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When will be the right time to bring back Guitar Hero?

That, and as I pointed out, Green Day and Lego weren't releases on the scale of RB1, 2, 3, or Beatles. neither had a full sized box with instruments, and both titles could be exported into the "main" games and treated as expansion packs. In contrast, i was tripping over excess boxes for World tour, Aerosmith, and III every time I went to best buy. Retailers had gotten seriously burned here.

I don't think that anyone is denying that GH was milked. What we're saying is that the same applies to Rock Band. Lego and Green Day should've been released as DLC expansions or games. The problem with music games is that the the publishers/devs rarely did that. They constantly wanted to flood the market with retail products that were barely different from the last one except that it had new songs. The end result is that people just eventually grew tired of them because the games really weren't evolving all that much. Just Dance will eventually fall into the same thing. UBI probably has a few more years of being able to milk that series before people just become tired of it.
 
Next gen. More. Video gamey. Playing on space ships. New graphics. New art style. Just guitar. Playing for score, not the band experience.

Imo
 
Now, if you consider Guitar Hero: (not counting 1, 2, DJ Hero or 80s)

Guitar Hero III (2007)
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (2008)
Guitar Hero: World Tour (2008)
Guitar Hero: Metallica (2009)
Guitar Hero: 5 (2009)
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits (2009)
Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009)
Band Hero (2009)
Warriors of Rock (2010)
You forgot one.

No one can deny Guitar Hero milked way more than Rockband.
 
Except they didn't. Rock Band 3 is an abysmal game. And Green Day: RB is a Rock Band game with only Green Day songs, enough said.

Warriors of Rock is a much better game than Rock Band 3.
I won't argue about the Green Day thing, but you're in the gross minority if you think Warriors of Rock is better than Rock Band 3.

Rock Band 3 for 360 sits at a 93 on metacritic, while Warrios of Rock for 360 trails behind with a 72. You're just not right on this one.
 
I hope they release Dubstep Hero first.
But how will I hook this up to my 360?

bxLF0.jpg
 
Honestly, I maintain my belief that Activision killed the plastic instrument genre the moment they told Hamonix to forget the full band deal, and just make another guitar-only game.

That decision caused Harmonix to go off and make RB, dividing the market. Then RB's success caused Activision to push out their own full band box.


If Activision had just supported Harmonix's initiative, we would have had a single primary plastic instrument series, and the market would never have been split. Of course, that doesn't mean Activision would not still have pushed to get five GH games out in a single year.


Oh, and Lego and GD were indeed milking the genre. However, considering it would have made them far more money to release the setlists as DLC, this suggestion was just wrong:
There was no reason for either of those games to be retail products outside of just wanting to take advantage of retail prices.

Also, LegoRB was one of the best RB games, with easily the best career mode.
 
Honestly, I maintain my belief that Activision killed the plastic instrument genre the moment they told Hamonix to forget the full band deal, and just make another guitar-only game.

That decision caused Harmonix to go off and make RB, dividing the market. Then RB's success caused Activision to push out their own full band box.


If Activision had just supported Harmonix's initiative, we would have had a single primary plastic instrument series, and the market would never have been split. Of course, that doesn't mean Activision would not still have pushed to get five GH games out in a single year.


Oh, and Lego and GD were indeed milking the genre. However, considering it would have made them far more money to release the setlists as DLC, this suggestion was just wrong:


Also, LegoRB was one of the best RB games, with easily the best career mode.


I still contend that the market was gonna drop out of the genre eventually no matter how few games they put out, so why not milk the shit out of it while you can? Eventually people were going to get sick of having a bunch of plastic instruments lying around. Eventually casuals were going to stop having "Guitar Hero/Rock band Night!" and move on to the next fad. There was never a long term future for it.
 
Rock Band took the place of Guitar Hero. If anything I would like to see a new DJ Hero from Activision in the future.

I wouldn't mind getting a new Rock Band for next gen too as long as the instruments are compatible.
 
I want dj hero to come back before guitar hero

I would love a new DJ Hero. My problem with that game is that I feel the career mode is basically non-existent. I put DJ Hero 2 in the other day, and there's nothing for me to do. I made it through the "career" so quickly, and the game doesn't even really track if you've beat a track on medium or hard or whatever. It is seriously lacking some single player challenges, or at least a screen that can tell you what level you beat a song on, so you can go back and try a higher level or whatever. I feel like there's no point for me to play it. Something is missing. I know this because I love EDM and the game tells me I've only played it for 4 hours and some odd minutes.
 
There is still DLC for Rock Band? People still buy it? Who is securing that DLC?

Ohhhh MTV.

Edit: Ummm, not MTV? Madcatz? wha?
 
