Activision just sent word that a guitar case full of downloadable music content will be available for purchase during launch week of Guitar Hero World Tour.
At launch, Acti will be releasing a Classic Rock Track Pack comprised of music from Boston, Foreigner and Rick Springfield as well as well two free guitar duel downloads from Ted Nugent and Zakk Wylde. Also at launch, a track from Blind Melon will be released and R.E.M. will make available a three pack of DLC from their latest album Accelerate. Finally, we learn that the GHIII Metallica Death Magnetic DLC will import directly into World Tour.
Note that pricing hasn't been announced and that ALL track packs can be broken apart making each single purchasable individually. Complete rundown of World Tour launch DLC after the break.
After spotting a rather pricey ($240) Guitar Hero: World Tour bundle on the Red Octanes website, Activision has clarified to Joystiq what the normal price of the World Tour bundle will actually be. For those looking for the standard package on the Xbox 360 (game, drums, guitar, and microphone), Guitar Hero: World Tour will cost $190, which seems fairly standard in the recently birthed full band rhythm genre. Should you desire to pick up the game with only the guitar, it will set you back $100.
So, what's up with the $240 bundle? This special bundle -- along with the game and all the instruments -- comes with a T-shirt, battery charger, key chain, and (cloth) guitar case. For an extra $50. Make of that what you will.
Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick is readying his guns in an attack against music companies citing they should be paying for the right to be included in titles such as Guitar Hero.
"When you look at the impact [Guitar Hero] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant," Kotick told The Wall Street Journal. "You sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse."
The shots come soon after Warner Music head Edgar Bronfman called music royalties for rhythm games too low considering the games are "entirely dependent" on the content provided by music companies.
Kotick was quick to point out that gamers are purchasing games for enjoyment of the title and not necessarily for the music included."The bulk of our consumers will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included," he said. "They're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them."
If Kotick and Bronfman continue this dance what do you think the chances we'll see each as bosses in the next Guitar Hero title?
Amoeba Music, for those who haven't been there, is a cool place. The gigantic stores are filled wall to wall with CDs of every genre, vinyl, posters, pretty much everything a music fan could want. The stores also host live music performed by local groups and nationally known musicians. Imagine our pleasant surprise, then, when Amoeba informed us that an Amoeba Music venue would be featured in Guitar Hero: World Tour. Imagine our even greater surprise when we realized the email wasn't yet another Activision press release, telling us about yet another past-his-prime musician making an appearance in World Tour. Amoeba will be taking pre-orders for the game (in-store pick up only) and handing out Amoeba T-shirts when pre-orders are picked up next month. Also featured in the game will be the House of Blues on Sunset Strip.
The next logical step: Amoeba Music hosts Ted Nugent playing Ted Nugent on the Amoeba stage in Guitar Hero: World Tour. Make it happen.
After debunking the rumor that a keyboard peripheral was headed to Guitar Hero: World Tour, Neversoft has revealed to Shacknews that the secret is actually a feature -- not a peripheral -- that will allow users to transfer MIDI data to the game using a MIDI sequencer. So, in a manner of speaking, the new peripheral is whatever instrumentyou want. At least, that's the case for the PS3 version of World Tour, which will allow users to transfer MIDI data to the drum, guitar, keyboard, bass, or drum tracks. The 360 version, unfortunately, will be limited to the drum track thanks to "hardware issues." Well crap.
Still, Neversoft's Brian Bright informs Shacknews that the feature isn't something that most World Tour players will utilize, saying, "it's going to take an FAQ on the Guitar Hero site--it's not something that your average user is gonna do." Geez, you'd think composing music on a PC and transferring it to a game console via a MIDI sequencer would be a snap.
Here's an interesting idea. Activision head Mike Griffith confirmed with Shacknews that they've been looking at various ways to release musical downloadable content for Guitar Hero World Tour, including a subscription service. According to Griffith, Acti has been kicking around the idea of an "annual pass subscription where players can subscribe and get a certain number of songs downloadable each month." Kinda sounds Zune'ish to us.
All said, we expect that a subscription service would please the renter crowd and doesn't sound like that bad of an idea. What say you?
Activision has announced that well-known artists Sting and Tool will appear in Guitar Hero World Tour. Sting will be available as a selectable character in the vocal career mode. He will also appear in the game to perform The Police's "Demolition Man." Activision also announced that popular rock group (and makers of scary music videos) Tool will lend three songs to the game, "Parabola" and "Schism" from the album Lataralus along with "Vicarious" from 10,000 Days. In addition to contributing these tracks, Tool will also help design a venue for the game "highlighting the art style that has become a staple in their music videos, live shows and album artwork." So, in other words, it should be the freakiest venue ever, right?
