Activision coy on DJ Hero

By Robert Purchese Published 18 February, 2008

Trademark is only indication so far.

Activision has offered no clarification on whether it is working on a new rhythm-action game called DJ Hero.

Suggestions that it plans to expand its popular "Hero" franchise stem from a trademark filed on 8th February.

This protects the name of "DJ Hero", as well as downloadable content and "videogame controllers" sold with or separately to it.

It's not surprising: Guitar Hero is incredibly popular, after all, as are DJs. You might remember Konami trying this in the late '90s with Beatmania.

Activision has previously said it will grow its Guitar Hero series, and recently announced a fully-fledged outing dedicated to US rock band Aerosmith and its career.

Some also read between the lines and claimed Activision was planning drum or microphone peripherals to go with it, after it a description promised you could fill the shoes of the various band members.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 4 years ago

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  • quantumsheep #1 4 years ago

    Last night a DJ saved my life...

  • HarryB #2 4 years ago

    hardly as involving as playing a guitar.
    leave a tune playing, set up the mix, play other tune.

  • HarryB #3 4 years ago

    ea trax soundtrack then

  • lambtron #4 4 years ago

    Comedy gold.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #5 4 years ago

    They are coy becase they trademark was spelled incorrectly.

    The actual game is called BJ Hero and makes novel use of the Wii remote ;)

  • skillian #6 4 years ago

    Good idea. Plenty of kids don't like rock music, so they're missing a big chunk of potential customers at the moment.

    & HarryB, I don't think they'll be basing this on a Radio 1 DJ. Regardless of whether you like the style of music, real turntablism is pretty damn involving, and probably a lot more difficult than playing Creep on guitar. Tell me this wouldn't be fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esBVYVnSzfk

  • SomaticSense #7 4 years ago

    Being both a bedroom dj (of the 'mixing' variety) and an avid gamer, I'm interested to see how this turns out. Like retrend said though, it'll probably will be more about the scratching and turntablism side of djing than anything. I'm really doubtful though, as I'm not sure how mixing would either work at all with the typical 'Hero' gameplay style, or be at all entertaining as a videogame.

    There are plenty of free websites out there that offer the ability to mix your own mp3s via visual representations of turntables for anyone who really feels the need for a game like this. Besides, assuming that it'll cost £39.99 plus the cost of peripherals, I'm not sure why anyone would choose this over getting a similarly priced pair of cheap third hand decks and a mixer to be honest. That would be by far the better option, as you would actually be learning how to mix properly with far more reward.

    Smacks to me of cashing in. Will doubtless sell craploads though.
    Edited by SomaticSense at 18/02/08 @ 13:12

  • xAx #8 4 years ago

    I swear i read ages ago that activision registered drum hero, keyboard hero and some other ones. Maybe im just going crazy though.

    I will be waiting for Jazz Flute Hero

  • skillian #9 4 years ago

    Or Cowbell Hero.

  • mingster #10 4 years ago

    Sluggish sales of activision - Sousaphone hero

  • Toothball #11 4 years ago

    Didn't they copyright Guitar Villain or something a while back? I figure they'll be picking up names so other people don't get to them first.

    Edit: Yeah, here's a link: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?art...
    Edited by Toothball at 18/02/08 @ 13:32

  • VicViper #12 4 years ago

    although I'm interested in what they plan to do, I already have both DJmax portables for the PSP so I'm wondering if they'll go for the table controllers that beatmania have been using for the last few years

  • MBar #13 4 years ago

    Pass.

    Wicky wicky.

  • Fab4 #14 4 years ago

    Maybe its a Hero/FPS mash-up...some dev's probably been listening to "Murder on the Dancefloor" while stoned, or something.

  • Lebowski #15 4 years ago

    Achievements for DJ Hero:

    Leave record playing while you go for a slash - 25 points.

    Pull someone else's girlfriend by playing her request - 5 points

    Play 'New York, New York' on 'Wedding Level' - 1 point

    Get someone to help with your decks at the end of the night - 500 points

  • aine #16 4 years ago

    i bet the controller turns out to be exactly like the beatmania one. only with more buttons or something.

  • SimonM7 #17 4 years ago

    Oh dear. Beatmania clone on runway 7! :)

    Not surprising seeing as Guitar Hero was a Guitar Freaks clone to begin with. Drum Mania clone coming up then I suppose.

    It doesn't matter terribly, of course, and in a lot of ways Guitar Hero is an infinitely more playable and enjoyable console experience than Guitar Freaks was/is. Ultimately it's gonna be all about the music though, and there's a reason I play Beatmania Happy Sky and Distorted more than any GH game. I'm a gay jpop/synthpop kinda guy.

  • zoglog #18 4 years ago

    Wow Red Octane up to no good again biting off and carrying he hero brand too far out. Welcome to the milking money.
    Meanwhile even though Harmonix is taking previous elements and combining them, at least they're improving the game.

    I think I'll stick to beatmania IIDX. We know how well that fared for Konami.

    http://picasaweb.google.com/zoglog/DJDao...