Games like "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero III" have proved their ability to breathe new life into classic rock sales. But can they do the same for new music?

Last month, Motley Crue decided to find out. The band placed its new single, the title track from "Saints of Los Angeles," for sale as a downloadable track on "Rock Band" well in advance of the album's release date, which has been pushed back to June 24. The only other place to obtain the track was iTunes.

According to data provided by the band's management, Tenth Street Entertainment, the track was downloaded more than 47,000 times via the Xbox 360 version of the game alone in the first week after it became available.

By comparison, the same track received slightly more than 10,000 downloads via digital services like iTunes and Amazon, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
» Read More 

As games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero continue to gobble up market and mind share, it's a safe bet gamers are going to continue to see more manufacturers trying to one-up the originals with their own take on the fake instruments. To that end, longtime guitar crafter The Ant Commandos is back with a new line-up of gear coming this spring.

First are two new wireless products, The Widow Maker Wireless Bass Guitar and The Double Range Guitar, compatible with Rock Band and Guitar Hero 1, 2 and 3 for the PS2 and PS3.
» Read More 

Gibson Guitar are suing both Wal-Mart and other major consumer retailers in relation to them selling Activision's Guitar Hero series of games. It should getting very interesting, but in the meantime the parties have each issued press releases.
» Read More 

Activision has released a statement in response to Gibson Guitar's claims that the publisher's popular Guitar Hero series of games infringe upon one of its patents.

Activision said in a statement released on Thursday, "Gibson's lawsuit is a transparent end run around an impartial court that Activision asked on March 11 to rule on patent assertions that Gibson knows have no merit."

"Our Guitar Hero retailing partners have done nothing wrong. We will confront this and any other efforts by Gibson to wrongfully interfere with Activision's relationship with its customers and its consumers."
» Read More 

On Thursday, March 20th, the Dallas Mavericks will launch the Guitar Hero Challenge where aficionados will have the chance to show off their skills on the AT&T Plaza outside the South Entrance of American Airlines Center. The grand prize, the chance to play Guitar Hero during a quarter break at a First Round Playoff game, two-tickets to the game, an autographed Mavs Authentic jersey.
» Read More 

Dredging the depths where tenuous links are concerned, the folks over at AVN.com have produced a new Guitar Hero video feature starring none other than porn star Regan Reese.

The strictly cerebral feature, known as "Lingerie Guitar Hero," includes a heavily tattooed Reese attempting to put the porn moves on Guitar Hero II's "Sweet Child O Mine" by legendary rock warblers Guns N' Roses.
» Read More 

While the Nintendo Wii continues to garner headlines for its many alternative uses, occupational therapists at the Select Specialty Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana are investigating the potential of Guitar Hero in physical rehabilitation.

Certified occupational therapy assistant Kelly Colwell first noted the healing potential of Guitar Hero while working with a patient who had injured his elbow and lost range of motion in his arm.
» Read More 

Mon Jan 21 2008, by Mark Wilson

Around 26 months ago, Guitar Hero was an instant cult classic. Today, it's officially a $1 billion franchise. Apparently this milestone comes in video game record time. In addition, since the launch of Guitar Hero III, users have downloaded five million songs. If so, that total is double the figure that Rock Band has released.

Kotaku posted Activision's official announcement.
» Read More 

In 2008, the team at MTV Games are proud to present to you the MTV Rhythm Game Track Finder, your beacon in the confusing swirl of rhythm games.

The regularly updated database will allow you to search any artist and any song to find out which rhythm games it is in and to compare song lists for any major music-based video game.

The database currently indexes song lists for more than two dozen rhythm games, including a range of SingStars, Guitar Heroes, Dance Dance Revolutions, Rock Band, and lesser-known favorites such as FreQuency, Elite Beat Agents and the Donkey Konga series.
» Read More 

Guitar Hero may be a great game, but it doesn't help the ego if you are thrashing with a little plastic toy in your hands. For the music loving gamers who love their guitars, ArtGuitar and Peavey are making 17 limited edition PS2 Guitar Hero controllers - with fantastic artwork and housed in a real high-quality Peavey guitar.
» Read More 

The best selling games in units sold, across all platforms, for the year are as follows, with more year-to-date sales data available at the source.

