you who picked that Evanescence song. What? They need to know so they can congratulate you for choosing such a great song. We're not being sarcastic at all!
Band Hero demo walking on Xbox Live
The Major sends word that a Band Hero demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo allows players to try out three different songs in the new, family-friendly Hero title and offers both the Party Play mode and the new Sing-Along mode. The three playable songs are: Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer" Katrina & The Waves - "Walking on Sunshine" Taylor Swift - "Picture to Burn" That's right, Taylor Swift is right there. With some clever positioning and a few mirrors, you might be able to convince your daughter this is the full game, saving you the trouble of actually buying it. Good luck.
Activision: Guitar Hero 5 launch 'probably' franchise's best, DLC sales getting 'interesting' [update 2]
If you want to know anything about Guitar Hero, you talk to Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Activision's Guitar Hero division. (Yeah, it has its own division.) Speaking to GI.biz, Rosensweig offered -- rather candidly, we might add -- some insight into the performance of Activision's latest, Guitar Hero 5, and its DLC. While one might assume that a series' strength starts to wane once it gets around to having the number "5" in its title, that's apparently not the case for Guitar Hero. Rosensweig claims that "the public report suggests that we've outsold 2/2.5/3-to-1 over Rock Band ... and we've probably sold more copies of Guitar Hero 5 than any other Guitar Hero game at launch." Sure, that's a pretty big probably, but Guitar Hero 5 is "fun as hell," after all -- and advertising the game with Playboy Bunnies probably didn't hurt sales either. As for DLC, Rosensweig suggests that it's generating a ton of revenue for the franchise -- funny how that happens when you start to stick to a regular release schedule -- as users appear eager to expand their playable music libraries. While Activision doesn't release actual figures, Rosensweig touts that "each month [in DLC sales] is a record versus the previous month, and it's getting to the point of being interesting." Heck, what'll be really interesting is seeing how much of this financial success makes its way into Kotick's bonus for 2009 ...Update 2: Activision has clarified Rosenweig's statements, saying he was, "Speaking only about Europe. The specific public report he is referring to is the September Charttrack data. For the month of September, GH5 outsold The Beatles: Rock Band by nearly 2-to-1 in the U.K." Update: Dan Rosensweig's "2/2.5/3-to-1" sales comparison between Guitar Hero and Rock Band was a bit ambiguous (Europe? North America? Worldwide?), so we've contacted Activision for clarification.
Guitar Hero 5 demo rocks XBLM
Major Nelson has dropped knowledge, and we must heed: A Guitar Hero 5 demo is now available on Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo offers three songs that can be played in the game's Party Mode, which allows players to jump in and out of a song at any time. The songs available are: "The Rock Show" by Blink 182 "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down "A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend If you've yet to try out the latest in the series grab the demo and give it a go. Add the Guitar Hero 5 demo to your 360 download queue
Tony Hawk Ride pushed back to Dec. 4 in UK, arriving on time in NA
Despite concerns that one third of Activision's holiday peripheral triforce would be missing its North American release date, the publisher has assured us today that Tony Hawk Ride will still be arriving on November 17 as planned. A rep from Acti told Joystiq, "The game is on sale Nov. 17 in the US, Nov. 27 in Germany and Dec. 4 in the UK," confirming a two week delay for United Kingdom-ers. We may be getting the game two weeks before you folks in the UK but look at it this way: now you have two more weeks to sell off your furniture and reorganize your living room for all your new plastic peripherals. Hooray! %Gallery-71739%
David Bowie, Styx, Yellowcard & others join Band Hero
We'd like to congratulate Devo, David Bowie and Marvin Gaye for reaching one of the highest highs in the music industry. That would be appearing in a game with no fewer than three Taylor Swift songs: Band Hero. The artists' featured hits are part of the latest batch of announced tracks -- all of which you can find after the break -- for the tweenybopper spin-off. Also, do we have any volunteers to dive into the belly of Band Hero and rescue the totally awesome "In a Big Country" Saving Private Ryan–style? It ... it doesn't deserve this.
Italian gamers set new Guinness world record with Guitar Hero 5
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, Italy set a Guinness world record for "largest number of participants to play in a single Guitar Hero session over a 24-hour period." At the FNAC store, 594 people participated in a single, massive Guitar Hero 5 play session coordinated to celebrate the European release of Activision's latest music title. The record was set using Guitar Hero 5's Party Play mode, which supports drop-in and drop-out gameplay. There's no word on whether any Montagues or Capulets were harmed during the event, but as soon as we hear something, we'll let you know.
