Personally, I'm more of a Rock Band player, but today marked the next step in the interactive rock-n-roll gaming industry. Guitar Hero, the color-coordinated video game played with guitar controllers, introduced its forth edition "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith," which allows gamers to play songs from the iconic rock band's 40 year career
Players start the game as guitarist Joe Perry and have to thrash thru Aerosmith classics like "Sweet Emotion," "Livin' on the Edge," "Walk This Way" and "Dream On" to also play as guitarists Brad Whitford and Hamilton. In addtion to those classic Aerosmith ballads, the game will also let players play tunes from bands that have collaborated or influenced the band (i.e. Run D.M.C.'s "Walk This Way" and "I Hate Myself for Loving You" by Joan Jett.). For hardcore fans a special guitar controller with the band's red and white logo is available.
The band spent two weeks in a motion capture studio rocking out so that the game could capture exactly how the band performs.
"I spent seven hours a day for two weeks getting in there with my hands and making this thing be all that Aerosmith is," frontman Steven Tyler said of the process.
While it may sound cool, Joe Perry is looking at it from a marketing perspective. "Everybody's wondering how they're gonna [sell] their music [and] how the musicians are gonna get paid for it," Perry admitted during a New York City press conference last Friday. "I think this is one of the avenues that is gonna be an outlet and it's actually as important as albums used to be."
The franchise, available for Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 and 3, has sold more than $1.3 billion since premiering in 2005. While Aerosmith is the first version of Guitar HEro that focuses on a specific rock band, it is rumored that Metallica are next in line for their own Guitar Hero edition.
Early reviews are pegging the "Rock Band: Aerosmith" as "a re-release of Guitar Hero III with a new song list and some new avatars."
My Trusted MOGs
So is Brad Whitford chopped liver? No respect for the rythym guitarists, huh?
My Trusted MOGs
Also... it's a good time to stop listening to a band when the lead guitarist starts talking "marketing perspective". Remember the good old days when we used to look up to rock stars, now they speak about demographics, and marketing angles...sigh.
Anyone who has any dealings with marketer, marketing, or focus groups, knows it's a fate worse than selling your soul to the devil.
Some people say that Robert Johnson didn't die, he just took a career in middle management at a marketing firm.
My Trusted MOGs
metallica would be sweet. i think enter the sandman is my fav song to play on rock band. my friend pre ordered the aerosmith editsh. i see many jam seshs in the future.
My Trusted MOGs
I read that when Aerosmith agreed to make this game, they gave GH exclusive rights to their music, meaning no Aerosmith in Rock Band or future rhythym games. I hope the same doesn't happen with Metallica or any other group that gets their own edition of the game.
My Trusted MOGs
It will probably happen initially, like when bands started selling on iTunes, but the market will get competetive and they'll have to go cross platform to make any money. I predict someone will crack the game engine (like with Quake) and figure a way to quickly program a song to the contollers and it will be all over for proprietary formats on the consoles. Soon small little bands will be hiring kids to hack themselves into Rock Band/Guitar Hero in the same manner they trick out their MySpace pages.
Viva la revolucion!
My Trusted MOGs
Interesting....
My Trusted MOGs
I did a similar post on this subject, and I wonder the same thing. I am guessing this game is going to sell like hot cakes, like all the rest of the Guitar Hero games did. I am more interested in seeing if they are going to start issuing their back catalog for download.
My Trusted MOGs
I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this - I love GH3 even though I suck at it (and I just got my hands of GH2, so I've all new songs to play).
Contrabandwith, there are sites out there that tell you how to hack the game! Assuming you have a little programming and electronics knowledge, an MP3 of your song and a lot of patience, it can be done...