¿ Halo 3 - 3,700,000
¿ Madden NFL 08 - 3,200,000
¿ Guitar Hero II - 2,800,00
¿ Wii Play with Remote - 2,500,000
¿ Pokemon Diamond - 2,100,000
¿ Pokemon Pearl - 1,500,000
¿ Spider-Man 3 - 1,400,000
¿ Guitar Hero III: Legends Of Rock - 1,400,000
» Read More 

Activision has announced a dual pack with Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II games for only $59.99 USD for the Playstation 2 . Just buy a guitar of your choice for the Playstation 2 and you will be all set to rock on with two games for the price of one.
» Read More 

Tens of thousands of gamers voted for the true people's awards, held Friday in London, which highlighted the elite titles from the past year across a diverse range of categories.

Undoubtedly the big winner at this year's awards was Microsoft and Epic's stellar third-person shooter Gears of War, which took four top honors. Gears triumphed in the Ultimate Game of the Year, Xbox Game of the Year, The Nuts All-Nighter and the Editor's Choice categories. It also placed third in the 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year and The GameTribe Online Game of the Year categories.

Codemasters received the UK Developer of the Year award for 2007 sponsored by Next-Gen.biz, while Game took the prizes for Retailer of the Year. Nintendo took the Publisher of the Year award ahead of Microsoft Game Studios and Codemasters, while the Wii was labeled Innovation of the Year.
» Read More 

Introducing a new title into a national videogame league is never easy. The game has to be easy enough to pick up, but at the same time offer a competitive level of expertise that only a few in the world can obtain.
The World Series of Video Games is hoping that Guitar Hero will be the next game to propel competitions to epic proportions.

Guitar Hero is one of those games which does fit into the national competition level. Anyone can pick it up, but only a select few can master it. With that in mind it looks like Guitar Hero is setting itself up to be the next big competition ticket next to heavy weights like Quake IV and World of Warcraft.
» Read More 

In only a few months, gamers will be able to get their guitar on as Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock comes rocking onto the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 2, and Playstation 3.

The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game will ship for A$169.95 (roughly $137 US), while the Wii version will put you back A$159.95. The PS2 bundle is set at A$149.95. Each of these bundles will include the game and a wireless guitar controller. Extra wireless guitars will cost A$79.95 for the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Activision is also planning on selling the game as a separate item for the PS2 and the 360, which will cost A$69.95 and A$89.95 respectively.

Guitar Hero II for the PS2 and Xbox 360 cost A$149.95 and A$159.95 at launch, respectively, both packaged with wired guitars.
» Read More 

The Wii, Xbox, GC and PSP versions of Madden 08 ¿ combined - accounted for fewer than 10% of the 1.6 million units sold while 360 version sold them most and 4 times the PS3 version.

-- 8/18 ---- 8/11 ------ Net Change
NDS 131,930 / 126,277 / +3%
Wii 89,280 / 86,469 / +4%
360 59,118 / 52,484 / +13%
PSP 53,206 / 55,160 / -4%
PS3 47,928 / 41,499 / +15%
» Read More 

www.GameRevolver.com is hosting a Guitar Hero Tournament to be held over Xbox Live in September. The prizes are pretty sweet and it is easy to enter! Check it out
» Read More 

Today, this intricately crafted LEGO Guitar Hero controller appeared on the internet, and GamerSquad's jaw duly dropped.

Obviously, constructing a replica of Guitar Hero's Gibson Explorer-inspired controller using just LEGO is a feat worthy of applause on its own, but get this: it even works with the game.
» Read More 

Software and hardware sales in the US from VGchartz. Guitar Hero II takes the number one spot for software sales while the Nintendo DS was the best-seller for hardwares.

Hardware: Console Weekly Total
DS - 140,151 (-4%) 13,730,938
Wii - 95,171 (-3%) 3,974,505
PSP - 59,483 (-9%) 8,864,934
PS2 - 54,701 (-10%) 44,524,847
PS3 - 43,498 (-4%) 1,738,147
X360 - 34,174 (+5%) 6,607,403
GBA - 23,725 (-0%) 40,768,173
GC - 1,656 (-2%) 12,697,057
Xbox - 11 (-58%) 15,933,106
Total 452,570
» Read More 

Readers, say "hello" to the Guitar Heronoid, a creation brought to you by robotics enthusiast Rafael Mizrahi and the letters 'W', 'T' and 'F'. The purpose of Mizrahi's bizarre invention? Simple - to play the PlayStation 2 version of Guitar Hero II more perfectly than any human being ever could.
» Read More