Shack: Switching gears to Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, what separates this from the first DS entry?

David Nathanielsz: One of the things we know about Guitar Hero DS is we don't have the ability to deliver the breadth of content, the amount of content that you can get on the Wii. We wanted to make sure that people could get that content through Decades.

Decades lets you, sort of, walk through the history of music, from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and then the modern day, with a whole new setlist of over 25 songs.

What we've done with song sharing is give people the ability to take Decades and play against people that have On Tour, and share all of those songs [in multiplayer] to essentially double the amount of songs you can play.

Shack: The announcement for Decades came very, very shortly after the release of On Tour in mid-June.

David Nathanielsz: We work hard and fast [laughs].

Shack: That has to be a tricky line to walk. Some people are going to accuse you of milking the franchise, but at the same time, the size of a DS cartridge limits how many songs you can put on there.

David Nathanielsz: We hear so many people saying, "We want more songs. We want more songs!" And so, we're giving them more songs, right?

You mention milking the franchise--I don't think we're doing that. People are asking for songs, and that's what we're giving them. That's what playing Guitar Hero is about, finding those songs--songs you know, songs you don't know--and getting into them through the game.

We were only able to deliver 26 songs in On Tour. I shouldn't say only, that's actually the most amount of songs that any DS rhythm game has ever delivered, but it's not as many as the Wii game.

Getting even more songs, and we really squeezed so we can get more songs in Decades, and the ability to share, so you've got over 50 songs to play on the DS [in multiplayer], I think that's what people have been asking for.

Shack: How many tracks are there, total, in Decades?

David Nathanielsz: More than 25.

Shack: I heard that answer with On Tour, and it turned out to be 26 songs.

David Nathanielsz: And it's more than 26 [laughs].

Shack: Is there any sort of connectivity or unlockable content between Guitar Hero World Tour on Wii and Decades on the DS?

David Nathanielsz: We don't have any connectivity for Guitar Hero World Tour. That's definitely something we want to explore in the future.

Shack: Do you feel like you're hitting a glass ceiling with the DS, only being able to put out "more than 25" or "more than 26" songs on a single pack?

David Nathanielsz: No. There's content, and then there's...We've got a lot of things we can do with Guitar Hero on the DS that we haven't done yet. We're excited about doing that, but song sharing, that's something--I don't think I've seen any other game, sort of, compatible between versions. That's something very exciting for us to be doing.

In terms of features, definitely not. There's a lot of things we can do with this series, and I think song sharing is a great example of that. In terms of content? We squeezed out more space for Decades, and we'll keep trying.

Shack: Have you considered something like, Guitar Hero DS: Fan's Choice, where people could vote for the tracks they want to see?

David Nathanielsz: Wow, there's so many things we can do with this game, aren't there? [smiles]

Shack: I'd love to hear about some of those ideas you have floating around.

David Nathanielsz: I don't think we should. We shouldn't talk about what we have or haven't discussed. I'm excited about song sharing. In terms of things you haven't seen on the DS to this date, that's what I'm excited about.

Activision PR: When we're ready to talk about those things in the future, we'll be in touch.

Bringing drums and vocals to the formerly guitar-only franchise, the Wii verson of Guitar Hero World Tour arrives alongside the PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 editions on October 26.

Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades, meanwhile, is slated to hit Nintendo DS at some point in the holiday season.