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Activision offers 'Guitar Hero Live' refunds after songs vanish
Activision appears to be learning a hard lesson about the risks of tying a music game to a subscription service. The publisher has launched a "voluntary refund program" for Americans who can prove they bought Guitar Hero Live between December 1st, 2017 and January 1st, 2019. You can make a claim until May 1st, 2019. While Activision didn't say why it was offering refunds, it's likely tied to the end of the game's Guitar Hero TV streaming music service. The company shut down GHL's streaming component at the end of 2018, shrinking the song library from 484 songs to the 42 tracks on the disc -- you suddenly weren't getting what you paid for.
Your next favorite songs are the backbone of 'Metronomicon'
Rhythm games live and die by their soundtracks. The problem is, if you're holding a plastic instrument in your hand, you've probably played through the same songs over and over whether it's in Rock Band or Guitar Hero. Regardless of how advanced the gameplay is, then, at the end of the day, if you're tapping through Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" in one game, you might as well be playing it on any of the popular franchises. That's where The Metronomicon: Slay the Dancefloor makes a bold left turn.
'Rock Band VR' is the dorkiest game ever and I love it
Rock Band VR will make you feel like a rock star. But from the outside, you'll look like a crazy person with an Oculus Rift on your head and a plastic guitar in your hands, strumming along in silence. Basically, you'll look like a huge dork while playing it. But the embarrassment is worth it: Rock Band VR successfully captures the feeling of actually playing music in front of a crowd. Even though it's Harmonix's first stab at virtual reality, the end result is immersive and, most importantly, fun.
The 'DJ Hero' and 'Guitar Hero Live' team is joining Ubisoft
Freestyle Games, known for its work on Guitar Hero Live and DJ Hero under publisher Activision, has a new home. The team has joined Ubisoft and will be renamed to Ubisoft Leamington -- based on its location in the UK. A post on UbiBlog says that the studio will collaborate with Ubisoft Reflections, whose past projects include Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and last year's Watch Dogs 2, in addition to Ubisoft's worldwide teams on their AAA projects.
There was gonna be a 'Guitar Hero' MMO
In the five years following the first Guitar Hero, Activision sought to flood the market with variations on the theme. But if the company hadn't swung the axe in 2011, we were even going to get a massively multiplayer online version of the title. Unseen 64 has unearthed footage from the early stages of Hero World, a planned replacement for DJ Hero 3 that was designed to unify the entire World series in one place. It should come as no surprise that, as the bottom fell out of the plastic-musical-instrument genre, the idea was axed, even if it did have some pretty exciting ideas.
'Rock Band 4' and 'Guitar Hero Live' are basically board games
The puppies always get excited when I open the hall closet. As the heavy, wooden door slides open with a twist and a pop, my two tiny dogs run over, tails wagging, because opening that closet means one of three things: The pups are going for a walk, I need to sweep, or it's time to play Rock Band 4. My boyfriend and I store the plastic guitars in that closet, and as I slide them out, brushing past jacket sleeves and cardboard boxes, even the puppies understand what's going on. We're having a party.
'Guitar Hero Live' is a karaoke simulator
This October, prepare to bring the house down with wild guitar riffs and your mad karaoke skills in Guitar Hero Live. That's right, it's official: Guitar Hero Live brings singing back to the franchise, alongside the new guitar and all of the fresh online features, challenges and songs available in Guitar Hero TV. A behind-the-scenes video posted just before Gamescom kicks off this week in Cologne, Germany, provides an overview of online features in Guitar Hero Live and drops the mic on singing in the game.
A close look at the new, yet familiar guitar in 'Guitar Hero Live'
Tim Dunn and Nate Coppard are on a mission to rewire your brain. They're respectively the senior producer and senior designer behind Guitar Hero Live's new six-button guitar, and while neurological change is not their direct goal, it's a side effect they seem to relish. The new guitar has two rows of three buttons each, stacked on top of each other at the end of the neck -- this not only adds an extra button to the series, but it allows for fresh challenges. "It's not something people will be familiar with," Dunn says, glancing down at the Guitar Hero Live guitar in his hands. He taps some of the buttons. "It's a new thing." Seated next to Dunn, Coopard adds, "We've had a lot of people saying they can feel their brains kind of adjusting and kind of rewiring to the new way of playing it as they play through the songs, and then gradually getting to grips with how the difficulty ramps up as you jump around between the two layers."
