It’s no secret that older musicians are not to thrilled with the idea of the whole music genre in videogames. They somehow believe that these plastic instruments will deter kids from actually playing with the real ones. While I totally disagree with this theory and actually think it encourages the kids to give an actual guitar a try; this is a real concern in the music community.
Nick Mason, who is the drummer for the legendary band Pink Floyd, is also agreeing with the countless musicians who are not a fan of this particular genre. Though, he’s willing to set aside his beliefs for a moment, why? For the all almighty mighty-dollar, of course. “I think we’d consider it,” Mason said, when ask if there is a possibility of a Pink Floyd rhythm game. “Everyone’s looking at new ways of selling the music because the business of selling records has almost disappeared.”
It’s great to know Mason is willing to set aside his own principle to make a little extra cash. Remember, we are currently in a global recession and the last thing I would want to see is Pink Floyd checking out the dollar menu at McDonald’s.
If we ever do see the day when Rock Band: Pink Floyd is launched, I really hope the song I embedded above is included. It’s also the perfect theme for this post.
Since Activision bought the Guitar Hero franchise, many people have argued that the publisher lacks the originality and creativeness that Harmonix puts into their games. Not only that, the company seems to be a bit lazy on bands who are in their GH titles, especially when they release a Guitar Hero starring a particular group. Like why on earth is Weezer in the new Van Halen Guitar Hero? It’s just beyond me and there is no excuse for the reckless choices that sound nothing like the original band.
Up top is a video that chaopolis on youtube made. It’s a parody of a game trailer, which the publisher would release to the Internet to get gamers excited about an upcoming game. It basically pokes fun of what is wrong with the Guitar Hero franchise and how they would screw up a Beatles Guitar Hero game. Check it out.
We already heard about the ‘musical geniuses’ who have spoken out against music videogames. From artists like Prince to Jimmy Page, we heard many talents express their displeasure in a genre that has become a pop-culture phenomenon.
However, not all artists are against the new craze. Drummer of the legendary band Aerosmith Joey Kramer, spoke nicely about games like Guitar Hero and/or Rock band, with Spinner. Kramer believes that these type of games are a gateway for kids to learn about classic music and maybe get them more involved with music as a whole.
“If that’s what you gotta do to get kids to understand what a band like Aerosmith’s all about and encourage them to learn more about the music, then that’s just one more way to find out about it,” Kramer said. Although he admitted that videogames might not be the best way for people to learn about music. “It may not be the most ideal way to find out about historic bands, but we’ll see what happens when they offer those guys boat-loads of money. We’ll see if they turn it down or not.”
While I 100 percent agree with Mr. Kramer about kids being more entice to play or even learn about music, I wonder if he would have felt the same way if Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was never made. If the reports are true, the amount of money the game had made, was more than any record the Band released in their long history. Not only that, Aerosmith saw a 40% increase of their catalog the week after Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was released. Basically, Kramer has literally millions of thanks because of music rhythm games.
Democratic MassachusettsGovernor Deval Patrick, is doing everything he can to lure gaming publishers and/or studios to move from their current locations to the Bay State. His excitement of the possible economic boom because of the videogame industry, is starting to ooze out of him. During a town hall meeting in Arlington, the Governor talked a little bit about Guitar Hero.
“This is not your father’s [Route] 128. You know that [video game] ‘Guitar Hero’? That was invented here. It was built here.”
Gov. Patrick was speaking about Harmonix who developed the first two Guitar Heros, and they are now the creators of the Rock Band series. We should note that Rt. 128 is known as a technology hub of Massachusetts. While Rt. 128 definitely has its companies along the highway like; Raytheon, Sun Microsystems and Raytheon, Harmonix is nowhere near the route.
Harmonix is located in Cambridge, which is right next to the city of Boston and miles away from Rt. 128.
Funny People is an upcoming film which is written, co-produced and directed by Judd Apatow (40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up). The movie stars Adam Sandler, who plays a successful comedian named George Simmons, who learns that he has contracted a inoperable blood disease and is given a year until he dies.
One night, Simmons watches a struggling comedian Ira Wright (Seth Rogen), and hires him to be his personal assistant, as well his opening act. During their time together, the two build a bond and a close relationship throughout the film. Although the story sounds depressing, remember, it is directed by Apatow — so expect some big laughs.
