Guitar Hero

By Ben Gilbert Everyone's favorite plastic peripheral purveyor Red Octane is having a bit of a deal today. The normally $60 wireless guitar and $20 wired microphone for Guitar Hero World Tour (across all platforms) are being offered together in a $50 package -- today only!

By JC Fletcher One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of br...

By JC Fletcher Looking for another set of plastic instruments to fill that remaining spot of unoccupied floor space in your living room? Amazon has an offer that will help speed the total domination of your life by comically undersized guitars and drums. As its Deal of the Day, the site is offering the ful...

By Randy Nelson Activision has stuck with Glu for bringing more than just Modern Warfare 2 to mobile phones. Gamasutra reports that the studio will also create keypad-friendly versions of Guitar Hero 5, Blur and Tony Hawk: Ride for release this year, although we have to question how closely the gameplay...

By Alexander Sliwinski We couldn't help but ask the company if the title had any involvement with Activsion and would use some sort of plastic peripheral? A company spokesperson said, "This has no relation to Guitar Hero." But, but, it has hero right in the title! Doesn't Activision Blizzard own the word by this p...

By James Ransom-Wiley DJ Hero might be the cliquish kid sister in Activision's branching "Hero" family, but it belongs to a really big clique, according to CEO Mike Griffith. "It's certainly hitting a more mainstream and expanded audience from Guitar Hero," Griffith said of the spin-off in an interview with G...

By JC Fletcher Big Download reports that many game publishers, including 2K, Konami, NCSoft, Ubisoft, and more, will be exhibiting at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, continuing the trend of game content at the event. We're interested in seeing how the growing game publisher turnout will affect Comi...

By James Ransom-Wiley Madden Guy #1: Modern War Hero? Hey, bro, this the new Call of Duty? Madden Guy #2: Yeah, broheim. Definitely. Madden Guy #1: Sweeeeeet! New Madden ain't out yet -- I'm all over this. Madden Guy #2: True. I'm not gonna lie, it sounds like you can play with your Guitar Hero guitar.

By JC Fletcher If you already have a Guitar Hero guitar sitting around (at this point, it's pretty statistically likely), RedOctane is offering an opportunity to finish your band kit and get a new(ish) game for a great price. The company's website is selling a pack containing a copy of Guitar Hero: Smash...

By Richard Mitchell Griffith doesn't seem concerned by competition from The Beatles: Rock Band either, saying quite simply, "Well, Rock Band is the most similar title on the market, but Guitar Hero outsells it by four to one in the US; in Europe that number is ten to one." Okay then. Griffith also shakes off the n...

By JC Fletcher Speaking at a press conference for a documentary, both the White Stripes' frontman Jack White and legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page discussed the popularity of music games like Guitar Hero. "It's depressing to have a label come and tell you that [Guitar Hero] is how kids are lea...

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By Ben Gilbert We're having a hard time wrapping our heads around this one, so do us a favor and bear with us while we put our heads down and power through. Microsoft is releasing a wireless microphone this fall meant to be used with "your favorite Xbox 360 music games," a list that includes: Lips, Guitar Her...

By Richard Mitchell It's not like the previous Guitar Hero boxes set the world on fire, but the recently revealed box art for Guitar Hero 5 is ... well it's definitely different. At least the previous boxes had, you know, guitars on them. As one Joystiq blogger put it, the Guitar Hero 5 art looks more suited to an expan...

By JC Fletcher GI followed up by asking about Ubisoft's interest in entering the market and competing with Guitar Hero and the like. "We have been researching the music genre a lot," Corre said. "We know some iterations of music games are working very well in the music category. There are a lot of new things t...

By Ben Gilbert Considering the price for Tony Hawk Ride (and its living room-destroying peripheral of $120), a precedent for unproven peripheral pricing has certainly been set. We've asked for comment from Activision regarding the release dates and pricing, though had yet to hear back as of publishi...

By Ben Gilbert During E3, we got to check out the folks from FreeStyleGames playing DJ Hero -- Activision's upcoming rhythm/music game -- using blasphemous guitar controllers in-tandem with the ubiquitous plastic turntable (seen above). While Activision is still keeping mum on whether or not the ab...