Brace yourself for a new 'Guitar Hero'
Activision is making a new Guitar Hero game for release this year, according to Kotaku UK. This would be the first Guitar Hero game in four years, after Activision officially called off development of the series in February 2011, following the underwhelming release of Guitar Hero 5. Two people offered the site a smattering of details about a new Guitar Hero, including that the art will be "more realistic" than the franchise's traditional cartoonish style, and the game will include new guitar peripherals. All of this is in development for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, according to the report, and we should see an announcement at E3 in June.
Aerosmith made more money from video games than from any one of its own albums
Planning to make it big in the music industry by releasing a hit album? Dream On. A long forgotten PC Mag article resurfaced this week to remind us that the music industry had changed drastically over the last decade. According to Activision chief Bobby Kotick circa 2008, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith "generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has." The game in question has sold over four million copies to date, droves more than most album sales in the modern market. An amazing fact, but don't act too surprised: headlining bands have always depended on the power of their brand to move merchandise and T-shirts as much as their albums. Still, it's a heck of a way to highlight the dilemma of the modern celebrity: who you are may be more important than what you do. [Image credit: PhilipRood.com/Flickr]
Samsung receives patent for music player that lets you add your own riffs
Though patents often never amount to anything, we sincerely hope this wacky one from Samsung does. It's an approved idea for a portable music player that also contains keys and motion detectors to let it function as a "musical instrument," too. While listening to that epic jam, you could play along by pressing keys on the side of the device as if you were fingering a guitar's fretboard. You'd be able to change position on the "guitar neck" by moving the player back and forth, and a motion detector on the side would sense the fingers on your other hand as you strum chords or pluck out a solo. Your GarageBand-style noodling, along with the original music would all blare through a speaker and amp combo on the device, to the amusement / horror of your friends. That's assuming Samsung ever builds one, of course -- but if not, our John Q. Engadget will be the first name on a petition to get it to market.
Incident Tech's gTar gets teased, remains largely silent (video)
What you see above is the gTar, an upcoming electronic musical instrument from Bay Area-based startup, Incident Technologies. It's got what appears to be an iPhone docked in the pick-guard and it looks pretty cool lit up in the teaser video after the break. Beyond that, there's not a ton of information about the thing available online, but we did some digging and have pieced together a pretty good idea about the thing. The device made an appearance at South by Southwest earlier this month, and bits and pieces have made their way into the web by way of startup site AngelList and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and, of course, YouTube. A posting on the former describes it as "a consumer electronics device that enables an interactive music entertainment experience to anyone without any kind of previous musical knowledge."From the looks of it, the thing is a little bit Guitar Apprentice and a little bit Tabber. Unlike the plasticky Guitar Apprentice, however, this device looks like a genuine guitar (strings and all), albeit one with a light up fretboard for Tabber-like educational purposes and a "docked mobile device." The guitar also makes it possible to share music socially, though it's not entirely clear whether this is accomplished via the docked smartphone or an external output like a PC, though given the company's connections to the developer community, we suspect that both will be options, be it through built-in functionality or available APIs. The gTar is also being positioned as a music creation device, rather than simply an educational tool (à la Tabber) or a simple overblown Guitar Hero-style controller.Check out a flashy, if rather uninformative teaser after the break.
Guitar Hero to be resurrected, retooled, and launch reunion tour
Stop mourning wannabe rock stars -- Guitar Hero is coming back. We heard the rumors of its demise were greatly exaggerated, but now word has come straight from Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick that the game is currently being reinvented for a modern, more demanding audience. As he told Forbes, "we're going to take the products out of the market, and we're not going to tell anybody what we're doing for awhile... we're going to use new studios and reinvent Guitar Hero. And so that's what we're doing with it now." So there you go -- Guitar Hero's retirement was only temporary. Like any good performer it'll be back before you've even had a chance to miss it. Looks like the franchise will keep rocking out well past its prime. What's the console equivalent of playing a state fair?
Guitar Hero said to not be dead yet, will continue to rock from beyond the grave
It was with heavy heart that we reported in February the Guitar Hero franchise was dead, done in by an addiction to half-baked sequels and a growing tolerance of commercialization. It felt like the series being put out to pasture was for the best, but maybe this old rocker still has some life in its leopard-print pants yet. Dan Winters at Activision sat down with gamesindustry.biz and clarified that "the brand won't go away," that the company just isn't going to release a new one this year. You know what that means: next year you'd better be ready to dust off those flimsy guitars and rock once again like it's 2009.