Harmonix bought themselves from EA, and they're no longer tied to MTV. Technically, they're publishing through MadCatz, but they're basically doing everything.

I know that people play up certain developers as being truly connected with gamers, but Harmonix has shown themselves to be absolutely in it for the love of what they do. And to go 233 weeks with constant DLC is something no other developer has come close to.


Honestly, if there's a RB game next generation that uses all the DLC that I've already purchased, I'm absolutely fine buying a few new instruments. I don't see that happening (and already plan to have a 360 set as a "RB Machine" when next gen hits) but it'd be nice if it did.
 
So wait, Harmonix pays to get the rights and stuff to use music? Still? I thought they were way close to being dead.
 
So wait, Harmonix pays to get the rights and stuff to use music? Still? I thought they were way close to being dead.

I guess the DLC does well for them, according to the wiki anyway.

Its fascinating for some reason. The whole thing is dead, but I guess they're making money selling DLC to the people who still play it on a constant basis. Wow.
 
Make one more, sell DLC for it for the entire generation. GOOD DLC. Actual good music.
Then when the generation is over, repeat.
 
They also have Dance Central money to help support them, and RB is obviously their baby. There's simply no reason for them to have carried it on this long otherwise...
 
I guess the DLC does well for them, according to the wiki anyway.

Its fascinating for some reason. The whole thing is dead, but I guess they're making money selling DLC to the people who still play it on a constant basis. Wow.
So it's not dead then?

Remember, there are games that exist outside of the weekly/monthly top 10 and they don't necessarily need to sell millions to be worth while.
 
I think the launch of next generation systems would be a great time to bring back Rock Band.

People want to know that their DLC is going to carry over to new platforms and if Harmonix could provide a Rock Band 4 at launch which was backwards compatible with all wireless/USB instruments and (most importantly) previously purchased Rock Band tracks then it would be a very attractive launch game. (especially if they can add some kind of next gen feature to make the experience more social or Kinect enabled for recognising players or whatever)

I was at a Rock Band party last weekend and it's still a great experience if you can get the people and the instruments together.

Guitar Hero did have some song exports but they don't have the same library that Rock Band can use to leverage users. I'll be buying Rock Band Blitz just because I can play my 300 DLC/export songs on it.

Guitar Hero would have to come back with something pretty special to play catch up to what Rock Band has built. Both in library and loyal user base.

EDIT: Full loyalty disclosure:

Bought Guitar Hero 2 after playing it at a friend's house (plus guitar)
Guitar Hero 3 (plus guitar)
Rock Band 2 solo (used GH3 guitar)
Rock Band 1 (bought for export0
Beatles: Rock Band (solo)
LEGO Rock band (solo)
RB1 guitar bought for ÂŁ10
Beatles RB guitar - Gretsch bought for ÂŁ30
Rock Band 3 + Keyboard
GH Metallica (bought for ÂŁ5 new)
Selected Rock Band DLC bought over the last 4 years and the exports from RB1, RB2 and LEGO RB)

I'm definitely a Rock Band guy compared to Guitar Hero, but they both went too far with the disc releases.
 
I've spent over $500 on these plastic toy games and it makes me sick. What a shitty fad and huge waste of money.

This. Only I've spent more.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band were 90% identical and people that act like one company were angels and the other were scum are fanboys (pardon my language)
 
Make one more, sell DLC for it for the entire generation. GOOD DLC. Actual good music.
Then when the generation is over, repeat.

Curious, what would you consider good DLC?
In the past year, the DLC has had an enormous variety of songs, I can't anyone liking all of it, but the names have all been rather big, so I'd be surprised if someone claimed there wasn't anything good....
 
Guitar Hero and Rock Band were 90% identical and people that act like one company were angels and the other were scum are fanboys (pardon my language)

Identical games does not equate to identically run businesses. Personally, I'd say I'm a Harmonix fanboy, but I'd also claim that they've earned it. I don't think a valid case could be made that their decision to keep RB alive over the past year and a half was because of money. Activision saw that there really wasn't much more money to be made in the genre, so they put GH to bed. From a business standpoint, Activision handled it more or less as well as they could have, but they really didn't care about anything except the bottom line. Harmonix, of course, cared about the bottom line, but also had another motivator.
 
Harmonix have kept Rock Band alive because they're reasonably small and there's nothing else they could be better spent doing. They drop support for games that aren't profitable. The second Rock Band DLC doesn't make money, it ends. Happened with the PSP game, it'll happen with home console game.
 
Just played Guitar Hero 2, I think it was, at a friends house the other day, and it's still pretty fun. It wears a lot thinner now then it used to though. I'm not sure what they could do to interest me again to be honest.
 
This. Only I've spent more.

