Those sneaky business execs over at Activision are really putting their Red Octane purchase to good use lately. Not only are they releasing both Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: World Tour later this year, but we just learned that there's another Guitar Hero game scheduled for release early next year and it's guaranteed to have Lars Ulrich's seal of approval.Gamespot is reporting on industry analyst Michael Pachter's discovery, where (after sifting through Activision's recent SEC filings) he found mention of a new game called Guitar Hero: Metallica that is set to release by fiscal end on March 31st, 2009. No other details were revealed in the filing, other than the obvious fact that Metallica will be a part of the new edition and that it'll probably further dilute the franchise that Activision is hell-bent on milking dry. Yes, we want fuel and yes, we want fire, but we don't think we desire a new Guitar Hero game every nine weeks. Sorry ...
[Via Joystiq, Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
6-03-2008 @ 9:59AM
Edd said...
Wow just wow I was actually thinking of getting Guitar Hero world tour since I don't have rock band and I really wanted to play with the drums. After this though their intentions are alittle more obvious and alot more sickening so I would refrain from giving them more money to continue this crap. I hope soon that whatever next guitar hero they make ends up where the first E.T games reside now.
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6-03-2008 @ 12:41PM
Dick said...
I Agree one hundred percent.
I have no beefs with any artist trying to make money (though I did have a severe dislike for Lars' whiny anti-napster phase). I also have no beefs with a company that makes crap games; they gotta eat too.
My problems come from the complete Rip-Offery that is occurring. Rock Band, made by GH's FIRST PARENTS, is now being ripped off by GH. Its called Guitar Hero, not Rock Band.
Then you have this haberdashery - Metallica, Aerosmith, 80's, GH 4, 3 all coming out in a year.
What the Hell man? Flood the market with rhythm guitar games, we'll be sick of these things before they actually get good.
I'm gonna go play a real drumset
6-03-2008 @ 10:05AM
Timur Tabi said...
The Metallica tracks in Rock Band are hard enough as it is, I can't imagine what they'd be like in GH (which is supposed to be harder than RB).
I'm still waiting for Red Octane to do something that interests me. I'm quite happy with RB and I'll be happy with them for a long time.
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6-03-2008 @ 10:06AM
Tony L said...
Oh, hell yes!
Metalilica FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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6-03-2008 @ 10:26AM
mEgAsHoT said...
Joystiq, you guys complain about Activison "milking the franchise dry", what else are they supposed to to? You want them to just release one GH game every year? Or do you want them to release a game and not release another one for two-five years? You don't call every yearly edition of Madden "milking". I think you guys are just biased against Guitar Hero, due to the fact that it's as popular as ever and it's selling well. You know what? I've figured out that this whole site is biased against anything Guitar Hero and Sonic the Hedgehog. Given the overly negative posts that constantly pop up on this site whenever a new Guitar Hero or Sonic is mentioned, it just makes me sick that you can even keep an objective stance on things when you get gaming news before Gamespot, IGN, etc. Who could blame Activision for trying out a new direction in the series with GH Metallica and GH World Tour? As long as there is 1 or 2 GH games every so often, I don't see what's the big deal here. I wouldn't call it "milking" the franchise. As long as it turns out to be a good, quality product, that's all that matters. If it was pure junk, though, then I would agree on using that sort of a term. How many times has Mario been milked? He's been in hundreds of different spinoff's and crap and yet you don't call that "milking"? Give me a break.
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6-03-2008 @ 10:39AM
mikazi said...
I completely agree with you unfortunately. People have been complaining too much about Guitar Hero. First, you guys complained that GH would never be better than RB because it didn't have extra instruments, and now that it has the extra instruments you don't stop knocking them for having it.
6-03-2008 @ 10:40AM
I DeX I said...
I've just been smacked in the face with a wall of text. I think that there will be permanent scarring.
You just go ahead and keep on giving your money to them, MegashOt.
6-03-2008 @ 11:07AM
Matthew said...
A new GH every 2-5 years? You do realize there has a been a new GH every year for the past 4 years already right? Within the next 8 months Activision will have THREE GH products released. THAT is milking a franchise. Mario games have been spread out fairly evenly over the past 20 years.
As an article stated yesterday, GH: Aerosmith is basically GH3 all over again. The Metallica edition will most likely be the same way, so Activision is in no way taking the series in any new direction. GH:WT is Activisions way of winning back a huge chunk of people they lost to RB and/or people who haven't bought RB yet.
You think these sites are biased against GH and Activision, when in fact they're again companies ruining once great franchises. Wise up, kid.
