MCV: 'Rock Star' combo blame rhythm action titles for lack of new US bands
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Leading drum research initiative The Clem Burke Drumming Project has today announced a year-long collaborative research project which will examine the benefits of using Activision Publishing, Inc's Guitar Hero World Tour's Drum Kit Controller.

The Clem Burke Drumming Project – a unique collaboration between Blondie drummer Clem Burke, Dr. Marcus Smith from the University of Chichester and Dr. Steve Draper from the University of Gloucestershire...
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October was a pretty impressive month for the video game industry considering the overall economic environment in the U.S. Although neither Guitar Hero nor Rock Band made it into the NPD's top 10 selling games for the month, the two popular music franchises still helped boost sales overall. Guitar Hero World Tour placed 11th, 12th and 20th on the Xbox 360, Wii, and PS3, respectively, while Rock Band 2 for PS3 placed 16th.

What's more interesting, however, is a direct dollar sales comparison. According to data provided by Deutsche Bank Securities, Activision's Guitar Hero easily outsold MTV's Rock Band 2 (distributed by EA). Sales for Guitar Hero totaled $67 million for the month of October compared to just $27 million for Rock Band 2.
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After making their entry in a Guitar Hero set list with When You Were Young on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, multi-platinum alternative rockers The Killers are playing a downloadable encore in Activision Publishing, Inc.'s Guitar Hero World Tour, the company announced today...
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Activision Publishing, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero World Tour Complete Band Game bundles for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system will ship to retail outlets nationwide on Friday, November 14, 2008. The PlayStation 2 band game launch follows the successful U.S. release on October 26, 2008 of band bundles for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and the Wii home video game system from Nintendo.
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OXM UK reports that the Terms Of Use agreement for Guitar Hero: World Tour's GH Tunes mode covers more than just your country or even continent - it covers the entire universe.

The phrasing is that "you hereby grant Activision... a perpetual license throughout the universe."
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What is going on with the pricing of the DLC for Guitar Hero. Gameplayer are reporting some marjor variations between the PS3 and X360 version of the game online.
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The lead designer on Rock Band 2 says that Harmonix wants to let gamers create and share their own music, but wants it to be "an authentic experience".
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Is it any surprise that some of the most popular tracks being created in "Guitar Hero: World Tour"'s music creation studio are ripped from video games?

When GH Tunes launched in late October, the most popular songs on the service were based on music from "Super Mario Bros." and "The Legend of Zelda."

But they aren't anymore.

Based on a recent search, those songs do not appear to be on the service any longer, likely a result of copyright infringement monitoring from Neversoft and Activision Blizzard - but they are still on my hard drive. The creators of the game can't remotely delete material.

However, the blips and bloops of Mario and Link have been replaced with other video game jingles, ranging from "Final Fantasy" to "Sonic the Hedgehog" and even "DOOM."
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"The release date for the PS2/PS3 version is November 15. Work is already underway for a Wii version for Guitar Hero, due December 1, a Wii version for Guitar Hero and Rock Band, due January 31, and an Xbox 360 version for Rock Band and Guitar Hero in April."
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Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick knows a cash cow when he sees one, and has let it be known that the user generated content being created within Guitar Hero: World Tour could be sold as part of a subscription service in the future.

The revelation came during Wednesday's quarterly Activision Blizzard conference call with reporters. As noted by Kotaku, Kotick has previously stated the Guitar Hero music service, GH Tunes, has the potential to be one of the "credible alternatives to iTunes."
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Gamasutra writes: "Having gained a stable subscription revenue base from World of Warcraft, Activision Blizzard may look to monetize some of its other titles through subscriptions -- like Guitar Hero, CEO Bobby Kotick said today.

Activision Blizzard beat estimates to the tune of $711 million in revenues for its first quarter as a combined company, the company revealed today.

Anticipating investor concerns about an uncertain economy, president and CEO Bobby Kotick reassured them on the company's results call that stable subscription revenue from World Of Warcraft "gives us advantages over many of our competitors -- especially as we enter the holidays.'"
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Harmonix and MTV may have secured the rights to use the Beatles' songs in an upcoming video game, but Guitar Hero publisher Activision has a black belt in marketing and fanboy-baiting. They've just released a commercial for Guitar Hero: World Tour that features super model Heidi Klum dancing around in her lingerie.
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The solution announced last week that proposes to fix the problems occurring with your brand-new plastic drum set from Guitar Hero: World Tour is now available for download. Officially named the Drum Controller Standard Tuning Kit, this Windows program (sorry Apple and Linux users!) should solve your sensitivity troubles. Too bad though, cause you'll also need an midi-USB cable, which you are unlikely to already possess. Luckily, you can get one for free from Red Octane. Of course, you'll still need to wait for the cable to get to you ... and who knows how long that will take.
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Joystiq said: "Red Octane is shipping these cables, free of charge, to anyone who requests one on their support site."
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Those in line at the midnight premier event for the Quantum of Solace game will get the exclusive opportunity to be one of the first to play the Bond song "Another Way to Die" performed by Jack White and Alicia Keys which is soon-to-be-released as downloadable content for Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour.
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Slashgamer Writes: "Remember the Guitar Hero commercial featuring some of America's favorite athletes (besides A-Rod) that we posted a few days ago? Well you're not going to believe who directed it. Brett Ratner (Rush Hour) was the mastermind behind the commercial. Of course when I use the term mastermind I use it loosely…very loosely."
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Dan Clarke's GameStop manager told him that GameStop had a national conference call today that ordered all managers not to take returns any more and instead to direct gamers to amazon.com/support. When he went to GameStop, he saw a half dozen GHWT opened boxes behind the counter. He tried contacting Red Octane both as an average consumer and as a press member asking to see what can be done, and hasn't even received an email in the past 24 hours.

Activision and Red Octane did add to their FAQs stuff like "make sure you have fresh batteries" - the batteries included with their game weren't fresh?

[UPDATE: Glen Haag, co-founder of the site, adds: I'm having some minor guitar issues with GH:WT. The green button seems to stick and the star power activates automatically whenver obtained. It's certainly annoying, so I'm going to wait and see how the warranty issues resolve. I would tend to believe that Activision and Red Octane will work together to get a better solution in place soon.]
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"Want something that looks just that little bit more authentic when you're playing Guitar Hero?

How about a three-quarter replica of Gene Simmons' guitar from Kiss?

Yes folks. You too can paint your face black and white and strut around the living room with your unfeasibly long tongue hanging out as you get to grips with the latest Guitar Hero game..."

Excerpt quoted from PS3 Attitude
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Ripten: "It's always nice to hear mainstream media reference the video game industry positively, but Fox News took it a step further when Alexis Glick affectionately cited Guitar Hero's projected profits as proof of an economically healthy holiday buying season. Click through for the video."
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