Problems with Guitar Hero drums?

By Tom Bramwell Published 27 October, 2008

Sensitive subject.

If you've read this morning's Guitar Hero World Tour review, then you already know how much we like the new RedOctane drums - but with the game now on sale across the pond, a few early adopters are reporting problems.

Across a range of posts on the official Guitar Hero and Activision forums, Kotaku uncovered posts from players whose drums were only registering soft hits, rather than hard ones (the drums are meant to be velocity-sensitive), while another Wii owner told the website he had to return three sets.

Elsewhere, despite Sony's claim a few months ago that the Rock Band 2 and GHWT instruments are cross-compatible, posters on the Rock Band forum claim their new PS3 drum-kits don't work with Rock Band 2. The situation is said to be fine on Xbox 360.

Following the drum posts, Activision and RedOctane have posted a range of customer support topics, advising players to check the batteries and other connections to make sure everything is firmly plugged in.

Guitar Hero World Tour's main competitor, Rock Band, experienced peripheral issues during its first few weeks on sale, with complaints of broken drum foot pedals and guitar strum bar issues, but these were fixed in later production runs.

However, it's worth pointing out that these incidents are pretty common after the launch of new gaming hardware, and may end up being a lot of fuss about nothing. We're contacting RedOctane's UK representatives for an update.

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 (8) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • Iora #1 3 years ago

    Rockbands pedal is notorious for being flimsy... My own PS3 Drumkit has suffered a crack just below the spring. Still waiting patiently for Rockband 2 to arrive on import...

  • Goodfella #2 3 years ago

    Yep, the pedal broke about a month after I got it on the 360 but I managed a DIY fix with a jigsaw and some laminate flooring which has actually made it a lot better and sturdier.

  • andywilkie35 #3 3 years ago

    I don't mean to laugh at Guitar Hero but after they released those video interviews where they were continuously sniping at the Rock Band peripherals, this is pretty funny

  • estoo #4 3 years ago

    ...advising players to check the batteries and other connections to make sure everything is firmly plugged in.

    Phew, glad that's nipped that in the bud then!

    Eejits.

  • karstux #5 3 years ago

    I'm wondering, are any of these Drumkits viable for "serious" music production? I have a Mac, and GarageBand, and would like to produce some amateurish music on it. :) I've been too cheap so far to shell out for something like an M-Audio Trigger Finger or a similar MIDI drum controller. Would a game drum kit be a cheap alternative?

  • mechamonkey #6 3 years ago

    There are always going to be a few broken units shipped with any product, it's just internet savvy game nerd rage is usually a lot more vocal about it

  • Jimpanse #7 3 years ago

    omg oO


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    cheers

  • Arwin #8 3 years ago

    Actually the peripherals come with rechargeable batteries. A lot of people had problems initially but they went away once they actually charged those batteries.Hopefully Eurogamer will keep us posted on any updates. ;)

    I'm looking forward to this. Thanks to Rock Band failing to release here on the PS3 quick enough, I haven't bought a full band set yet. So now it looks like I'll get WT for the instruments, and who knows Rock Band eventually as well if/when the two play nice with each other and they're actually worth it.

    One thing I don't think I've read in reviews yet, but someone here might know - does World Tour allow you to play with friends on your friendslist on the PS3 now? That was a bit of a sucky omission, though having only one friend (with no time) who also had the game, it didn't matter too much. But this time, I think it will start to matter more. ;)