Guitar Hero, Rock Band Thriving
Several weeks ago when I went to a party, as I walked in the door, the first thing I saw was several guests huddled around the TV playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I go to Best Buy for a DVD, and out of nowhere I hear a kid showing off on Guitar Hero for his buddies. I go to Guitar Center, the first thing I see is the Guitar Hero songbook, which has been a big success for publishers Hal Leonard. When eating in a restaurant, I overhear people talking about the game.
Wherever I go, I can't escape Guitar Hero or Rock Band. There's a report of a 16-year-old kid in New York named Chris Chike, who scored 97% on Guitar Hero III: The Legends of Rock, which now puts him in the "Guinness Book of World Records." And reports of the critical and financial success of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band are plentiful. Despite its lofty price tag ($169.99), Rock Band is approaching 2 million copies sold, and Harmonix and parent company MTV announced that the game will make its way to Wii in June. Meanwhile, the PD Group reported that the Guitar Hero franchise, which includes the original title, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero II: Rock the 80s, and Guitar Hero III, has generated more than $1 billion in total sales. And another version of the game, Guitar Hero: On Tour, is coming this summer for the Nintendo DS.
Guitar Hero: On Tour brings the music to the Nintendo DS this summer.
The next edition of Guitar Hero will focus on Aerosmith, appropriately titled Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, but will also include songs from the bands that inspired the rock legends. Marcus Henderson, the renowned guitarist who provided much of the guitar licks for the series, predicts the forthcoming Aerosmith title will be another hit for the franchise. "Aerosmith was one of those no-brainer bands," Henderson said. "It's a lot like an action figure playset. Everything is included in the box. You get a full catalog, colorful figures, and accessories. Lots of accessories."
More and more big name acts and musicians have flocked to Guitar Hero and Rock Band after the overwhelming success of these music titles. Former Guns 'N Roses guitarist Slash and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave appeared in Guitar Hero III as boss characters, for example. In addition, dozens of bands, from classic acts to up and coming stars, are eager to get their songs into the games. With Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, we may see even more games dedicated to specific bands. "At the end of the coding day, a music game is only as strong as the music that you physically unlock with the controller," Henderson added. "What better way to honk the Toxic Twin's Bobo than a dedicated version that allows the young rock minions to discover first-hand the almighty power of a Joe Perry blues lick?"
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be the newest Guitar Hero title and will be dedicated to one of America's greatest rock bands.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band also had a strong showing at this year's National Association of Music Merchants convention. The NAMM show, held annually in Anaheim, Calif., is where every major musical instrument company shows off their latest gear for the upcoming year. "The presence of Guitar Hero at NAMM this year was larger than ever," says Henderson. "I remember wheeling in the very first game kiosk into the 2006 NAMM show where we were a nice novelty/diversion from the hectic din of the convention center. Now NAMM is sponsoring the game, and helping bring awareness to playing music at any level by helping bring Guitar Hero to music stores. It's so nice to see the retail world embrace the game as a viable conduit for actual instrument purchases."
But the biggest evidence of both games' incredible success may be the millions of songs that have downloaded in the wake of Guitar Hero III and Rock Band. In January, Activision announced that more than 5 million songs have been downloaded for Guitar Hero III's bonus content. Just recently, original Guitar Hero developer Harmonix announced that Rock Band's downloadable content have surpassed 6 million songs since the game was released in November. And those figures don't include follow-up sales of albums and songs featured in the games, which gamers have purchased after playing the music.
That is perhaps the best by-product of the Guitar Hero phenomenon: the fact that it's inspiring kids to play music and that it has given to the music industry a big boost. Brad Tolinski, editor in chief of "Guitar World Magazine," says the game has been a major boom for catalog music. "I know it's spurring on sales," he said, adding that when songs like "My Name Is Jonah" from Weezer pop up on the digital sales charts, "I can't imagine any other reason songs like that would pop up on that chart other than Guitar Hero popularity." Tolinski said the games are particularly beneficial for newer and lesser known bands. "The band Dragon Force has gotten a boost because their song, 'Through the Fire and the Flames' is the ultimate Guitar Hero song," he said. "It's the most challenging track on Guitar Hero, and all these kids are aspiring to play it."
It appears that nothing can slow down the rise of these music games - not even legal problems. Gibson Guitar recently made headlines by filing two separate patent infringement lawsuits over Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Claiming that the games infringe on its 1999 patent for a virtual music player device, Gibson first sued Guitar Hero publisher Activision, and the game publisher filed a counter-suit (Gibson's patent describes technology that lets users "simulate participation in a concert by playing a musical instrument and wearing a head-mounted 3-D display that includes stereo speakers.").
Then Gibson filed suit against seven major U.S. retailers, including Wal-Mart and Target, to prevent the stores from selling any of the music games. And most recently, Gibson sued Harmonix, Electronic Arts, and MTV Networks over Rock Band. Ironically, Gibson has worked closely with Activision to make custom controllers for the games based on the famous Gibson Les Paul and Kramer guitar models. In fact, Gibson's logo is still featured on the Guitar Hero III website. So it seems that even when people attack Guitar Hero and Rock Band, they still want to be part of the phenomenal success.
Additional reporting by Rob Wright.
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