Guitar Hero and Rock Band were 90% identical and people that act like one company were angels and the other were scum are fanboys (pardon my language)

bububu they truly care about the fans! They released a Green Day full game before there's any Pink Floyd or Cream in the game.
 
I want dj hero to come back before guitar hero
Agreed. I couldn't give a damn about Guitar Hero anymore personally, I bought 2,3,5 and Aerosmith, that is enough Guitar Hero for a lifetime for me. Another DJ Hero on the other hand, I would buy in a heartbeat. DJ Hero 2 was so amazing, the mixes were a lot better than those in the first game and it had some subtle but welcome improvements. In terms of structure, sure, the career is not exactly breaking the mold, but the fun for me is in simply playing the songs and trying to get the highest score. In line with that, I like how it shows your friends score when selecting songs and playing them.

I was so pissed off when DJ Hero was included in the announcement. I thought cancelling Guitar Hero was long overdue, but DJ Hero was just starting to hit its stride.
 
Rock Band is largely in the same place that Guitar Hero is now. And let's not act like that series wasn't milked while that genre was still going strong

Rock Band - 2007
Rock Band 2 - 2008
The Beatles: Rock Band - 2009
Lego Rock Band - 2009
Rock Band 3 - 2010
Green Day: Rock Band - 2010

That doesn't include all of the portable titles. The biggest problem with all of these music games is that they constantly released new versions of them when they weren't needed. But the publishers (and probably developers) wanted to take advantage of the craze, so they put them out at a very fast pace.

Rock band 2 added the ability to use cymbals even though there was no specific charting for it. The Beatles was separate because of label requirements. Lego and Green Day were not needed. Rock band 3 added charted cymbals, pro guitar, pro bass, keyboard. You can't say they were simple incremental releases.

But one thing..one really major thing that all these games have is the ability to move all the music to be playable in the next iteration (except Beatles) which is something Guitar Hero never accomplished.

With Rock Band, you could actually move on to the next game and not need the old one.
 
I wish DDR would make a comeback. We didn't even get the current-gen releases in Europe. I miss those kind of rhythm games, where the gameplay isn't really replicating anything real. DJ Hero was good for that, too.

Still, the plastic instrument fad was good while it lasted. I have many fond memories of playing with friends, hardcore and casual alike. Same with everything in gaming, really.

Mind you, the recent fighting game revival gives me hope.
 
My first Guitar Hero was Legends of Rock (GH III). I was enjoying it, until a new one came out not too long after. Then another, another and another... 6 new GH games in less than 5 years.
Plus you started playing on the first bad Guitar Hero game, after Harmonix had moved on to Rock Band. That's a really sad story.
 
Holy fuck @ some of the venom for music games. Shitty fad? Can't we just call it a fad and admit it was some of the most fun you've had with local multiplayer ever? Fuck.

Rock Band fucking owned everyone I knew in 2008. Shit, I'm going to haul my gear out and jam next week.
 
I want dj hero to come back before guitar hero
My god, this.

You could just tell that the team behind DJ Hero was passionate about trying to make people feel like DJ's by using that little silly looking plastic turntable. And it was amazing, heck, they allowed the use of GH guitars and vocals and whatnot. An impossible dream from me is that somehow HMX adds support to the turntable and chart some Daft Punk songs with the rest of the instruments or something.

Like someone in a previous post said, GH people didn't had the thing for doing GH, it seems to me that they were just a bunch of developers trying to keep up with the insane "release a GH game every year" schedule that Acti pushed on them, also, let's not forget how the DLC from WoR didn't work with GH5 (the best one in the series, IMO) and 5 DLC didn't work with GH:WT. I don't know about you, but this to me seems a lot worse than releasing "expansion packs" with DLC transferable to the RB platform.

Also, honest question, do you think that the release of many Rock Band games had something to do with the pairing with EA? Let's not forget how they included a code for new copies only to make the exports on Lego and Green Day, it certainly sounds like an EA move since you could just pay a license up for RB1 and export away, then borrow or sell the game to someone else to pay his export fee without getting a whole new RB1.

And the non-export of Beatles is HMX fault? Yeah, okay. Apple Corps were quite generous to allow the digital distribution of The Beatles catalog before RB. Oh wait.
 
I'm still not bored of these games and after this many years I highly doubt I ever will be.

And I got to meet Metallica last week after being one of the four best players at a Guitar Hero Metallica tournament.
 
I pretty much played Guitar Hero because I didn't like the Rock Band guitar with the recessed buttons.

I don't really want to buy anymore peripherals. I have a plastic guitar, that should be enough. I wouldn't mind a new release at some point, but I also don't care that much. It was more of a specific thing with specific friends who I don't live near anymore.
 
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