Editorial: Activision taking a risk with latest Guitar Hero.

Rhythm games have never experienced the level of popularity as much as they have today. With games like Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Singstar, and the 47th version of Dance Dance Revolution, it's hard to find someone on your friends list who doesn't have one of these games attached to their gamertag. Now, it's getting to the point where companies are having to try and one up each other when it comes to content and replayability. Activision, starting to feel the effects of Rock Band's seemingly endless supply of downloadable content on Xbox Live, had finally made their move, announcing that Guitar Hero IV will be available by, as of press time, Holiday 2008.

However, that's not what I'm focused on. With the rumor mill spinning constantly and information coming our way almost on a daily basis, there's always something to read about. Right now, it's Activision's decision to release a sequel title to GH3 that is centered solely around possibly the oldest American rock band, Aerosmith. Now, I was never a huge Aerosmith fan, but I also acknowledge the fact that they've had plenty of amazing songs and the game itself will, in all likelihood, be a blast to play.

So what bothers me about this? It's actually pretty simple. It seems like a reach for Activision and its development partners, Red Octane and Neversoft. The reason I see it this way is because Aerosmith may not be the band that gamers today are looking to play songs from. While Aerosmith does have one of the most impressive discographies in history, from their self-titled album in 1973 all the way to their most recent release, Honkin' on Bobo, in 2004, let's look at this from a technical standpoint.

The general gaming audience nowadays is generally considered from the ages of 13-25. This is the primary group that developers have to attack full force. Teenagers today, even the oldest ones, were born in 1990, twenty years after Aerosmith's inception. You then have to look at it from the point that they probably didn't get heavy into music until at least 2000, and considering the way that mainstream radio has gone, chances are good that Aerosmith isn't near the top of their list when it comes to bands that they listen to.

Now, chances are good that I'm blowing this out of proportion, but there are going to be some things I'll be looking forward in the coming weeks.

1) How many songs will be on this sequel?

Rock The 80s for the PS2 gave us thirty songs, most of which gamers my age (25-30) knew fairly well. Aerosmith will also be fairly familiar to me, although I'm not sure I'm going to be too jazzed to play a game that features just one band. Now, if it was Metallica....

2) Is it going to cost the full 60 dollars?

If this game costs full price, it may be a point that turns off most gamers. Perhaps if Rock The 80s hadn't been so easy, I wouldn't be so scared of this. Now, it must be noted that Rock The 80s did only cost 40 dollars when it was released. However, it seems like it would make more sense to utilize Xbox Live and make this as an expansion pack. It would save money in production as well as cut costs for consumers. Plus, it can simply be added onto their current career totals of Guitar Hero III, although, chances are good that it will somehow link itself to the current score anyways.

3) Will there be other sequels on the horizon before Guitar Hero IV?

This excerpt is taken from Electronic Gaming Monthly's February 2008 issue.

This post was last edited by zoboa. 02/19/08 at 07:40 AM.

I think a 90s songs disc would be awesome but I could care less about Aerosmith.

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Definitley not feeling the Aerosmith sequel.

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I think what really got me riled up about this was a discussion that I had with a friend of mine. He believes that, even though today's teenagers may not listen to Aerosmith religiously, they'll take in the title because it's one of the biggest bands ever.

I think he overestimates the musical knowledge of a lot of people. It's not a knock to today's teenager, but I'm pretty certain that most of their collections are with fairly new music.

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This seems to me like them taking the biggest yet most calculated risk they feel they can, and it doesn't actually seem like a risk to me.

The names on the box, GH and Aerosmith, are both big enough that together they will recoup dev costs and make some change. Whether it's a 'smash hit' or not remains to be seen.

I think a much better move on their part would be taking a risk by putting out a "themed" Guitar Hero that features music/bands that have large following but aren't necessarily 'mainstream'.

Grab some of the better-established acts from real Metal: death, black, melodic, power, thrash, doom and grindcore.

Not to start a pointless name-dropping discussion, but you could have the game's "theme" be more aggressive, technical-minded music that has a large following but isn't necessarily 'commercial'.

By doing this, the companies involved could tap heavily into a potentially gamer-heavy market they are currently only brushing, and then by accident--so many people I talk to at rock & metal shows have only barely heard of Guitar Hero/Rock Band even though they play video games quite often.

People who are more into music "scenes" and shows will still be gaming on their PS2s and Xboxes and are only just now starting to pick up 'next gen' hardware as the pricepoint lowers.

Tapping into the rabid fanbase of US & European metal acts will hit that central demographic they want in a way they've never been able to hit before. They have tried with lame crap like "Freestyle Metal X" and that metal racing game whose name escapes me. Sierra is trying again with the upcoming Brutal Legend, and [adult swim] managed to do a GREAT job hitting it with the Metalocalypse show. The added bonus here is that instead of throwing huge amounts of money at aging, washed-up, strung-out old farts, they could license a lot of material for far less $$$.

It's the "male, 18-35" demographic they want, and they have the same overall preferences and aesthetic choice as the 'hardcore gamer' crowd, but fit the population profile of the 'casual gamer'.

It should be a Guitar Hero that features more songs from applicable bands already hit--Megadeth, Iron Maiden, The Haunted, Mastodon, Slayer, In Flames, Killswitch Engage, 'Dethklok', Pantera

As well as hitting other prodigious bands like Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, Motörhead, Celtic Frost, Death and/or Cynic, Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Immortal, Dimmu Borgir, Nile, Arch Enemy, Exodus, Dream Theater, Meshuggah, Lamb of God, Dillinger Escape Plan, God Forbid, Cephalic Carnage, Children of Bodom

yadda yadda I could go on forever but these are/were fairly prominent in their respective "scenes" and could make for some compelling Guitar Hero action

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This post was last edited by ReverendMeta. 02/19/08 at 05:19 AM. Because there were tons of errors.

after this they should make a snoop dogg guitar hero
because everyone loves jammin on their guitar to rap.

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they should just make it a killer deal as an aerosmith live track pack and make a true sequel to the gh series instead of this. Im hoping they will bring back the "boss battles" from gh3 and finally give us rockers the ability to customize our characters! That might seem stupid to a lot of people but itd be extra value for a 100 dollar game and besides, i just dont care for the gh base characters they give us. Or they could really go all out and incorporate the vision camera like rainbow six vegas did...that would be sweet. Also if they want a "band themed" gh they should really get ahold of metallica and get EXCLUSIVE (eat your heart out rock band) rights to use their songs for it. Thats probably the only "band themed" gh i'd be interested in....that or pantera.

Aerosmith is quite possibly the only band that could kill the guitar hero trend.

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[quote=Some random k1d]after this they should make a snoop dogg guitar hero
because everyone loves jammin on their guitar to rap.[/quote]

Fo shizzle! On the rizzle, that would be downright dizzle my nizzle.

...

I could go on all day.