Activision has announced that several bands will re-record their classic recordings for Guitar Hero World Tour. First up is MC5's lead guitarist Wayne Kramer who will re-record and "modernize" the track "Kick Out the Jams" with the help of Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Gilby Clarke who spent three years with Guns N' Roses (the recording will retain the vocals originally recorded by lead Rob Tyner). The Sex Pistols will contribute another track, "Pretty Vacant," which was re-recorded at the same time as "Anarchy in the UK," which was featured in Guitar Hero III. Finally, Motörhead will re-record the title track from its album Overkill.
In a simpler time music games involved a jug labeled XXX and a whole lot of imagination. Today music games are a thriving multi-million dollar segment of the gaming industry where countless tracks and instruments are included to crowbar the money directly out of our wallets. One instrument that won't be forced down our throats in Guitar Hero: World Tour is a keyboard peripheral ... yet.
According to Neversoft's Brian Bright, who allegedly told G4 that a new peripheral was coming to Guitar Hero World Tour only to have them speculate it would be a keyboard, has confirmed to Joystiq that they have bigger ideas for a keyboard title. "A keyboard controller deserves to be introduced with its own game. This is something we're thinking about." So, what about all the keyboard sections in the song creator? Bright says, "there are reasons why we haven't included a keyboard controller." He elaborates that not all of the songs have keyboard parts so, "adding a keyboard controller would either have limited our choices, or the players."
Keyboard Hero confirmed? It had better happen, how else can we test our chops at "November Rain?"
Now that Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Revolution are all headed our way, Xbox 360 gamers will soon be flooded with new instrument peripherals. This raises the question: which instruments will work with which games? Joystiq has stepped up to the proverbial plate and provided the answer: the Joystiq Instrument Compatibility Matrix 3.0. If you're planning to pick up any of these upcoming music games (and you really should be), consulting this handy chart is a must. It will be updated as new information is released, so be sure to bookmark it for the next time you've got a hankering for a new plastic instrument.
We hope you weren't excited by the supposed Guitar Hero World Tourset list that was 'leaked' yesterday. Activision and Red Octane have made it known that the list, which included artists like Tool and The Doors, is a fake. A representative informed Game Informer (see what we did there?) that while some of the songs on the list will make it into the game, namely Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," the majority of the list is "wishful thinking and pure speculation."
But hey, we know it will have "Hot for Teacher," right? That counts for something. Now all we have to do is get Activision to confirm the rest of the set list ... one song at a time.
Coming by way of a post over on Gamespot's Gamefaqs forums is a supposed complete list of all the tracks to to be included in Guitar Hero World Tour's setlist. But with absolutely no explanation where the list came from or how it was discovered, we have no choice but to be very, very skeptical. The rumored to be complete setlist (viewable after the break) includes some 73 main songs, 14 bonus tracks, 7 sample songs and 3 guitar battles against Ted Nugent, Zakk Wylde and Sting. Also, if this list turns out to be true, let us be the first to show our excitement for Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama". We sing that song daily while we chow down on breakfast in the morning and we don't even live in Alabama.
Today, Activision and Red Octane are probably strutting around their swank offices with chests held high, because we just got word that they have secured Hendrix for inclusion in Guitar Hero: World Tour.
According to cbc.ca, Activision has secured the licensing rights to include two of Jimi Hendrix's songs for World Tour including "The Wind Cries Mary" and a live version of "Purple Haze" that was recorded back in 1969. Though, if those two tracks don't float your boat, Acti promises more Hendrix DLC post release. But, not only will two Hendrix tracks make the World Tour cut, but we also learn that the game will feature an in-game Hendrix avatar featuring his likeness. And so the Guitar Hero versus Rock Band battle continues ...
At Activision's non-E3 conference Tuesday, Guitar Hero director Brian Bright surprised attendees confirming that any guitar and drum controllers players own for other games on the Xbox 360 will be compatible with Guitar Hero: World Tour.
This news comes as quite a shock considering the current state of controller compatibility between the two music franchises -- a recent update apparently made all guitar controllers compatible with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith but we've heard of some issues.
You may be asking yourself how the drums will work, considering Guitar Hero: World Tour drums use five-inputs while Rock Band uses four (see center of image above). According to Wired, Activision promises that using the Rock Band drums will cause the game to adjust the title to four inputs only. Now we wonder, will plugging in the Rock Revolution controller bring the input count to seven?
Coming out swinging, the Guitar Hero segment claims 85+ tracks right on the disc. As for the downloadable content there'll be an REM track pack with 3 songs, plus the megaton news that Van Halen and the Eagles are exclusive to Guitar Hero, and that Metallica's newest album will hit on both the XBLM and retail at the same time. Plus they're launching something they're calling GH Tunes, which will allow for users to upload and share the music they've created with the in-game creator.
Here's an interesting idea. Activision head Mike Griffith confirmed with Shacknews that they've been looking at various ways to release musical downloadable content for 
Coming by way of a post over on Gamespot's Gamefaqs forums is a supposed complete list of all the tracks to to be included in 
