A Guitar Hero game every year "a given"

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 9 August, 2010

"We lost our souls," admits dev.

Guitar Hero developer Neversoft has accepted that publisher Activision will release a Hero game every year despite admitting the studio lost its soul competing with rival Rock Band.

"With Guitar Hero World Tour [2008] we kind of lost our souls a bit," project director Brian Bright told Develop.

"We lost that spark by trying to cater to everyone. We were in this arms race with our competitor [Rock Band 2], and in the end I felt like we sold a bit of our souls."

In 2009 Neversoft created three Hero games: Band Hero, Guitar Hero Metallica, and Guitar Hero 5.

"We did make quite a few games last year, and if you count up the sales of all of them it was close to how well World Tour sold," Bright said.

"But the release of all those games split the marketing team's focus, it split our studio's focus."

Publisher Activision will release one Hero game this year: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, due out in the UK on 24th September.

"We did put out quite a few games last year, and we wanted to make a game that stood out and had its own identity," Bright continued.

"Rather than go head-to-head with our own games and our competitors, we decided we wanted to make something different."

Bright said Warriors of Rock goes back to Guitar Hero's roots, and will be... Ahem... Rock hard.

"What we saw at the end of Guitar Hero 5 is that, after a month of release, about 40 per cent of the audience were playing on expert. The core has got to a pretty high level, so we really want to up the challenge."

But what of the future?

"Is there a danger that the music genre will become saturated? Most certainly," Bright said.

"But I think it's a given that there will be a Guitar Hero game every year. It's just that there were so many last year."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (37) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AnsemsApprentice #1 2 years ago

    You're associated with Activision, you never had souls, but I forgive you *pats head*

  • Peew971 #2 2 years ago

    "We lost our souls... Oh well, we might as well carry on."

  • Obit #3 2 years ago

    Nevermind, you said Neversoft!
    Edited by Obit at 09/08/10 @ 15:17

  • McBradders #4 2 years ago

    Gun 2, please? :(

  • M4RV #5 2 years ago

    I can already imagine the Holy Inquisition marching towards Neversoft studios... May ye be purge and ye souls be redeemed.

  • pauleyc #6 2 years ago

    Really, I'd love them to expand. There's still a lot of possible content to be explored: Balalaika, Cither, Ukulele Hero.

  • RobotRocker #7 2 years ago

    *Complains that they lost their souls*

    *Makes a game which is basically Brutal Legend with Fallout Boy and Nickelback*

    Look, I'm not saying you might get them back Neversoft, but you probably have the same chance finding them as an umbrella at the lost and found at Kings Cross.

  • mcmonkeyplc #8 2 years ago

    Bungie take note!

    PLEASE!

  • Redeye #9 2 years ago

    Developer in 'give me the paycheck' non-shocker.

  • M4RV #10 2 years ago

    Why are people still mentioning Bungie...?! Neversoft doesn't own the Guitar Hero IP and it's not independent either; Bungie on the other hand, is an independent developer and owns the rights to the coming franchise... Activision will only publish it, nothing more, nothing else. Not trying to play devil's advocate here, but Bungie are far from naive i'd say.

    [/rant plus off-topic]

  • AnsemsApprentice #11 2 years ago

    Has anyone seen my Umbrella?

  • Fab4 #12 2 years ago

    No-one done the 'our souls' pun yet? For shame!

  • Eraysor #13 2 years ago

    The funny thing is they're not even the true soul of Guitar Hero; that's Harmonix!

  • andywilkie35 #14 2 years ago

    Oh Neversoft, I remember Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 very fondly. What happened?

  • nickthegun #15 2 years ago

    Songs with actual guitar parts in them this time plz

  • mingster #16 2 years ago

    Yup Harmonix with Frequency and Amplitude is really the soul of Guitar Hero.

  • Cpl.Hicks #17 2 years ago

    Completely went off the guitar hero games after 3, rock band is where it's at.

  • Hog-lumps #18 2 years ago

    "What we saw at the end of Guitar Hero 5 is that, after a month of release, about 40 per cent of the audience were playing on expert. The core has got to a pretty high level, so we really want to up the challenge."

    Isn't this a mistake though? Rock band 3 will surely be better placed to serve the 'hardcore' with the new pro-mode real guitar and pro note charts.

