Guitar Hero World Tour on stage at D6

By Rob Fahey Published 29 May, 2008

Looks as much like Rock Band as you'd expect.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick was on stage yesterday at the Wall Street Journal's D6: All Things Digital conference in California, and took the opportunity to introduce the next big thing for the Guitar Hero series - namely, of course, the addition of drums and vocals to the band.

Inviting American Idol judge (and car-crash reality TV star) Paula Abdul to the stage, Kotick got her to pick a band from the audience - and in a fortuitous, entirely not staged definitely not totally impromptu piece of good luck, she happened to notice Tony Hawk sitting there just begging to play the plastic guitar. How convenient!

All snarkiness aside, there's a video of the performance up on the All Things Digital site, which includes some footage of the game in action as well as the players strumming, drumming and singing away.

It's worth a look if you're now caught on the waves of indecision over whether to clutter up your living room with Rock Band plastic instruments, or wait for the next set of plastic instruments (although remember, they might just save your marriage, apparently).

Perhaps the most telling moment in the video, however, is right at the beginning when WSJ columnist Kara Swisher, interviewing Kotick on stage, manages to call the game "Rock Band" - leading to chuckles from the audience and slight discomfort from Kotick himself. Well, she's got a point - as the footage ably demonstrates.

Guitar Hero World Tour is headed for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and PS2 late this year, and hopefully won't repeat Rock Band's trick of taking bloody ages to appear in Europe.

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About Rob Fahey

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Comments (10) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Rowlsten #1 4 years ago

    Is that really the size of the drum kit?? Or is the fake kick just stage puroses? Pricey...

  • Eighthours #2 4 years ago

    I thought that she didn't actually call GH4 "Rock Band". As I recall, she quipped the Rock Band namecheck as the Activision guy talked about "the first game that enables you to play drums, guitar and sing," kinda putting him off his Japanese history teacher spiel.
    Edited by 2 at 29/05/08 @ 10:20

  • tonynibbles #3 4 years ago

    The GH4 drums are made of w1n.

  • paulf #4 4 years ago

    @ eighthours - thats how i saw it as well, basically it sounds like he was trying to bluff her that the whole band thing hadnt been done before and she was having none of it - rock band doesn't have tony hawk on guitar though ;)

  • macima #5 4 years ago

    What a cringeworthy video - Paula had trouble clapping in time at one point.

  • MikeN #6 4 years ago

    "Japanese History Teacher spiel" :) Spot-on Eighthours.
    The only way I can see this succeeding is if the drums are compatible with RB. Space is limited in most people's living rooms. As much as my missus loves to rock out on the drums even she would draw the line at a 2nd kit. A cross-compatible drum kit would allow people to 'upgrade' to the wireless GH drums. But given the fact that the GH drums have an extra pad and Activision's approach to guitar compatibility with GH3 I'd be very surprised if they actually made their new drums work with RB.

  • indotoonster #7 4 years ago

    Wow, agreed, some of that footage *was* cringeworthy. If you're going to promote the game at least try to get some people who look like they're having fun... the Rock Band promo videos are full of beautiful Lifestyle people having fun and showing their pearly whites a lot. Tony Hawk or not, these guys just looked embarrassing on stage, and the fact that the audience couldn't see the TV screen was downright scandalous (for Acti's sake I hope there was a big screen off-camera).

    However, those drums look *ACE*. I just know it's going to be incompatible with RB :-(

    And who was that singer? He sings amazingly well for an impromptu, totally coincidental, randomly chosen member of the public ;-)

  • Erinan #8 4 years ago

    They're having so much fun on stage, amazing ;)

  • CARL05 #9 4 years ago

    If this is cheaper than Rock Band and released here at the same time as in America then im definently getting this, although I will have to make some room!!!

  • McBradders #10 4 years ago

    Creative bankruptcy at its finest.

    Bravo!