Guitar Hero 5 goes straight to the top of the UK charts
Guitar Hero 5, which is like the tenth (give or take a couple) installment in the series, has resonated with UK consumers and hit a high note atop the Chart Track all-formats chart. The Dark Knight of Arkham Asylum -- who was perched above the charts for two weeks -- slipped off the top to the number three spot, with Colin McRae: Dirt 2 taking the silver. The Beatles: Rock Band premiered at the number four spot, which some are sure to find disappointing. Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have previously debuted at the fourth and sixth spot, respectively, with previous iterations. Music games may be on a sales decline, but they apparently still know how to make an entrance. Source -- Guitar Hero 5 hits the right notes (Chart Track) Source -- All formats chart (Chart Track) %Gallery-63471%
Hands-on: Tony Hawk Ride
Hi. I'm Joystiq writer Griffin McElroy, and those are my feet. They're attached to my shins, which attach to a long sequence of other appendages which stop at my brain -- which at the very moment this image was taken, was likely in a confused, panicked state. It's a reflex reaction I usually turn to when placed before an alien video game peripheral, although in most cases, it quickly subsides, and is replaced with a steely determination to figure out how it works.By the time I'd reached the end of my brief hands-on session with Tony Hawk Ride, I had only just begun to deconstruct the hardware's machinations, and started determining how to deftly manipulate it in order to do sweet tricks. I was making progress in this endeavor when the demo came to a halt, but I'm still not sure my mind had completely wrapped around how I was supposed to manipulate the device. Is that indicative of the peripheral's weakness? No, I think it can be entirely chalked up to the fact that skateboarders move in mysterious ways.%Gallery-64707%
Report: Only 35 songs from Guitar Hero World Tour work with GH5 [update]
Update: It appears as though Activision itself has answered the question of what songs specifically are importable into Guitar Hero 5 from World Tour (35 songs) as well as Smash Hits (21 songs), via the Activision Customer Support Center. The full list of songs available from each game has been dropped after the break -- thanks to everyone for sending this in! We can't lie to you, friends -- when Activision claimed songs from last year's Guitar Hero World Tour would be playable in this year's Guitar Hero 5, we were skeptical. It seems that skepticism proved right, as USA Today reveals that a hair over one third of GHWT's tracks can be downloaded into the new game. Specifically, just 35 of World Tour's 86 tracks are playable in GH5, with an unspecified amount of Guitar Hero Smash Hits tracks available "later this Fall." The licensing fee for those 35 tracks is 280/$3.50 for Xbox 360 and PS3, though it remains unclear whether or not that fee would include Smash Hits' tracks when those are released. We've asked Activision for clarification of which tracks specifically are available in GH5 and when Smash Hits will be ready for download, but unfortunately were told that we'd get a release tomorrow with "tons of details." So this is where we crowdsource things -- Guitar Hero 5 owners in the Joystiq Biomass™, please let us know which 35 of Guitar Hero World Tour's 86 tracks are playable! Our inbox is always open!
Guitar Hero 5 ad features Hugh Hefner, plethora of Playboy Bunnies
Activision continues its Risky Business ad campaign (remember Guitar Hero World Tour's and Guitar Hero Metallica's?) with Guitar Hero 5, which shows Hef and some of his gals (okay, mostly his gals) rocking out with plastic guitars. It's an effective ad, for two reasons: It shows that, should we pick up Guitar Hero 5, we too could have a room full of hotties gyrating and looking all sexy-like Playboy Bunnies are skilled in the art of clairvoyance and don't even need to look at the TV to play
EEDAR: Guitar Hero 5 will outsell The Beatles: Rock Band by nearly 2-to-1
EEDAR analyst Jessie Divnich has been quoted in a newly-published Bloomberg article, stating that the research group sees The Beatles: Rock Band facing a tough fight against the latest Guitar Hero in a genre that has, as he believes, "peaked." We got in touch with Divnich to talk about his assertion in the same article that Guitar Hero 5 will likely outsell Harmonix's Beatles game this year by a ratio of nearly two-to-one.Divnich says he expects Activison to ring up sales in the order of 3 million GH5 units across all platforms, compared to a projected 1.7 million for The Beatles: Rock Band. "I believe that at the end of the day, it comes down to marketing muscle, and Activision has proven in numerous showdowns that they can out advertise and out promote their competitor," he tells Joystiq. "If Activision relaxes on the marketing spend, while MTV Games kicks it up a notch, there's certainly a chance that I could be wrong."There's another scenario in which this year's Rock Band could prove more of a contender. "The only concern I have with my Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band analysis is that Activision may focus less on marketing Guitar Hero 5 and divert funding to DJ Hero, a new brand in their Guitar Hero line-up," EEDAR's chief number man admits. "That would certainly change the game."No matter what, Divnich doesn't see a very-worst-case scenario playing out for MTV Games and Harmonix, assuring us that "[The Beatles: Rock Band] will outsell Rock Band 2 this holiday season."