    So surely it would be better for them to stick to pursuing the causual gamers (like they were doing with band hero)? At least that way they won't be both chasing the same audience?

  • Vordred #19 2 years ago

    when will they realise they dont have to make it harder to make it more fun. strumming cords like a mad man for 5 mins is not my idea of fun. most of the punk style songs drive me nuts.

    i do play on expert but really the best songs arn't the hard ones, it the one that are just fun to play for all members of the band. there were a few songs i used to hate if i was on drums, it would be fun on the guitar but the drums parts suck and thus i dont enjoy it.

    some of my favorite songs on GH games are stuff i wouldn't listen to normally, it not to my taste of music but they are fun to play on the game.

  • alcides #20 2 years ago

    no they're not.

    They're just doing Brütal Legends.

  • Psychotext #21 2 years ago

    Rock Band 4 Life Yo!

  • DanC89 #22 2 years ago

    @pauleyc:

    You really are forgetting something there in that list....VUVUZELA hero!!

  • The-Builder #23 2 years ago

    "Publisher Activision will release one Hero game this year: Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock"
    What about DJ Hero? Not a real Hero game?

  • beastmaster #24 2 years ago

    They must be bored shitless of them now.

  • dominalien #25 2 years ago

    A Guitar Hero game every year "a given"

    I am so relieved.

  • spudsbuckley #26 2 years ago

    More Guitar Hero/Rock Band = more gooder.

  • spiritsnake #27 2 years ago

    how about jazz hero

  • Jonny5Alive7 #28 2 years ago

    I can never be bothered to play Guitar Hero / Rock Band past Medium difficulty, I tried with the very first GH on PS2 but never got the hang of hammer and pull offs. I also found if I persevere with Hard mode it makes me shit at Medium because I get used to the notes going faster, which isn't what I want because I enjoy the songs more on Medium.

  • SPKRFCKR #29 2 years ago

    GUITAR HERO AND ROCK BAND ARE MEANT TO BE PLAYED ON AT LEAST HARD DIFFICULTY.



    That is all.

  • gnrlstuart #30 2 years ago

    power gig? am i the only person on the fucking web!

  • whoyouknow #31 2 years ago

    I don't even consider Activision to be a games company any more. They don't care about making games that are fun, they're in the business of making barely acceptable photocopies of games that were once good. Tony Hawk 2 was probably one of the best games I ever played - now look at it. Guitar Hero 2 and 3 were excellent - now they're horrid chores. Shadows of what they used to be. Call Of Duty has started to go that way.

    How many of the truly great games companies - and I mean the real superstars, the ones who very rarely put a foot wrong - adhere to this ridiculous idea of yearly releases? Valve releases things when they're good and ready. There isn't going to be another Red Dead game next year. GTAV will be next year at the absolute earliest. And these are the games that people will remember fondly, which is something that clearly doesn't concern Activision.

  • Paulie_P #32 2 years ago

    ABBANDONATE OGNI SPERANZA CH'VOI ENTRATE

  • rotmm #33 2 years ago

    in 2009 there was:

    Guitar Hero 5
    Guitar Hero Smash Hits
    Guitar Hero Metallica
    Guitar Hero Van Halen
    Band Hero

    Why on earth would Bright think there's a danger of the genre becoming oversaturated? Didn't Activision do that already?

  • smelly #34 2 years ago

    Sorry, but you lost your soul when you copied someone elses hardwork and claimed credit for it.

    .. Releasing the numerous sequels isnt losing your sould - that's called "killing the brand"

  • cnlfailure #35 2 years ago

    After Harmonix left the building Guitar Hero became more of a "game" where the objective is to get high scores and beat individual tracks. Harmonix always understood and continue to make games that recognise that the people who tend to really enjoy them use them as rock star simulators, which is why so many people learn to play up to medium and stay there.

    /2 pence, IMHO, etc

  • melch #36 2 years ago

    what about the 60% (majority) who are perfectly happy with the difficulty ?

    im rubbish at RB/GH but still enjoy playing online with my mates and a few beers :(

  • SpeckledJim #37 2 years ago

    mcmonkeyplc "Bungie take note! PLEASE!"

    What should they take note of? That Activision owns Neversoft and therefore gets to tell them exactly what to crank out, year after year?