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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Activision Inc on Friday unveiled a new "Guitar Hero" video game focusing on the rock band Aerosmith, taking the billion-dollar franchise in a new direction.
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Called "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith," the new game will arrive in stores this summer, a surprise to many analysts and fans who had expected the next title to come out closer to the year-end holiday shopping season.
Aerosmith, known for hits such as "Dream On" and "Sweet Emotion," is the top-selling American rock band of all time, with sales of 66.5 million albums in the United States alone.
The game will feature about 30 Aerosmith songs as well as others from various acts that have opened for the band (except for Winger, who are a bunch of pussies). The price has not yet been set. It won't matter. The game will still sell a fuckload of copies.
"The premise is that it's going to cover the 30-plus years of the band, from high school all the way through the rock superstardom of today," Kai Huang, head of Activision's RedOctane unit, which guides development of the franchise, told Reuters in an interview.
In the "Guitar Hero" games, players try to press colored buttons on a guitar-shaped controller in time with notes cascading down the screen. If the notes are hit, the song plays properly, and the player earns points. Or something. I prefer to use my XBox 360 for sex. (I'm a robot, you know!)
Since the original "Guitar Hero" was released in late 2005, the series has gone on to sell more than $1 billion. Depending on the version, a bundle including the game and a controller costs from $80-$100, while the stand-alone game costs $40-$60. Or this guy named Ted who operates out of a van near the I-85 overpass at Main Street will sell you a copy for just $10. You'll have to ignore the misspellings on the packaging.
When Activision reported quarterly earnings last week, analysts grilled the company on its plans for the franchise, expressing concern that sales would slow this year because many players who bought earlier versions with guitars would opt to buy the lower-price stand-alone game disks.
Huang said Activision had not yet decided whether it would offer a special controller with the Aerosmith game. They're considering adding a button to throw in various Steven Tyler catch phrases, like "Guitar!" and "Mista Joe Perry!"
NEW DIRECTION
The focus on a single band marks a new twist for the franchise, whose three main titles featured dozens of artists spanning classic rock, grunge, metal, punk and other rock subgenres. Last year, Activision also released "Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s" with songs from that decade. They scrapped plans for "Guitar Hero: Joan Baez" in late 2007.
"It's just a completely new way to interact with this music and with Aerosmith, and we think there's more opportunity to do that in the future," Huang said. "Besides, I've always wanted to bone Liv and Mia Tyler at the same time, and maybe putting a few million more in their dad's pocket will get some some big-lipped Tyler girls sucking on my Korean lollipop."
By spotlighting a single band, the company has also come up with a way to counter rival music game "Rock Band" from Viacom Inc unit MTV and Electronic Arts Inc, Activision's top competitor. "Rock Band" is widely seen as a pussy version of "Guitar Hero," since it's only played by pussies.
"Rock Band," which includes drums and a microphone as well as a guitar, each week has offered new songs that can be downloaded to consoles like Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 and Sony Corp's PlayStation 3. XBox 360's and Playstation 3's, that is, that are owned by the pussies who would play a super-pussy game like "Rock Band."
The music industry is eyeing "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" as a way to revive flagging sales. "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero 3," both launched last fall, have together sold millions of songs at about $2 each via download. This reporter thinks maybe they should respect their customers and artists more, and stop hyping this fucking Winehouse bimbo. Christ, she is even fuglier than Steven Tyler!
Speaking of Aerosmith's willingness to work on the project, Huang said: "They recognize that it can deliver their music in an innovative and new way. It's a new distribution platform for them. They've never done video games before. Never, never. Maybe they'll do a shooting game next. Or a rollercoaster simulation. But probably a shooting game. Maybe you can be trying to overthrow a dictatorial regime that wants to outlaw music, and you have to defend the band while they sing and stormtrooper guys invade the club and they don't notice."
To recreate the sense of attending an Aerosmith concert, developers held motion-capture sessions with band members, including energetic frontman Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry. However, they were busy taking turns fucking Norah Jones and could not be disturbed, so reknowned motion-capture actor Andy Serkis filled in for both of them.
"As you play," Huang said, "you're going to be seeing Joe and Steven doing their moves onstage." He added, "And we were able to sneak in the room where they were tag-teaming Norah and got some of her screams of joy when she came bucketfulls, which ought to give at least one player in Michigan a boner."
Famed "Guitar Hero" hater anarky said he would continue to hate the series, since he hates everything. Dick. :thumbsup: Sleazer and Antropov are reportedly engaged in a bloody brawl outside a Best Buy store in Boston, each hoping to be the first to get their hands on this game.