6-03-2008 @ 12:14PM
tan said...
you're right.
everyone complains about guitar hero 3 for stupid reasons, i can't even remember why now=S
i mean its a good game, its not THAT hard once you get good at it and its not easy as pie like rock band.
they're all fussing that rock band is WAY better for having drums and mic and being so cool
now guitar hero has them too and you all fuss!
when gears brought in a great cover system everyong loved it! and now loads of games have them.
6-03-2008 @ 9:00PM
zourskittles said...
Before we put this in terms of music games, lets just put it in terms of music. With itunes and other online music distributors, including all those online streaming music sites popping up nowadays, its becoming pretty clear that music is becoming much more popular in digital downloads. Meaning know one physically wants the music on a C.D., just as a purchasable online file. So why doesn't Guitar Hero make like Rock Band and sell FAIRLY PRICED online songs instead. Rock Band has had an incredible amount of positive feedback for its surplus of fairly priced content. Now the Guitar Hero people are planning on releasing three GAMES in the next year. Do you want discs lying around everywhere when all you want to do is play another song? Your fucking retarded.
6-03-2008 @ 10:41AM
Brian said...
Milking the franchise would be releasing a new Guitar Hero game with third-rate artists (eg: Guitar Hero: Tracy Chapman; Guitar Hero: Fisbone) or branching out to new genres (Pan-flute Hero: George Zamfir, Soul Hero featuring Aaron Neville).
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6-03-2008 @ 11:14AM
Thrombo19 said...
Coco butttttaaaaaa
6-03-2008 @ 10:42AM
Gemini Ace said...
Best thing ever is if they include the entire St. Anger album. lol!
And I really hope I can pirate the game in some way.
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6-03-2008 @ 12:34PM
Dick said...
LOL
my thoughts exactly.
I guess Lars likes new technology if itll line his swedish pockets. (He's from up there, right? Norway, Sweden, denmark... All just extra white cold people)
6-03-2008 @ 11:02AM
Octantis said...
I am a big RB fan. I think they really captured lightning in a bottle. I think the fan base feels a little miffed because GH is copying the RB idea. Couple that and the might that is the GH franchise and Acti has the power and market share to get exclusives from artists eg Aerosmith and Metallica. I think the RB fans feel like GH could be eating their lunch if this continues.
A good analogy would be Tivo. They invented the whole DVR concept yet why aren't they leading DVR market?
If people buy the game and Acti makes money more power to them. They run the risk of market fatigue and might pay the price because of it. I will probably pick up Aerosmith from the used game rack in the future.
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6-03-2008 @ 11:18AM
Thrombo19 said...
My biggest prob with GH's strategy is that all these releases should really just be DLC for the 360. U shouldn't have to grab a $50 disc if u want some of the Aero songs. Put em up ala carte so peeps can grab Love in an Elevator and not have to buy a cover from cheap trick or something.
Rock Bands DLC releases is the biggest reason to like that franchise more. Even if I'm not buying most of em, there are tons of options from a bunch of genres. Big ups RB
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6-03-2008 @ 11:55AM
Sunny said...
While I agree with you somewhat, I'd personally rather they do it this way. There would have to be a way to sample the tracks before I'd give them my money, after Guitar Hero 3 turned out to be such a piece of crap. I would have to spend a lot of time with it before I would consider buying it to have it around all the time.
At least they're developing some kind of 'story' around these games so they aren't just bare-bones track packs like GH: Encore 80s was.
6-03-2008 @ 11:39AM
Boff said...
While I wholeheartedly embrace a Metallica verison of GH, I'm starting to wonder why they keep doing it this way rather than with DLC.
If they made each new version 'backwards compatible' with the previous ones that would be something.
(Boot up GH: Metallica, then stick in your GHII disc and play those tracks - without leaving the GH: Metallica interface.)
And I agree with others on the RB bias of this site!! Especially as I'm a GH man due to Europe getting shafted with RB. But each to their own ;o)
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6-03-2008 @ 11:57AM
Deck said...
Roflz....this is full of lulz.
Activision just doesn't stop!
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6-03-2008 @ 12:14PM
tan said...
yay
i dont care what you all say i love guitar hero and will buy aerosmith and world tour and now this!
i also have rock band.
they're not milking it because the games they are releaseing now arent like gh:80's where it was just not up to a good standard , they are releasing games that different people may buy and if you don't like aerosmith just don't buy the game!
same with this.
also i prefer buying it on disc rather than dlc.
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