Activision's Kotick confirms DJ Hero

By Tom Bramwell Published 30 January, 2009

Slip of the tongue in Davos.

Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick has announced - apparently inadvertently - that DJ Hero is in development and due out in 2009.

Speaking to CNBC from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Kotick mentioned the game in answer to a question about innovation.

"We have this product called DJ Hero coming out later this year, which is a turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs," he said.

Up to now, DJ Hero has only been rumoured based on a trademark filing and speculation that B-Boy developer Freestyle Games had been bought out by Activision to work on it.

We were excited enough by the prospect to include it in our Coming Attractions series as one of the five most interesting music games of the coming year.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (21) 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • madgerald #1 3 years ago

    I read that you could add the DJ hero kit to the Guitar Hero kit and make Linkin Park Hero.


    ... then again, i may have just dreamt that.

    Will buy anyway..

  • TONYgr #2 3 years ago

    LOL!!!

  • node #3 3 years ago

    Ha. I love how CEOs blurt out upcoming games all the time, no doubt sending their PR staff into a frenzy.

  • smirny #4 3 years ago

    @cabbadgecase... do i sense some bitterness in your tone?

  • mrmonkey1980 #5 3 years ago

    Sound slike too much effort. I'll just keep letting itunes mix my songs :)

  • Widge #6 3 years ago

    Ableton > 1210

  • EVERYGAMER #7 3 years ago

    Why?
    Guitar hero I can understand but this? Next up piano hero where we give you a keyboard with 5 coloured keys!

  • Tetsuo_Shima #8 3 years ago

    Aye, Ableton > 1210s, but 1210s are more fun. Shame I'm still rubbish with them.

    "which is a turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs"

    Sounds good, so long as it isn't gimmicky and simple; maybe a cheap substitute to CDJs. Question though - how can you mix CDs with but one turntable (you'd need to purchase two, or more)? And will it have a Guitar Hero style game at its core, or is it merely a watered-down DJ package? If it's the former then I hope they include a blend of decent licensed songs (no fucking RnB, please) and some lesser known or in-house ones. If it's a glut of overplayed, 'popular' chart songs then count me out.
    Edited by 3 at 30/01/09 @ 19:17

  • Widge #9 3 years ago

    I read on Resident Advisor that Tiesto was to contribute (which his management then rapidly denied) ... although thats a massive NO in my book.

    [link url=htt p://www.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx?id=10017
    ]http://ww w.residentadvisor.net/news.aspx...[/link]

    Fingers crossed for Villalobos expert mode, and bang in some Squarepusher and Aphex for additional confusion.

    I'm with most people though, how on earth can you make something out of this. For me, I mix on Ableton nowadays so if its a bit of software that lets you mix then its a touch redundant on me. Also, at its core, Guitar Hero is effectively Dance Dance Revolution for the fingers, I can't see how you could apply that thinking to DJing. Maybe scratching, but thats about it.

    What would be good would be a spiritual successor to Music. Mix other peoples tracks, use samples in your own compositions, mix your own compositions....

  • Daikon #10 3 years ago

    Didn't Konami have something like this already? Beatmania?

  • Stretch #11 3 years ago

    "Guitar hero I can understand but this? Next up piano hero where we give you a keyboard with 5 coloured keys!"

    "Didn't Konami have something like this already? Beatmania?"


    I had it on the PS2 - was a keyboard with 5 coloured keys and a turn table on one device - you had to press the coloured buttons a la Guitar Hero and then scratch on the coloured lines a la Drums in Guitar Hero.

    I can see this being basically the same game with an updated controller and more modern songs... Cant imagine it being great tho =(

  • Razorus #12 3 years ago

    Wake me up when they release MC Hero. Brrrrrrrrrraaaaaapp pap pap pap. You get me blad?

  • Krelle #13 3 years ago

    If it comes close to the greatness of IIDX itll be pure win o/

  • kissthestick #14 3 years ago

    DJ Premier beats please

  • foamy #15 3 years ago

    "Aboutt ime there was soemthing that catered for people with decent music taste. "

    And that would be you, right?

  • Syrette #16 3 years ago

    Some severely pretentious comments so far..

  • Widge #17 3 years ago

    Mainly people talking about what the game might be like, which is kind of appropriate

  • hbunny #18 3 years ago

    Am I the only one who finds it absurd that Activision are at WEF in Davos? A fucking games company? Maybe they have a plan to end the world economic downturn.

  • jack_klugman #19 3 years ago

    Am I the only person who keeps misreading "Davos" as "Davros"?

  • rascoj64 #20 3 years ago

    No Quinc, I keep on thinking it's davros too! lol!

  • Ryze #21 3 years ago

    Nice.

    Bought my 1st Gutar Hero game yesterday and I love it. Had my eye on it for a while. I'll be getting this - hoping for some classic HipHop in the playlist.

    Loving the Rock tracks in Guitar Hero for now, and resisting the urge to splash out on World tour or RB2.