Activision kills Guitar Hero division to the consternation of fake musicians everywhere
Guitar Hero had its time in the sun as one of the most successful franchises in musical gaming. Still, it's been no secret that the once-respected brand, owned by Activision, has experienced pretty steep declines in the past few years, especially on the lackluster Guitar Hero 5. So, surprising or not, the announcement today that Activision would disband the Guitar Hero team and kill off development of the next title in the series is a sad bit of news to hear (though in fact, not as sad as hearing, say, Chinese Democracy). This announcement comes on the heels of larger-scaled layoffs at Activision, and more cuts are rumored in the DJ Hero division, as well. At least we still have Rock Band, right?
Fender's Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster guitar rocks out March 1, 2011
Fender has finally announced when its Squier Stratocaster guitar, the one built and licensed for Rock Band 3, will be available and, more importantly, how much it will cost prospective rockers. The guitar is expected to be released on March 1, 2011 for $280 (with pre-orders beginning January 1). The Strat certainly isn't cheap, but it's competitively priced in the world of electric guitars. It is an actual guitar, after all, as opposed to the 102-button Mustang controller from Mad Catz, and the Squier is expected to provide a greater level of realism to RB3's Pro Mode. In addition to teaching players some real rock chops, Fender's guitar can also be plugged into an amp and, like the Mustang, serves as a fully functional MIDI instrument. It's worth reiterating that Mad Catz's $40 MIDI PRO-Adapter is required to use the Squier with RB3. And it should also be noted that the Squier can't be used to play the game's standard modes, meaning you'll have to resort to a good ol' plastic guitar if you want to rock along with the classic multicolored gems. %Poll-55190% [Thanks Nick!]
Gibson's Rock Band lawsuit ends in settlement, one way or another
Back in 2008, Gibson Guitar hoped to cash in on the Rock Band craze with a slate of patent infringement lawsuits of dubious quality, and though the firm lost to Activision a year later, its suits against Harmonix, Electronic Arts, Viacom, and six major retailers stirred something in Nashville's rock gods. Though exact terms weren't disclosed, the parties reached a settlement in a Tennessee federal court this week, and plan to bring the lawsuit to an end by June 14th. Meanwhile, we hear Harmonix v. Konami is meeting a similar end; retailers should be able to sell cheap plastic guitars with a infinitesimally cleaner conscience in a little over three months.
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock axe gets the fingers-on treatment (video)
We saw this flame-adorned guitar imitator in pictorial form just a couple of days ago, but now the GH: Warriors of Rock controller has been investigated in full detail and on video. Notable changes include an easier to hit star power button, a flanged strum bar, and the replacement of the touch pad on the neck with a battery compartment (which will store the Wii Remote on that console's version). See if it lives to up to its promise of being a shredder's best friend in the video after the break. [Thanks, Dan]
Farmville and Guitar Hero announced for iPhone
You knew it was bound to happen sooner or later -- Farmville is heading for the iPhone. But that's not all, Activision was also on hand at WWDC to announce an iPhone version of Guitar Hero, which packs classic rock from the likes of Queen and The Rolling Stones, and is available in the App Store today for $2.99. Check out a shot of it after the break, and look for Farmville to be available by the end of June -- or don't, it's up to you. Update: Guitar Hero press release, with the complete tracklist and add-on packs, is now after the break. %Gallery-94573% Check out more from WWDC 2010 in our liveblog!
Activision unveils gnarly new Guitar Hero axes for Warriors of Rock
Some of you might be surprised that a game as simple as Guitar Hero is on the precipice of its sixth iteration, and others still will just want to know what the latest axe is going to look like it. Well, behold! Today we're witnessing the debut of the new "shredding-friendly" design, replete with cutaway sections in the body and an aggressive, modern look. The cutaways are possible thanks to an internal redesign concentrating the electronics into the neck and fretboard, which will also allow you to swap different bodies around the controller parts. Yes, that does mean you'll be able to play without any body appendages at all, if you wanna be all contrarian about it. Another design, a GameStop exclusive, is also on show, and you can see it just after the break.
