Activision: “Guitar Hero has made music social again"

[pilonv1]

GUITAR HERO® ANNOUNCES AUTUMN LINEUP FEATURING GROUNDBREAKING DJ HERO™ TITLE AND NEW GUITAR HERO® 5 AND BAND HERO™ GAMES

Innovative DJ Hero Game Expected To Transform How Consumers Engage with Music * New Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero and Band Hero Expand the Category with Fun-to-Play Experiences and Innovative New Technologies and Features * Autumn Slate Delivers Largest Variety of Music and Hottest Artists

Thursday 7th May/... Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) is set to once again revolutionise how consumers interact with music by releasing three new titles this fall – DJ Hero™, Guitar Hero® 5 and Band Hero™ – that will redefine the company’s popular music gaming platform. The slate will transform the way consumers enjoy and engage with music by offering the largest variety of music genres, innovative technologies and new social entertainment experiences for existing fans and millions of new consumers who previously have not joined Guitar Hero’s global community of fans.

• The company’s groundbreaking DJ Hero expands Guitar Hero’s signature social gaming to all-new consumers with the addition of diverse music genres including hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Introducing an all-new innovative turntable controller, DJ Hero transforms players into DJs who rule the club scene by creating original mixes of popular songs and music from the world’s most exciting artists and DJs.

• Letting fans continue to fulfill their rock fantasies, Guitar Hero 5 features the hottest rock and roll artists today as well as classic rock bands and gives players an unprecedented level of control over the way they play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly.

• The franchises’ first E10+ rated console game, Band Hero delivers an exciting music collection featuring top-40 hits designed to expand the experience to a new genre and appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass and microphone. The game builds upon Guitar Hero’s easy-to-play, difficult-to-master signature gameplay and allows novice players and expert fans to join together on their favourite songs.

“Guitar Hero has made music social again and has become one of the most popular ways to experience music,” said Dan Rosensweig, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Guitar Hero franchise. “Today’s fans enjoy a variety of music and are looking for more ways to engage with their favourite songs, artists and fellow fans. These games will let them listen, participate and socialize with music in ways they have never been able to before.

Thank god for Guitar Hero. It takes a visionary company like Activision to make it socially acceptable to listen to music with other people.

ACTIVISION

[archie4208]

Thank god for Guitar Hero. It takes a visionary company like Harmonix to make it socially acceptable to listen to music with other people.

HARMONIX

Fixed

[archie4208]

By the way, what's up with Band Hero being E10?

Gotta combat Lego Rock Band somehow

[pilonv1]

Band Hero - Guitar Hero with even shittier music

there's going to be a TV SERIES TOO

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/television/news/e3i5b8b0ca04d790c4835138114cf7ad927

Activision eyes 'Guitar Hero' TV series, tour
Popular Activision game could become reality show

By Paul Bond

May 7, 2009, 05:43 PM ET

Updated: May 7, 2009, 10:16 PM ET
hr/photos/stylus/71054-guitar_hero_341x182.jpg

"Guitar Hero"
The worldwide hit video game "Guitar Hero" could become a reality TV show and/or a real-life concert tour, people familiar with the discussions said Thursday.

"Hero" is from Activision Blizzard, a leading video game publisher that is looking to turn some of its games into TV and film properties.

Activision's cross-platform interests don't end at "Hero" either; discussions are under way to turn the "World of Warcraft" and "Call of Duty" video games into movies.

"They are being talked about for the big screen," said one person with knowledge of the details.

Legendary Pictures actually picked up the film rights to "Warcraft" about three years ago but hasn't moved much on the project since then. It's Web site still calls it a "future production."

Legendary has co-produced with Warner Bros. a string of hits that include "The Dark Knight" and "300."

In an interview prior to Thursday's quarterly earnings conference call, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick wouldn't comment on the status of a "Warcraft" movie or speculation that "Duty" would also become a film. But asked about the "Hero" franchise he did say, "It might make for a good TV show or a good concert tour."

"Hero" and "Duty" in the first quarter were two of the Top 5 best-selling franchises across all video game platforms in Europe and the U.S. "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King" was the top PC game, in terms of revenue, in the U.S.

Kotick added that video games, especially family-friendly "Hero," are "capturing leisure time away from TV and film. Not that readers of The Hollywood Reporter want to hear that."

Evidence that Kotick might be correct was in the company's financial report on Thursday. Activision Blizzard said first-quarter revenue more than tripled to $981 million as net income swelled to $189 million from $43 million in the year-ago quarter.

Comparisons with last year are an inaccurate measure of success because Activision hadn't yet been merged with Vivendi Games and renamed Activision Blizzard a year ago. More reflective of the company's momentum is that it beat expectations in the first quarter and it raised its full-year revenue guidance by $100 million to $4.3 billion.

"We have growth and we're making money. That's better than others can say," Kotick said.

Activision Blizzard this year will release several new "Guitar Hero" games including "DJ Hero," which includes a turntable controller along with hip-hop, Motown and other dance music, and "Band Hero," which caters to younger players and features top-40 hits. There's also a "Guitar Hero: Van Halen" and a "Guitar Hero: Smash Hits" coming soon.

[GilloD]

What the fuck is Band Hero?

[archie4208]

guitar hero 4 kidz

[OptimoPeach]

I can't even play this shit anymore unless I'm drunk + with friends.

[tiesto]

I am curious to try DJ Hero but I know it's gonna be absolute shite. Will stick to my cheap and basic Numark MIDI controller kthx.

[Eric P]

I am curious to try DJ Hero but I know it's gonna be absolute shite. Will stick to my cheap and basic Numark MIDI controller kthx.

yeah i think that's the best course of action.

[Bloodwake]

I'm sorry, I just read the thread title and I have to say that is the most fucking stupid thing I have ever read in my life.

[Cravis]

What the Hell is wrong with Activision. They're going to run this shit in the ground twice as fast as the Tony Hawk series.

Guitar Hero the Live Concert! Yeah that will be about as successful as the Mortal Kombat Live Tour. The only bands they'll be able to get for that are the shitty ones who couldn't headline or co-headline a tour by themselves. At Crue Fest last year they had the winning "band" play onstage before Motley came on. That went over real well. By the time everyone figured out what the hell was going on and the look of WTF left their faces it was over thank god.

The best part of that was their vision of turning World of Warcraft into a film. You guys thought Dungeons and Dragons was bad.... continue the tradition and give Marlon Waynes a role as an elf. I believe we already had a Call of Duty movie... I think it was called Saving Private Ryan... or maybe it was Black Hawk Down.