A few trailers have been released, but this TV spot we embedded up top which came from traileraddict, has a video game reference. 15 seconds into the clip, Seth Rogan makes a joke to one of his co-workers, played by RZA from Wu-Tang Clan, that revolves around Guitar Hero and Grand Theft Auto.
Watch the trailer above and not just the video game mention because the movie really does look great.
Do you want to play Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero but refuse because you are such a music elites, you wouldn’t be caught dead with a fake plastic looking guitar? If so, Logitech might have your back.
The company is releasing a brand new guitar, made to work with both rhythm titles. The wireless ‘instrument’ comes with a wooden neck, metal frets and a fingerboard made out of rosewood. Basically, it will feel and look like a real life guitar, of course without the strings (and girls). This can be all yours for only a mere 200 bucks.
Yeah, I’ll just stick with my crappy looking plastic thing and spare $200. Maybe by not spending the money, I can save up for the realistic looking drums when Logitech releases it. Yeah, I know nothing has been announced, but you know its coming.
Right now, the ‘controller’ is announced for the PS2/PS3, only.
Prince is considered to be one of the greatest musicians of our time. Honestly, even if for some reason you can’t stand him, it’s hard to argue his greatness, just look at his achievements. The artist has won seven Grammy Awards, one Golden Globe and even anAcademy Award for his work on Purple Rain.
Even with his legendary work, comes controversy. Without me getting to much into it, just go to his Wikipedia page and look under ‘controversy.’ With that said, PBS asked Prince on his thoughts about Guitar Hero. Although he didn’t necessarily criticizes the rhythm game, he just doesn’t think it should be a substitute for playing an actual guitar.
“Well, I ain’t mad at them. I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that. But I just think it’s more important that kids learn how to actually play the guitar. It’s a tough instrument — it’s not easy. It took me a long time, and it was frustrating at first. And you just have to stick with it, and it’s cool for people who don’t have time to learn the chords or ain’t interested in it, but to play music is one of the greatest things. To create something from nothing is one of the greatest feelings, and I would — I don’t know, I wish it upon everybody. It’s heaven.”
Now, I agree with Prince about playing music. Actually, creating music, or anything else for that matter, is far better than just copying something. But one thing I don’t think he seems to understand, along with this older generation, is that Guitar Hero is NOT going to stir people away from playing a real guitar. I believe that if anything, kids are more inclined to pick up an instrument and learn how to play, and with that could lean how to become a musician. The game is more of a stepping stone rather than a replacement.
I also want to note that I find it interesting that Prince turned down an offer from Activision, to have his music featured in the game. I do have a hard time believing that he walked away from the deal because of his personal disagreements with the title. Let me remind you what he said. “I hear it made, like, $2 billion and they came to us and offered us a very small portion of that.” To me anyway, it sounds more like the the company didn’t offer him enough cash.
During a session at CES, CEO of HarmonixAlex Rigopulos confirmed we won’t be seeing a third installment of Rock Band in 2009. EA and the Boston based studio thought the amount of time spent on the upcoming Beatles tracks — just would have hurt the quality for a Rock Band 3 and they will skip a year. “A lot of our creative energy this year is focused on the Beatles project,” Rigopulos said.
This is a great move on EA’s part, the company has certainly changed for the better over the past year. Before, they were always about milking franchises and making as much money as possible. However, over the last couple of years, they’ve seen their stock dip a little. They believed one of the reasons for the losses had to do with relying on a franchise and not creating original content.
I believe if Activision had the rights to the Beatles, we would have seen that game — as well as another full-fledge sequel to Guitar Hero.
Freddy Wong, you are my new hero…actually you are my new Bike Hero. I really don’t want to ruin the video, but he calls the viral marketing company Droga 5 “douchebags,” and we agree! He then takes it one step further and plays Dragonforce on expert — on his bike!!
Video of the Day is a feature of /gamer showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at slashgamer@gmail.com
Some people in this world have way to much free time, but that can sometimes work to our benefit — we become entertained. Madflux and his buddies decided to recreate the song ‘Living Dead‘ by Prisoner of Society from Guitar Hero and the way they did it was creative.
First they put the notes from the game on the street, than LED lights on the bike — what you get is Guitar Hero on a bike. The concept is fascinating enough to share with all of you.
