Activision: Warner Is Not 'Respectful' of Guitar Hero, Fires Back over Music Studio Complaints

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Responding to complaints from Warner Music that music-oriented games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band don't pay enough for licensed songs, Guitar Hero publisher Activision has labeled the comments as "one-sided" and disrespectful.

Warner simply isn't "respectful of how much we've done to bring new audiences into the market," Activision CEO Bobby Kotick told the Financial Times.

"We're introducing a whole new group of artists to new audiences that is resulting in their iTunes downloads being exponentially higher than they would otherwise be, [as well as] new album sales and new merchandising opportunities," he explained.

Warner label Roadrunner, for example, noted a bump in DragonForce album sales after the band was exposed to a wider audience in Guitar Hero III.

"This is an entirely different business [than iTunes] that is very technically complex," concluded Kotick. "We're going to favor those publishers that recognize and appreciate how much we can add value to their artists."

Many Warner artists, including Avenged Sevenfold, DragonForce, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park and R.E.M have songs in either current or upcoming Rock Band and Guitar Hero games.

Other artists that fall under the Warner Music Group umbrella include Led Zeppelin, The B-52's, Green Day, Depeche Mode, and Paris Hilton.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero were both created by Harmonix, acquired by MTV owner Viacom in 2006. Activision then bought Guitar Hero property owner RedOctane and assigned development of the guitar game to internal studio Neversoft, while Harmonix went on to develop the multi-instrument effort Rock Band.

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    August 15, 2008 9:03 AM

    Activision: Screw you for screwing over Guitar Hero Owners. PS2 periperals don't work on PS3. You force them to buy stuff. PS2 GH games don't work on the PS3. You don't release the content in any valuable/realistic manner. Initially, GH controllers wouldn't work with Rock Band because of you.

    Screw you Activision. Screw you.

    • reply
      August 15, 2008 9:04 AM

      There's more, but I had to stop.

    • reply
      August 15, 2008 9:22 AM

      Guitar Hero controllers work on Rock Band on 360 from the get go.

      Guitar Hero World Tour is compatible with Rock Band controllers so you don't need to buy a full second set of controllers.

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        August 15, 2008 9:31 AM

        I have a 360. I know. World Tour shows a START to possible change, but there's still MUCH that was mismanaged.

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        August 15, 2008 11:17 AM

        I'm pretty sure that if it were possible to make them incompatible, they would have. They made their intentions pretty obvious with the PS3 version and going out of their way to keep them incompatible.

        I'm surprised there was no big backlash over that, but I'm guessing they realized there might be this time around and changed their tune.

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      August 15, 2008 1:30 PM

      I with you 100% - fuck activision in the ass

    • reply
      August 15, 2008 5:30 PM

      DualShock 2 controllers don't work with the PS3, why would the PS2 GH instruments work then?

      Backwards compatability is out the window anyway, so that's a moot point.

      • reply
        August 15, 2008 5:31 PM

        (Or am I missing something and the PS2 GH controllers use USB?)

        • reply
          August 15, 2008 7:14 PM

          IIRC, they never worked properly with the guitars.

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