By Alexander Sliwinski Meanwhile, those who purchase Guitar Hero Smash Hits (which isn't out until Tuesday) will receive a $5 gift card, no matter what platform they buy it for. However, we should also mention there are Smash Hits pre-order specials from several other retailers, so you should check to see if tho...

Related articles from Go Nintendo and more.

By Ben Gilbert Dream of playing the upcoming rhythm game Guitar Hero: Van Halen as your favorite Van Halen lead singer Gary Cherone? Well, Rolling Stone is reporting today on the dashing of your dreams, claiming that an Activision/RedOctane representative confirmed to them the game's exclusivity t...

By JC Fletcher Today's Amazon Deal of the Day takes a decent chunk off of the price of an 80GB PlayStation 3 console. If you've been hoping to pick up the console -- and you're not interested in playing MLB 09 The Show or watching Quantum of Solace -- you can get one from the online retailer for $349.99. Add one of...

By Griffin McElroy You could also pick up the other discounted items -- the original Rock Band bundle, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero Aerosmith -- but the resulting necessary architectural extension of your gaming den might strip the deal of its cost efficiency.EB Games hosting huge Guitar...

By Ben Gilbert Though the plastic peripheral performance was a bit less than enthralling -- especially considering the fact that we just watched an actual musical performance -- we've been promised a DJ Hero performance up next. And yes, video is forthcoming!Watch Neversoft play Guitar Hero 5 on a sta...

By Griffin McElroy Though our invites to tonight's Activision-sponsored party touted Guitar Hero 5 as the rhythm game to-be-previewed, the marquee in front of the Wiltern Theatre testified otherwise -- the real star of the evening will apparently be DJ Hero.

By Griffin McElroy 1:25 pm -- Microsoft Media Briefing (get your Bingo cards out, folks!)3:15 pm -- Xbox Live Panel with Marc Whitten4:00 pm -- EA Press Conference7:00 pm -- Ubisoft Press Conference12:00 am -- Guitar Hero Special Event (with special, secret guests)PrE3view: Monday, June 1, 2009 (Day 2) o...

By David Hinkle When Activision announced Guitar Hero 5, we knew little more than the game would include some notes, and possibly a popular diddy or two. Now, we know all sorts of stuff, like the proposed "Band Moments" and the game's release date (9/1/09). But, we still haven't seen anything on what we've a...

By David Hinkle One also has the company's two big Wii games to consider: EA Sports Active and Boom Blox: Bash Party. EA expects each to sell 1.4 million and 350,000, respectively, but Cowen Research's report doesn't put much stock in third-party success on Wii. Cowen Research is hesitant to value third-pa...

By JC Fletcher The website for Guitar Hero 5 opened, revealing the release date for this year's biggest Guitar Hero sequel: September 1. Expect to somehow end up purchasing it whether you want to or not, just like every Guitar Hero game. Gallery: Guitar Hero 5

By Kevin Kelly This entry period ends at 3:00pm ET on Monday, June 1. We'll randomly select 1 winner at that time to receive: one full-sized, wooden Peak Guitar Starpex Obsidian controller for PS2/PS3 (ARV $119.99), one Widow Maker Bass from The Ant Commandos, complete with 360 Fly Action, for PS2/PS3 (A...

By JC Fletcher If the game does come out as an arcade or console release in North America, Konami will have dozens of games' worth of songs to choose from. Which probably won't matter, as music games rely entirely on licensed popular music now. Oh, well. After the break, check out an appropriately insane Pop...

By JC Fletcher Two Activision executives have a lot less Activision this week, according to The Business Insider. Last week, CEO Bobby Kotick unloaded 1.5 million shares of Activision stock, worth around $17 million, and co-chairman Brian Kelly sold 3.6 million shares, or $42 million worth.

By Kevin Kelly You already know Guitar Hero 5 is coming, but did you know it'll let you amass even more little plastic instruments? The new game offers the ability to create any combination of rock you want. Three microphones and one guitar? Okay. Two drummers and two guitars? No problem. Four drummers? Ins...

