Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Guitar Hero

Say Goodbye To The Guitar Hero Franchise

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:44:37 +0000

Activision has decided to pull the plug on the Guitar Hero game series and brand. In the last few years, the brand has been on the decline. There will also be some job cuts in the DJ Hero division. It is a sad day for music and video game lovers. [Engadget]

Combine Guitar Hero And A Flame Thrower And You Get FireHero [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 22:08:46 +0000

What happens when you combine Guitar Hero with a flame thrower? You get FireHero created by Chris Marion. Check out the video above to see FireHero in action.

Christmas Light Hero Will Lift Your Holiday Spirits [VIDEO]

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:29:02 +0000

In this video Guitar Hero is combined with Christmas lights that Neatorama discovered. Below is the description of the video:
“What do you get when you mix a Christmas Light show with Guitar Hero? Christmas Light Hero! A real game you play with a wii wireless guitar controller. Optional TV screen is available if you get in trouble, but if you use the screen, you don’t get your name in the high score list.”

Guitar Hero 5 Arriving In Stores On September 1

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:48:18 +0000

Yesterday the Beatles made an appearance at the E3 gaming event and hyped up The Beatles: Rock Band, but they will find themselves competing against Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero 5. The advantage that the Guitar Hero franchise has over Rock Band is a release date that is one week before. The exact date of Guitar Hero 5′s release is September 1.

Guitar Hero 5 will be available on the XBox 360, the Sony Playstation 2 and Playstation 3, and the Nintendo Wii. Some of the songs on the game include Blue Orchid (The White Stripes), Sympathy for the Devil (The Rolling Stones), All Along the Watchtower (Bob Dylan), and Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash).

The instruments for the game include a mic, guitars, drums, and the bass. Any combination of the instruments can be used at once. Before there was a one-instrument per player restriction.

[via CNET]

Only Real Rockers Eat Guitar Hero Cake

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:26:56 +0000

Guitar Hero was first introduced about four years ago and it has become such a craze since then. I’ve heard some cases where people that played the game a lot have actually become better at playing the guitar. Since the game franchise was introduced, GH enthusiasts have been creating all sorts of products inspired the game.
LayersOfLove decided to add themselves to the list by creating a cake called the “Fist of Rock.”

[via Walyou]

Students At RIT Hacks Guitar Hero Controller Into A Banjo

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:21:06 +0000

At the Game Developer Conference there were several students from the Rochester Institute of Technology showing off their banjo controller used for games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The students gutted the wires and buttons out from a guitar controller and moved it into the banjo.

The students involved in the project include Michael Ey, Sela Davis, Alex Lifschitz, Joe Pietruch, and Dominick D’Aniello as a project for Professor Schwartz’s Alternative Controllers Seminar. The project was called “Oh No! Banjo.”

All you need to complete this picture is the guy to be wearing overalls and have him chewing on a weed.

[via BoingBoing]

Rock Band Franchise Hits $1 Billion Sales

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:11:38 +0000

In 2007, MTV’s Rock Band franchise launched. Now the franchise as a whole has hit a major milestone, $1 billion in sales. These numbers are based on the North American market. The numbers were released in a press release this past Thursday. Rock Band players have also downloaded more than 40 million songs from the DLC selection.

Even though Rock Band 3 has not been announced yet, there will be a Beatles version of the game for the PSP coming out soon. Electronic Arts is the distribution company of the game and it was developed by Harmonix.

There are about 600 songs available for download to add to the game. It took Guitar Hero about 26 months to hit the same milestone whereas it took Rock Band about 15 months. The complete version of Rock Band costs almost $200.

[via Ars]

Former Yahoo! COO Dan Rosensweig Joins Activision To Head Up Guitar Hero

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:17:04 +0000

Dan Rosensweig is the former COO of Yahoo! Inc. and former President of CNET. Now Rosensweig is getting into gaming by joining Activision Blizzard Inc. to head up the Guitar Hero franchise. Rosensweig quit Yahoo! in 2006 after working there for five years in product development and marketing. Rosensweig left around the same time Terry Semel did.

Coincidentally Activision’s current CEO Bobby Kotick served on the Yahoo! board of directors up until last year. When Rosensweig left Yahoo!, he worked at Quadrangle Group. Quadrangle is a private equity firm based out of New York. Rosensweig was the Silicon Valley representation of the firm.

Rosensweig’s responsibilities at Activision will be to maintain the whole Guitar Hero franchise. The franchise was put together by Activision’s Red Octane unit and Neversoft studios. Guitar Hero has had three blockbuster games in the franchise, but some analysts believe that the growth for music games may be slowing down. Rosenweig needs to make sure Guitar Hero does not become obsolete.

“With a platform and content that universally engages a wide range of audiences, Guitar Hero has incredible growth potential,” stated Rosensweig. “I look forward to continuing to develop Guitar Hero into an even more successful enterprise.”

[via LAT]