Guitar Hero 5 DLC not compatible with World Tour
While original Rock Band owners were given the luxury to continue to buy new tracks for the music title even after the release of its sequel, Guitar Hero fans won't be given the same option when Guitar Hero 5 lands on store shelves. An Activision representative told Destructoid that DLC for the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 will not be compatible with Guitar Hero: World Tour.According to the Activision rep, Guitar Hero 5 DLC will be compatible with future titles in the franchise, but "advancements and innovations" made to the upcoming music title do not allow for tracks to be backwards compatible with World Tour. Don't light the torches and grab the pitchforks just yet though, the same reason has been given for The Beatles: Rock Band's inability to work with previous versions of the game.Thankfully, Activision has already confirmed tracks from Guitar Hero: World Tour will be compatible with Guitar Hero 5 via an in-game importing process -- which adds new features such as band moments, expert+ drumming and the new vocal star power to older tracks.[Via 1UP]
UK gets better bargain: Pre-order Guitar Hero 5, get World Tour free
Activision's making it awfully hard for folks across this big blue world of ours to not purchase their upcoming rhythm title, Guitar Hero 5 -- here in the States, folks who purchase the game are eligible to receive Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free. However, in the United Kingdom, the offer is incredibly sweeter -- those who pre-order Guitar Hero the Fifth through Amazon can also grab Guitar Hero: World Tour for the low, low price of nothing.OXM received instructions from Amazon.UK on how to utilize the offer -- simply add Guitar Hero 5 (on any platform) to your basket, then add the special promotional version of World Tour for the appropriate console. Go to checkout, and the price of the latter will magically change to zilch. If only this kind economic wizardry applied to every purchase in our life.
Guitar Hero 5 content walks this way to Avatar Marketplace [Update]
Update: The price of almost all the Guitar Hero 5 content has doubled.If (for whatever reason) you think your Xbox Avatar is starting to reek from a lack of fresh clothing and you're a fan of rocking out, Guitar Hero 5 content is now available on the Xbox Live Avatar Marketplace. From torn shirts to plastic controllers, the Guitar Hero 5 Game Styles section has a varied selection of new Avatar items. Also, with most of the content modestly priced at 80 ($1 USD) a pop, the Guitar Hero 5 styles are a long way from attacking gamer wallets (we're looking at you, $5 Lightsaber). Ignore the previous statement, this content is now as overpriced as the rest of the Avatar Marketplace. A full list of the new content and (new) prices can be found after the break.
Watch pro skateboarders uncomfortably play Tony Hawk Ride
Was it this silly when Guitar Hero first launched, with professional musicians trotted out to awkwardly "play" the game? Watching an aging Tony Hawk, grey hair in-tow, contort his body on the skateboard peripheral shipping with Tony Hawk Ride is the very definition of wahjah. Try as Activision might, we're still not convinced we need yet another peripheral for our already cramped living rooms. Consider that we've already used our BalanceBoard for snowboarding, Sony's EyeToy is sounding more robust every day and Project Natal is promising a board-free skateboarding experience. See the common denominator? No new, large plastic objects in our houses! That's a win-win to us.
Guitar Hero 5 getting rolled over by Stones
Are you ready to do your best Jagger? Activision certainly hopes so -- a recent press release has revealed the first DLC pack for Guitar Hero 5: A quintet of Rolling Stones tracks. Dropping September 3 (two days after the game hits store shelves), the pack includes live cuts of "Prodigal Son," "You Gotta Move," "Under My Thumb," "I'm Free," and "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction." You can bring the whole British Invasion to your console of choice for just 720 ($9, 900 Wii Points) or get single songs from the pack for 160 ($2, 200 Wii Points).Seriously, though. Do your best Jagger. (Video NSFW!)
Be that guy from Maroon 5 in Band Hero
Have you ever dreamed of being Adam Levine, singer for Maroon 5? Specifically, have you ever dreamed that you'd look similar to him, but have your own voice? Like you're wearing an Adam Levine suit to karaoke night, maybe. Then you're going to love Band Hero. Activision announced today that the singer has joined Taylor Swift as a playable character in the Guitar Hero sequel. Players will be able to guide Pseudo-Levine through Maroon 5's ubiquitous hit song "She Will Be Loved."
Guitar Hero: World Tour gets free Activision music
Guitar Hero: World Tour gets a fresh injection of DLC with the Activision Track Pack today, which features music from actual Activision employees' bands. Perhaps the most noteworthy quality of this newest track pack, however, is its low, low price of free. Here's what you'll get: Awaken's "The Silence is Deafening" H is Orange's "Nothing All the Time" Hundred Reasons' "I'll Never Know" Oh, and Activision's press release also mentions Steve Ouimette's "Dueling Banjos" will release next week. It will be the last DLC release before the release of Guitar Hero 5 on September 1.
Joyswag: Guitar Hero: Smash Hits [update]
Update: Contest has come to a close, folks! Keep an eye on your inbox to see if you won!Guitar Hero: Smash Hits supposedly has all of the best Guitar Hero tracks, all rolled into one game. While we could give it our all, go through each tune and determine their value, we figured it'd be much easier (and better for you guys!) if we left that task up to one of our readers. So, with that, we present Joyswag! Hit up the rules below for how to enter and we wish you the best of luck! Leave a comment telling us which Guitar Hero game is your favorite You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) Limit 1 entry per person This entry period ends at 12:00PM ET on Wednesday, August 19 At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive Guitar Hero: Smash Hits on Wii ($50 ARV) For a list of complete rules, click here
