Loads more Guitar Hero games by 2010

By Robert Purchese Published 16 September, 2008

Loads more money for bands involved, too.

Activision Blizzard plans to triple the number of Guitar Hero games on sale by 2010.

Publisher boss Mike Griffith unveiled the masterplan during the Analyst Day last night. He expects there will be double the amount of Guitar Hero titles on the market by 2009, according to Shacknews.

Things are going well, then, particularly for the bands involved. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, we're told, made more money for the band than any of its albums ever have.

"[Their] version of Guitar Hero generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has," said Activision boss Bobby Kotick, according to MTV.

"Merchandising, concert sales, [and] their ability to sign a new contract [have] all been unbelievably influenced by their participation in Guitar Hero."

Universal Music Group president Zach Horowitz echoed this sentiment, claiming songs included in Guitar Hero have their sales boosted by as much as 300 per cent.

We expect the bulk of the new releases to be based around band-centred spin-offs such as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Guitar Hero World Tour is, of course, due to launch on Xbox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii in October.

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.

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

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Comments (36) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Merlinho #1 3 years ago

    Please don't saturate the market. I don't want to see Guitar Hero: McFly any time soon.

  • Zomoniac #2 3 years ago

    And this is why Rock Band is win. Plenty of full albums as DLC. The only way you're going to triple the number between IV and 2010 is to release 8 new games in two years. That's a lot of single-artist cash-ins. £40 for a new Guitar Hero? Or £20 for the equivalent number of songs in the vastly superior Rock Band? Hard decision.

  • Turambar #3 3 years ago

    Really not liking Actiblizzard these days. They seem to have grabbed a couple of baskets, filled them with eggs and then killed the chickens.

  • optimusprym8 #4 3 years ago

    gah mp3s win over CDs - multiple tracks, multiple artists, one device. DLC needs to win, I don't want to have to swap discs everytime I want to play a different song from a different artist. This just smacks of money grabbing.

  • cyacomini #5 3 years ago

    Give me Guitar Hero : Meatloaf then stop making any more of them!

    Guitar Hero : Kate Bush anyone? :)

  • paulf #6 3 years ago

    i would prefer to get new packs as dlc, i bought gh:aerosmith at retail and traded it in after 2 days because it was so poor. I also got the new metallica album off xbox live and was pleased to see it will work as dlc in world tour as well as gh3 - saying that i find the difficulty level and note charts of rock band more suited to my skills with the plastic axe

  • kangarootoo #7 3 years ago

    First off, they can release as many Busted editions as they want. I don't have to buy them so I don't much care.

    Second, I expect their pricing to be reworked if a volume of band related discs is their future plan. I'm sure Activision are as aware of Rock Band's pricing as any of us are.

  • vegard #8 3 years ago

    the guitar hero escape plan

    now!

  • Royal Fool #9 3 years ago

    I have not purchased a single plastic musical instrument game, and I never will.

  • vegard #10 3 years ago

    you do, however, own several plastic devices.

  • Zomoniac #11 3 years ago

    I have not purchased a single plastic musical instrument game, and I never will.

    Yes, because they look sad and ridiculous in your living room.

    /looks at Royal Fool's game collection. Sees Steel Battalion. Sniggers.

  • FooAtari #12 3 years ago

    Depressing...

    Please don't saturate the market.

    Has this not already happened?

    GH came out in 2005 and there has alrady been 4 games? with another due this Christmas.

    Activision are starting to make EA at their very worst look good, And they are not shy of telling the world just how much they are going to rape their franchises.

  • craft418 #13 3 years ago

    i think rock band is amazing to be fair and guitar hero doesnt have the strongest setlist! and in rock band 2 you can drum along to any song you have on your xbox so technically you can have any song you desire?? and ROYAL FOOL! i dont care you dont have a music game nor do i car that you will never own one so how about you pipe down and find a forum where you can talk about it...

  • IneptPercy #14 3 years ago

    I love these games but still haven't touch the Aerosmith one, at £15-£20 I probably will.

    If they do standalone band games like that cheap enough which can be installed/interagted (if wanted) into world tour then it could work nicely.

  • Joppers #15 3 years ago

    If they release Guitar Hero: Iron Maiden, I will literally need to change my underwear :)

  • PlugMonkey #16 3 years ago

    I have not purchased a single plastic musical instrument game, and I never will.

    Wow. You must be, like, totally teh hardcore. Or something.

  • illusiondance #17 3 years ago

    jesus christ, well i suppose it shouldnt really be suprising, just look at the dozens of Beemani/DDR/pop'n'music titles Konami churned out over the last ten years.

  • Zomoniac #18 3 years ago

    GH came out in 2005 and there has alrady been 4 games? with another due this Christmas.

    5 already.

  • Quint2020 #19 3 years ago

    Activision Blizzard is the new EA, AICMFP.

