ActiBlizzard: (Asterisk) Hero Announced for Autumn Releases

[modeps]

Activision-Blizzard loves putting out their music games every year and such has announced a veritable cornucopia of titles coming this Fall. Those titles, in a short list, are: DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, and Guitar Hero Van Halen (I know, that one doesn't fit into my asterisk naming convention). These are in addition to the already announced Guitar Hero Greatest Hits (coming this summer). The first three titles were sent out via a press release from Activision, while the information regarding GH:Van Halen has come from Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58521).

The company's groundbreaking DJ Hero expands Guitar Hero's signature social gaming to all-new consumers with the addition of diverse music genres including hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Introducing an all-new innovative turntable controller, DJ Hero transforms players into DJs who rule the club scene by creating original mixes of popular songs and music from the world's most exciting artists and DJs.

Letting fans continue to fulfill their rock fantasies, Guitar Hero 5 features the hottest rock and roll artists today as well as classic rock bands and gives players an unprecedented level of control over the way they play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly.

The franchises' first E10+ rated console game, Band Hero delivers an exciting music collection featuring top-40 hits designed to expand the appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass and microphone and experience a new genre of music. The game builds upon Guitar Hero's easy-to-play, difficult-to-master signature gameplay and allows novice players and expert fans to join together on their favorite songs.

Guitar Hero Van Halen was confirmed in a separate mailing for release "the second half of this year", bringing a bevvy of Van Halen hits and music from a number of guest acts including Queen, Weezer, blink-182, The Offspring and Queens of the Stone Age.

I like music, but I'm really tired of music games.

[divinechaos]

Harmonix should've NEVER let go of Guitar Hero. It would've been a better idea to just let the franchise disappear and left it there.

Seriously, Activision? BAND HERO!? I thought it was gonna be an honest attempt at a game with a drum line or trumpets but nooooo, it's yet another GH game but with a different set-list. Fuckers.

[UttiniDaKilrJawa]

I like music, but I'm really tired of music games.

I like music games, but I'm really tired of Activison.

[PopoWRX]

Haha, I had a hankering for Rock Band for awhile but outside of social events, I'm not really into it atm.

Kinda like how my Wii is collecting dust as well.

[CrysDark]

Harmonix should've NEVER let go of Guitar Hero. It would've been a better idea to just let the franchise disappear and left it there.

Seriously, Activision? BAND HERO!? I thought it was gonna be an honest attempt at a game with a drum line or trumpets but nooooo, it's yet another GH game but with a different set-list. Fuckers.


They didn't let it go. The publisher was sold to activision and the developer was bought my MTV. Property rights madness ensues, Harmonix had to create an entire new game.

I think there are still lawsuits in the pipe.

[derjester]

I'm holding my breath for Clarinet Hero, but would start breathing again if they announce Oboe Hero.

[thehardac]

Don't like the games, then don't buy them then. The way you guys bitch on here you make it sound like they are forced down your throat, having to separate yourselves from your hard earned money.

Jeez, just ignore them and quit the crying.

[RevGored]

Seriously, as much as this place is anti-Gamestop/anti-retail whoever, you absolutely need to pity any retail worker this holiday season. This is out of control, and though you my not know it, these game bundles are really killing the industry.

Seeing the size of these things, they take up too much shelf space, and the shipping costs are exorbitant, so they really limit what a retailer is even able to show on the floor, due to the fact that they need to get rid of these behemoths.

This Christmas, all previous GH/RB bundles will be 'value-priced' just so they can make room for the upcoming (RB Beatles, every GH game under the sun), and then try and maintain shelf space for other games (whatever triple-A titles release around Oct-Dec), then MAYBE have some room left for the 'B' level titles (Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil) that will inevitably get pushed further under the rug due to the lack of shelf space.

GG, Activision.

[modeps]

Seriously, as much as this place is anti-Gamestop/anti-retail whoever, you absolutely need to pity any retail worker this holiday season. This is out of control, and though you my not know it, these game bundles are really killing the industry.

Seeing the size of these things, they take up too much shelf space, and the shipping costs are exorbitant, so they really limit what a retailer is even able to show on the floor, due to the fact that they need to get rid of these behemoths.

This Christmas, all previous GH/RB bundles will be 'value-priced' just so they can make room for the upcoming (RB Beatles, every GH game under the sun), and then try and maintain shelf space for other games (whatever triple-A titles release around Oct-Dec), then MAYBE have some room left for the 'B' level titles (Sands of Time, Beyond Good and Evil) that will inevitably get pushed further under the rug due to the lack of shelf space.

GG, Activision.

Could this be a publisher tactic to get folks ordering online more and from stores that can actually afford the shelf space? Those places coincidentally do not have used game markets (Target, Best Buy, WalMart, etc)

[modeps]

Don't like the games, then don't buy them then. The way you guys bitch on here you make it sound like they are forced down your throat, having to separate yourselves from your hard earned money.

Jeez, just ignore them and quit the crying.

The game I'm really looking forward to is MarketSaturation Hero.

[Mantooth]

When will Activision learn? Instead of nurturing their franchises and continuing to grow them over a longer period of time they always seem to go for the quick buck and drive them into the ground. They should try to take some cues from Blizzard instead of just the name.

[Sarconix]

Don't like the games, then don't buy them then. The way you guys bitch on here you make it sound like they are forced down your throat, having to separate yourselves from your hard earned money.

Jeez, just ignore them and quit the crying.

This is true about the games. However, it is still worth critiquing what the company is doing here; it's not really about the games themselves, which are not even released. This is where they are putting their resources, when they could be working on something less derivative. Then there is the aforementioned shelf-space issue, which is indeed waaay out of hand, IMHO.

Same with the Spore DRM debacle: don't confuse the game with the company's sometimes bizarre actions in delivering the game.

[Sarconix]

The game I'm really looking forward to is MarketSaturation Hero.

QFT. They are going to run out of customers who have room for all of these fake instruments! I know I haven't even purchased World Tour or Rock Band for lack of space (and friends). :)

[derjester]

What is this "shelf space" you speak of? Is it some sort of cave our ancestors used to go to to purchase video games?