Rhythm wars: Activision says Guitar Hero outselling Rock Band 6:1
- September 18, 2008 00:00 AM PST
Rock Band might be the critically darling at the moment, but most gamers still flock to Guitar Hero, says Activision CEO Bobby Kotick.
Guitar Hero 'dominating' the competition, says Activision
Speaking at an investor conference yesterday as reported by Kotaku, Kotick said: "Were outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30 percent of the world's music at Universal, we have a unique advantage."
Guitar Hero, often considered the original gangster of North American music games, first launched in 2005 for PlayStation 2, enjoying instant success. Two years later, MTV Games upped the ante when releasing Rock Band, replete with toy drums and a microphone in addition to guitar and bass.
"Our nearest competitor [EA/MTV Games] has a couple hundred people working on these projects," added Kotick. "We have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, and introduction of new software, so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category."
This holiday, the rhythm wars will continue when Activision releases its response to Rock Band in the form of Guitar Hero World Tour, which features a song creation mode in addition to improved drums and instruments when compared to Rock Band. Rock Band 2 launched Sunday for Xbox 360, and will follow in the coming months on Wii, PS3, and PS2.
Author's note: Interestingly, many casual gamers whom I've spoken with have no idea that Guitar Hero and Rock Band are made by different companies. How curious!
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- Sep 18 2008 at 02:16:06:PM PST
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Might have something to do with the fact that Rockband costs so much more if you buy all the peripherals.
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What's also interesting is that the original developer of Guitar Hero was Harmonix which develops Rock Band.
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I think the Rock Band instruments suck. The drums break to easily (just ask a friend of mine..haha) the guitar feels really stiff to me and doing hammer on and pull offs are a real bitch to do. I can do them no problem on GH but not on RB for some reason. I think RB has a slightly better track list than GH but the instruments kind of ruin the RB experience for me.
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I really have warmed up to Rock Band 2, however I will state that Rock Band 2 should have been Rock Band 1. The game should have first been created the way it is now in its "updated" form. A really good set list, although I still find the peripherals to be shoddy. Thankfully RedOctance, in my opinion the true creators of this Rock Band/Guitar Hero music formula, are very good at creating awesome peripherals. Remember these games survive on the peripherals, if those don't work, the entire concept goes to hell. I love Guitar Hero first and foremost, if Rock Band had come out with with its "updated" format right off the bat, I think it would have swayed me. Especially considering all the tweaks really make the experience better. But Guitar Hero still ranks number one...
Although I do have one question, for anyone who may care to answer, please explain this whole "overcharting" business? In my experience, real guitar is not easy, considering there are six strings and with so many frets, I think I counted roughly 20. Why would we wanna dumb down the simulation? And in my experience Guitar Hero has left me feeling more like I have a guitar is in my hands. Just my opinion.
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Guitar Hero is the better game, Take it from a real oldschool metalhead, yes, I'm 34! Rock Band Sucks!
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The people who made Guitar Hero left and now make Rock Band. GH has cheesy and goofy dumb characters and graphics. Rock band is better in every single way.
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