Video of the Day is a feature of /gamer showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at slashgamer@gmail.com
Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy are the co-founders of the music gaming company Harmonix. These guys are so talented, they created two highly successful franchises with both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Not only did their company develop some of the biggest games in the world today — they’re now ridiculously rich. And they’re not ‘video game rich,’ but ‘Hollywood A-list rich.’
Because of the sales of Rock Band — Which exceeded expectations, they received a pretty bonus from Viacom Inc, parent company of MTV Games. The New York based media company paid a combine $300 Million to both Rigopulos and Egozy. Which gives each of them a 150,000,000 big-ones.
With the endless amount of Rock Band games that will come out and the new Beatles version that was just announced, plus the downloads that appear every week — these two guys should be billionaires in no time. Boy, do we all suck…
The Pitch: Tamagotchikid on youtube made this perfect demake of how Guitar Hero would have been like if it was first made on the Atari 2600. I’m not going to lie, if this game was available then, I would have bought it on the first day. Unfortunately, because Harmonix wasn’t around, I was stuck with E.T.
Can anyone tell me what song is in the video…I’ve had it stuck in my head for hours!
Video of the Day is a feature of /gamer showcasing geekarific video creations. Have a video we should be feature on VOTD? E-Mail us at slashgamer@gmail.com
Lars Ulrich is probably one of the most hated men on the internet. A few years back, the drummer of the band Metallica expressed his hatred of people downloading his songs on the now infamous Napster. He even went as far to tell his dislike of the service to the Senate Judiciary Committee. When it was all said and done, Lars got his wish and had over 300,000 users of Napster banned. Since that time, Ulrich had regrets on the way he issued the situation
Apparently, even with his disappointment in himself on the way he handled the problem, he still has issues with people having a voice online. While speaking with music publication Blender, he told them about why he is pissed about people complaining the CD sounds worse than the Guitar Hero Version. After the Jump, read what he says… (more…)
Coke vs Pepsi, Nike vs Rebook, and the WWF vs WCW are some examples of epic battles of companies competing against each other. One that has brewing for about year now has just gotten a little more vicious. While speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference, bigwig at ActivisionBobby Kotick talked about how the Guitar Hero franchise is far superior than EA’s Rock band.
“We’re outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the world’s music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there. I would also say when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software, and so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category.”
If you’re like me and enjoy Rock Band more than Activision’s Guitar Hero, you might want to put away you fanboyism while you read this. It’s true, Guitar Hero has in fact sold better. At the same time, the brand name is much more recognizable for the casual gamer. And we all know, casual gamers make companies richer, thus they seem to focus on them more. And for good reason.
But it’s also unfair to say GH is going to outsell Rock Band in the future. There is a few other reasons why GH has moved more games. One of the biggest reasons why we feel GH sold more units than its arch rival, isn’t because most people feel it’s a better product. In fact Rock Band ended up getting considerably more favorable reviews according to critics. But I believe the real reason why GH was more profitable was the fact it was cheaper and many people already owned the hardware.
The bundle of the original RB debuted at $169.99 last November — compared to Guitar Hero III’s price of $99.99. Not only that, Guitar Hero had the option of purchasing just the game and without the hardware. You would have to believe at least half of the consumers who bought GH purchased just the game for $69.99. When you compare $69.99 to $169.99 and the casual gamer has the choice to pick either or — what do you think they’re going to select?
When Guitar Hero: World Tour finally makes it’s way to the stores and it competes ‘head to head‘ with Rock Band 2, then we can actually make claims which is more profitable. We truly feel when it’s all said and done, Rock Band 2 will become king of the rhythm games.
America’s worst movie director, Brett Ratner, showed interested in making a movie adaption of the Guitar Hero last month. While speaking with EW he revealed that even though Activision isn’t allowing him to do the project (thank god), he still wants to pursue the publisher and direct the movie.
“I’d really like to do it, but they’re (Activision) not letting me. I expressed my interest, but because it’s such a success, it’s like now there’s no reason to make a movie about it. The game is wish-fulfilling, everyone can be a rock star. I might prevail. I usually do.”
How f*cking conceited can you be, guess what, Brett Ratner is so full of himself that he thinks he usually prevails. Yeah, he might get some movie projects that he wanted but I would disagree that he actually prevails making a good movie.
I ask all you video game geeks/nerds, to pray to the Battlestar Galactica Gods and not allow Activision to let this hack create and destroy our beloved Guitar Hero franchise. Because he will and you know he would…