  • bengray66 #20 3 years ago

    Guitar Hero : Mooooooo

    (thats a cash cow by the way)

    What was wrong with one Guitar hero, and then like an iTunes type thing for downloading loads and loads of songs?

  • kangarootoo #21 3 years ago

    @Royal Fool

    It must be just great being so discerning and highbrow... except for the bit where you chose gaming as a hobby of course.

  • XdarXideX #22 3 years ago

    I'm one of those few people who enjoy Guitar Hero more than Rock Band.

    @Bengray

    The reason would be because they'd be alienating those without xbox live. Maybe if they did song packs on disc but I'm sure that would still cost more than a download pack... plus you wouldn't really get to choose your songs.

    ---

    Honestly who cares if they do saturate the market with more titles? You don't have to buy them do you?

    EDIT: And I agree... a Dillinger Escape Plan song or two would be brilliant, even better an entire game! 43percent Burnt would be nuts.
    Edited by 1 at 16/09/08 @ 13:13

  • wewillselfdestruct #23 3 years ago

    Guitar Hero 3 was far worse than 1 and 2, presumably because Neversoft just aren't as good at this as Harmonix. So this story gets me about as excited as geriatric porn. Which is to say, not at all. To be clear.

  • Madafunkola #24 3 years ago

    Good Ideas for expansions:
    Metallica
    Iron Maiden
    Def Leppard
    Black Sabbath
    Led Zeppelin

    Bad Ideas:
    Status Quo (One button)
    Cannibal Corpse (4 second levels)
    Henry Rollins (spoken word rhythm action game?)
    Girls Aloud

  • SpyroViper #25 3 years ago

    I hear Milk Milk Milk Milk!

  • steviepunk #26 3 years ago

    "Good Ideas for expansions:
    Metallica
    Iron Maiden
    Def Leppard
    Black Sabbath
    Led Zeppelin     "

    Agreed, would also love a Slayer version as well :)

    That said, standalone games like this are not going to be very good in the long run. If you have friends over and want to play different songs, then you'll have to keep changing games. The only way that I can see these working in the long term is if they can integrate into GH:WT so all content will be available in there as well (as Rock Band 2 is doing with the original RB songs)

    I'll probably get GH:WT (I like the drum kit, will then use it on Rock Band), but RB2 will probably become my long term game unless all GH franchise content can be played in one game.

  • space_ace #27 3 years ago

    "we don't need another hero"?

  • kangarootoo #28 3 years ago

    @Madafunkola

    I'm sure I heard there was a Metallica version in the works.

    Death Magnetic is also available in full for GH3 as DLC, which i think is the better way to go as any GH3 DLC you might have won't work in GH:Aerosmith, suggesting each new disc is standalone and can't be used as a platform for adding DLC (ludicrous).

  • Rpt81 #29 3 years ago

    "[Their] version of Guitar Hero generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has,"

    The fact that 1 copy of GHA costs 4-7 times the amount of an average CD album might have something to do with that.

  • kangarootoo #30 3 years ago

    They also probably sold more copies of GH:A than they would expect to sell of a CD these days.

  • skybluesam86 #31 3 years ago

    If they do Guitar Hero: Muse, I will buy at least 15 copies...
    Ditto for Radiohead.

  • Emth #32 3 years ago

    I love the way Rock Band developers initially said 'We just want to release a single platform that we can keep releasing DLC for' and less than a year later, and before RB1 is even out in Europe (PS3), what a surprise, here is Rock Band 2.

    Gotta love this industry.

  • daz_john_smith #33 3 years ago

    Slightly off topic but: "Guitar Hero World Tour is of course due to launch on XBox 360, PS3, PS2 and Wii in October"

    October? Most places have it down as 7th Nov. Did Eurogamer get Oct from an official source? Or is that the US release date (26/27th Oct) and we get it 2 weeks later?
    Edited by 2 at 17/09/08 @ 11:59

  • XdarXideX #34 3 years ago

    Yeah I thought that. I'm not expecting the 7th Nov release date to stick though due to the fact Gears of War 2 is released that day. We'll probably see it later in November rather than any earlier.

  • daz_john_smith #35 3 years ago

    Well Amazon has it down as the 14th, week after Gears2, but I don't see why Gears and GHWT can't be released the same day, they are very different and kind of non-competing titles.

    Back on topic: if they're going to release as many standalone editions as they say then I think that the songs on those games should be made available as DLC for World Tour so anyone who has invested in the core game can get the main content at a reduced cost and also not have to keep swaping discs. I do think that having disc based track packs is a good idea though for people without LIVE or PSN access. Given the choice of buying GH:Metallica or just downloading the songs for use in GHWT I'd go the DLC route now I'm on LIVE, I'm not really arsed about new costumes, characters or venues.
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/08 @ 12:09

  • mechamonkey #36 3 years ago

    milk milk lemonade round the corner chocolates made.