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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Console Monster writes: "The big releases are definitely coming and this is shown throughout today's Xbox Live Marketplace update. With Gears of War 2 releasing tomorrow (or some lucky people have it today, including me!), a 'Welcome to Gears of War 2' trailer is now available. There's also Left 4 Dead and Call of Duty: World at War trailers; Vigilante 8 Theme packs and Guitar Hero: World Tour songs. The 'Bond' single looks interesting. Here is the full Xbox Live Marketplace update for Thursday 6th November 2008:

Name: Left 4 Dead Intro Video
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions except Germany

Name: Call of Duty World at War - Fire and Destruction Trailer
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions except Germany

Name: Call of Duty World at War - Zombie Trailer
Price: Free
Availability: All Xbox Live Regions except Germany..."
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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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Amid "isolated" reports of unsatisfied World Tour owners, Activision has released a free PC application to correct drum sensitivity issues.
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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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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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The Raconteurs and Jimi Hendrix will both take to the virtual stage this November as DLC in Activision's Guitar Hero: World Tour.
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Activision, Red Octane and Neversoft have created a piece of software that will allow you to connect up your Guitar Hero: World Tour drum kit to a PC running Windows (sorry, Mac heads without Boot Camp, or Linux heads) and increase the sensitivity of the drums.
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1UP writes: "Activision has issued a formal statement addressing the growing complaints over defective Guitar Hero World Tour drum kits, which have spread across the Internet over the last 48 hours since the game was released. Calling the defects "an isolated manufacturing issue," Activision contends the problem only lies with drums made earlier in the manufacturing stage, and promises a "drum tuning kit" that presumably will allow gamers to fix their drums themselves.

We have learned that certain drum kit controllers manufactured for Guitar Hero World Tour have sensitivity issues. We believe that these controllers are limited to ones in the earlier manufacturing stages. While we believe that this was an isolated manufacturing issue, we are stepping our efforts to randomly test our drum kit controllers so customers can be assured they work properly. In the event any consumers do experience problems with their drum kit controllers associated with sensitivity issues, Activision will soon be offering a drum tuning kit that will enable players to fully optimize their drums."
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ShackNews writes:

"Some buyers of Guitar Hero World Tour--which launched yesterday--are complaining of faulty instruments, mirroring the issues that afflicted last year's debut of the Harmonix-developed rival series Rock Band.

Complaints regarding the wireless drum kit focus on drum pads and cymbals that don't register every hit. The wireless guitar has also drawn criticism, with many, such as Shacknews' own GoS-CPT-Stewart and dblagent, finding that the guitars have stopped registering downward strums after a few hours."
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MTV Multiplayer writes:

"Are you tired of bringing home a new music game, inviting friends to rock and discovering most of the good songs have to be unlocked?

"Guitar Hero: World Tour" - like every music game before it - is no different. But the developers have been generous enough to also include cheat codes!"
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Kotaku is reporting that there are a number of complaints about the Guitar Hero: World Tour drums coming from Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners.
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Neocrisis: Here is the list of songs which can be downloaded on the Wii's version of Guitar Hero World Tour.
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Gamerdeals.net writes:

"The late October holiday assault continues with a loaded release week. Highlights include LittleBigPlanet (PS3), Fallout 3 (Xbox 360/PS3/PC), Guitar Hero World Tour (360/PS3/Wii/PS2), Motorstorm: Pacific Assault (PS3), Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (PC), plus much more!

Check out the full list of new video game releases (USA) for the week of October 26, 2008 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS2, PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC!"
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Yesterday, Logitech revealed its new $250 wireless guitar controller for Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. However, there were some questions about whether or not the peripheral would see a release for the Wii or Xbox 360, or if it would work with other non-Guitar Hero branded games. And now, those questions no longer remain unanswered.
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MajorNelson of Xbox Live has announced launch DLC for Guitar Hero World Tour.
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Tonight, X-Play's World Premiere Tuesdays continues with Adam Sessler and Morgan Webb bringing you a full episode devoted to Guitar Hero World Tour.

You'll get a look at the gameplay, how the game was made, the mapping and character creation of the game, the musicians and artists and how they got the music they got, as well as a preview and Hands-On of the game.

The game, developed by Neversoft and published by Activision, will release next week on the PS3, PS2, Wii, and Xbox 360 featuring an impressive song list with bands like Jimi Hendrix, Ozzy Osbourne, Tool, and more!

If you missed it, here's X-Play's All Access preview for Guitar Hero World Tour from earlier this year:
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