By Randy Nelson Activision CEO Robert Kotick commented during its investors call that the Guitar Hero franchise has reached $2 billion in sales -- only the third to achieve this status -- while bad-mouthing rival Rock Band as experiencing a "rather precipitous drop-off" in sales.

By Ben Gilbert Breaking through the fire and the flames to bring you this week's Guitar Hero: Smash Hits track list update, the game's publisher, Activision, likely embraced the coolness of some nearby raining blood before continuing on. But the company didn't stop, not even to lay down for a moment, as...

By Justin McElroy If you've worried about your youngsters being exposed to the evils of rock music, worry no longer: LEGO Rock Band is coming this holiday season on PS3, 360, Wii and DS to deliver us all from said evil. The game, currently being developed by TT Games and Harmonix, will use all the existing Rock...

By Richard Mitchell A quick note on compatibility: According to Nyko, the Metal Pedal splitter can be used with the standard bass pedal for Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero drum kits. The splitter functionality does not work with Rock Band 1 drum kits. Keep in mind that this only applies to the splitter, the Metal Pedal...

By JC Fletcher These days, it's impossible to talk about rhythm games without bringing up Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band. Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven, to use the nomenclature, could be described as Soccer Ball Bounce Hero, Love Potion Mixing Hero, Race Car Photography Hero, Lizard Mating Dance Hero (that...

 CA We found out last December that Harmonix and MTV were working on a patch to add support for the Lips microphone to Rock Band. The patch has yet to be released, but it should show up eventually. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Guitar Hero ...

By Richard Mitchell Music: Intro/Outro: "Electromooq" by Uma Floresta. "Now" by Longwave Radio. For fans: Xbox 360 Fancast Facebook groupContinue reading Xbox 360 Fancast 104 -- Who Watches the Fancasters? originally appeared on Joystiq Xbox on Mon, 16 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of f...

By Griffin McElroy The pre-order bonuses for Guitar Hero: Metallica run the gamut of usefulness when dealing with down payment freebies -- the first (and unquestionably most desirable) of these bonuses we already knew about: Dropping a paper Lincoln on the title at GameStop will net you an extra drum peda...

By Christopher Grant During today's Activision Blizzard conference call, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith boasted of a "robust lineup" of three new Guitar Hero titles dropping before the midpoint of the year: Guitar Hero: Metallica in Q1 as well as "a new Guitar Hero game for the Nintendo DS" and "a s...

By Ross Miller Filed under: Culture, Rhythm, Business Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is the cover story for the latest issue of Forbes magazine, and the article's got one helluva quote -- and it's not even from the man himself. While you might balk at the businessman's lack of gaming credentials (...

By Ross Miller Filed under: Nintendo DS, Rhythm Everyone, please, raise an eyebrow and pretend to be surprised. We first heard about Guitar Hero Modern Hits when Activision Blizzard trademarked it in October, but we didn't have any more details. Now, GHMH has resurfaced, this time on the ESRB's website...

By Randy Nelson As revealed late last week, Rock Band 2 will be making its Wii debut on December 18 - two months after the Xbox 360 version. In a post to the official Rock Band forums, series creator Harmonix has openly apologized for the delay, while saying that the extra development time has made possible "...

By James Ransom-Wiley Map Pack 4 (free)Map Pack 5 (free) Guitar Hero World Tour Nirvana Track Pack ($5.49) / individual tracks ($1.99) European Track Pack 01 ($5.49) / individual tracks ($1.99) Karaoke Revolution Presents: American Idol Encore 2 PlayStation Store for PSP

By James Ransom-Wiley Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, Joyswag, Rhythm Our sincerest apologizes. We know, no one wants to do math problems on a Friday, but today's your first opportunity to slap down an "answer" to the equation in the headline, and thereby enter another spectacular Joyswag(R) giveaway. That'...

By Ross Miller Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm This week marked the debut of a second contender in the full-band-simulator genre. It's hard to find a review for Guitar Hero: World Tour that utters Rock Band less than a half dozen times. Compar...

By Griffin McElroy Many of us will find it easy to imagine the following scenario, having lived it a little over a year ago with the release of an alarmingly similar title -- hordes of rhythm game junkies returned home last night from midnight launch parties at various retailers, cumbersome Guitar Hero: Wor...

By Ludwig Kietzmann Ever since the corporate Activision blizzard left Double Fine's Brütal Legend without a sturdy home, we've been engaged in an agonizing guessing game -- which publisher is brave enough to tackle the God of GWAR epic? If not MTV, how about the new, debatably less evil EA?

By Justin McElroy Fans from the ScoreHero community got to take Guitar Hero World Tour for a spin last night, and until you start getting your own personal Cheetoh crumbs on the new and improved instruments, their detailed impressions are probably the closest you'll get to playing the game.

By Justin McElroy Beginning this Thursday, junior rockers that prefer PS3 can rip their Rock Band tracks right to their system in preparation for Rock Band 2. But, much like Ziggy Stardust, the Sept. 11 patch will be hiding a secret under all the glam: The addition of Guitar Hero III Les Paul controller suppor...

By Ross Miller Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Rhythm Joining Hendrix, Ozzy and others, Sting will be walking around the virtual concert halls of Guitar Hero World Tour. According to the press release, you can play as Sting during the vocal career...

By Ross Miller Filed under: Nintendo DS, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360 A multi-instrument Guitar Hero World Tour means only one thing: more plastic controllers strewn about our living room. So goes the life of the virtual rocker. Check out all of our impressions and reviews from t...

By Kevin Kelly Activision invited us out to the House of Blues last week, which was a fitting place to give us a first look at Guitar Hero: World Tour in action. Though we didn't get to play it, we did watch the folks from RedOctane take a spin through all the new features. Suffice it to say, this isn't simply Gui...

By Kyle Orland It's amazing where you find video game news these days. Case in point, Eurogamer has picked up on a press release from British rock band The Answer, touting the inclusion of their single "Never Too Late" (video above) in the next Guitar Hero game (which, incidentally and unsurprisingly, i...

By Justin McElroy Guitar Hero III controllers don't work with Rock Band on the PS3. Harmonix made a patch to fix the problem, which never appeared. Harmonix released a statement saying that Activision "objected to the release of the compatibility patch," ...

Related articles from TG Daily, ICGamers, arstechnica.com, 360plex.com, Tom's Hardware UK.

By Christopher Grant Though we already knew "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" was going to be in Guitar Hero 3 we didn't realize it was going to be the final track (the end boss, if you will). A helpful press release just informed us of the distinction while pointing us to this MP3 file of the now fiddle-free version. G...

By Christopher Grant Remember when we decreed yesterday big hair day at Joystiq, to commemorate the announcement of seven new tracks for Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s? Lucky for us, we didn't shower and Activision has rewarded our sloth, and our big hair, with some new details regarding the upcoming Guit...

By Kyle Orland Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, RhythmThe whole point of backward compatibility for most PS3 owners is being able to get rid of that PS2 in the old entertainment center. Yet many PS3 owners have had to keep their PS2 units hooked up for a few reasons, namely:

By James Ransom-Wiley RedOctane recently held a Guitar Hero II PR stunt mock cremation service for its dearly departed predecessor 'air guitar.' Slash, Buddy Holly, and Ace Frehley -- at least the cheapest look-alikes RedOctane could score in East London -- filled in as pallbearers. Since no funeral parlor wo...

By Kyle Orland We here at Joystiq have posted a lot of insane videos of people playing Guitar Hero and other rhythm games, even going so far as to declare one pizza-fueled shredfest as the best GH vid ever. Well we were wrong. This video of an eight-year old getting five stars on Guitar Hero II's Psychobilly F...

By Blake Snow Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2Let's face it; Red Octane would have had to sabotage (please add that song on version III) the first Guitar Hero to not get this sequel right. The original was already a blast to play. Add a new playlist (Freebird!), refine the graphics, increase game modes, an...

By Ludwig Kietzmann Filed under: Sony PlayStation 2, RhythmA technical marvel and a symbolic gesture of freedom shoved into the grimacing face of the everpresent Man, the wireless controller is practically indispensable in this day and age. As a company that's adequately adjusted to modern times, RedOct...