With just over two weeks to go until Band Hero hits North American store shelves, publisher Activision has listed all of the songs in the family-friendly rhythm game.

The company also touched on downloadable content support, writing that "fans can play almost all of their previously purchased Guitar Hero downloadable content," as well as detailed the cost of bringing Band Hero songs into Guitar Hero 5 and vice versa.

PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii Tracks

1. 3 Doors Down - "When I'm Gone"
2. The Airborne Toxic Event - "Gasoline"
3. The All American Rejects - "Dirty Little Secret"... Read more

Though Activision is allowing users to import songs from Guitar Hero World Tour into Guitar Hero 5, the feature currently only extends to 35 of World Tour's 86 tracks.

As reported by USA Today, the 35 songs will cost users 250 Microsoft Points ($3.50) to import. By comparison, Rock Band 2 users are able to export 55 of Rock Band's 58 songs for the cost of $5.

Activision told an indignant Destructoid that the list of World Tour imports will be expanded in the future as more songs are ported.

Click through for the current list of the 35 importable World Tour songs:... Read more

It wasn't all Guitar Hero 5 for Activision today, as the publisher also issued a list of the downlodable content coming soon to the previous iteration, Guitar Hero World Tour.

Remember, Guitar Hero World Tour DLC is compatible with Guitar Hero 5, except for an unspecified "limited number of songs" that are seemingly tied up in licensing.

Victory Track Pack - July 9 (Today)
• A Day To Remember - "NJ Legion Iced Tea"
• The Sleeping - "Bomb the World"
• Silverstein - "I Am The Arsonist"
Eagles of Death Metal Track Pack - July 16
• "Anything Cept The Truth"... Read more

Stan Bush's song "The Touch," made famous in the 1986 animated feature film Transformers: The Movie, is now available as a free download for Guitar Hero: World Tour owners.

Activision notes that an online tournament centering around the game will run through Sunday, with the winner snagging a Stan Bush autographed CD.

Furthermore, an additional free track by band S.U.P.R.A.H.U.M.A.N.- Protoshredanoid--comprised of developers from World Tour Wii studio Vicarious Visions--will be released on June 4. So, look out for that one.

Following up on last week's announcement of Guitar Hero 5, USA Today and Activision have revealed the first batch of songs and new details for the fall-due sequel.

As expected, the multi-instrument music game will arrive on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii, sporting tracks from 85 bands. Of those 85, over 30 recording artists will be "making their music-rhythm video game debut," according to Activision. Here's what we know:

• Johnny Cash - "Ring of Fire"
• Santana - "No One To Depend On (Live)"
• Bob Dylan - "All Along the Watchtower"
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - "Runnin' Down a Dream"... Read more

During a conference call for investors, Activision announced that its Guitar Hero franchise of rhythm games was making significant gains on EA and Harmonix' Rock Band at retail.

CEO Bobby Kotick said of Rock Band: "We've seen a rather precipitous falloff of that franchise."

"We ended the quarter with a 55% share of all rhythm and music-based games in North America and Europe, up 10 full points from the prior year as we took share from Rock Band in both North America and Europe," added Activision... Read more

With the end of April signaling the end of the known Guitar Hero World Tour DLC schedule, publisher Activision today issued a list of the downloadable tracks that PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii owners can expect during May.

Ferret/Metal Blade Track Pack (Free) - May 7
• The Devil Wears Prada - "Dez Moines"
• Chimaira - "Broken Glass"
• Unearth - "Grave of Opportunity"
Pop Rock Track Pack ($5.50 / 440 MS Points) - May 14
• P!nk - "So What"
• OneRepublic - "Stop and Stare"... Read more

Neversoft's multi-instrument music game Guitar Hero World Tour will arrive on PC and Mac this summer, series owner Activision and porting studio Aspyr announced today.

The PC and Mac editions will sport the same content found in the already available console versions, including the 86 on-disc tracks, the music studio, and support for guitar, bass, drum and vocal play. No mention was made of downloadable content.

It's not the first time that Aspyr has brought Guitar Hero to the PC, as the company has previously worked on the late-arriving Guitar Hero 3 and Guitar Hero Aerosmith ports.

As March draws to a close, Guitar Hero World Tour publisher Activision has unveiled the next month's worth of downloadable tunes coming to the multi-instrument music game.

As usual, each track pack is full of master recordings and will sell in a 440 Microsoft Point ($5.50) bundle on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Each of the individual tunes will also be available to PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii rockers at $2 a pop.

By the by, those Silversun Pickups tracks include two songs from the band's next album, which doesn't hit stores until April 14. They're the latest band to premiere new tunes in a music game, joining the likes of Motley Crue, Guns N Roses, and Rise Against.

The Pixies Pack - April 2
• "Debaser"
• "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
• "The Sad Punk"
Silversun Pickups Pack - April 9... Read more

Stan Bush's ballad "The Touch" from the 1986 animated feature film Transformers: The Movie will soon be available as a free Guitar Hero download, according to a letter from the artist.

"Also, I've been holding off announcing this, but 'The Touch' is going to be in Guitar Hero!" said Bush in a note to Transformers fan site Seibertron.com.

"Activision will be releasing it as a free download," he added. No word yet on when the track is set to be released.

With the month just kicking off, publisher Activision has chimed in with a schedule of the Guitar Hero World Tour downloadable content coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii across the next few weeks.

Per usual, each track pack will sell for 440 Microsoft Points ($5.50), with individual tracks going for 160 Microsoft Points ($2). However, the Hendrix tracks will only be available to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 owners in bundle form--no individual song purchases.

It wasn't clear if the new Hendrix tracks were coming to Wii immediately, but Wii players will finally be able to buy the songs of the first Hendrix pack--"If 6 was 9," "Little Wing" and "Fire"--on March 19 for 200 Wii Points ($2) each.

European Track Pack Vol. 3 - March 5
• Vanilla Sky - "Break It Out"
• The Ramsus - "In the Shadows"
• Les Rita Mitsouko - "C'est Comme Ca"
European Track Pack Vol. 4 - March 19
• Within Temptation - "What Have You Done"
• Die Toten Hosen - "Hier Kommt Alex"
• M-Clan - "Carolina"
Jimi Hendrix Track Pack Vol. 2 - March 19... Read more

The US District Court for the Central District of California today ruled on the Gibson Guitar v. Guitar Hero lawsuit, coming down in favor of Activision and its line of rhythm video games.

Gibson filed suit last March claiming that rhythm video games violated its 1999 patent covering simulated concert performances.

But the district court today found that the patent only covers actual musical instruments, not the gaming controllers, which it classifies as toys.

"As a general observation, no reasonable person of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would interpret the '405 Patent as covering interactive video games," reads the first searing sentence of the Court's judgment.

As the Milord trademark blog amusingly explains:

The Court quickly dismissed Gibson's contention that the sound made by the Guitar Hero controller was potentially musical because Gibson's interpretation would extend coverage to a "button of a DVD remote... to a pencil tapping a table." Gibson conceded that... Read more

Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour outsold rival MTV/Harmonix's Rock Band 2 by a factor of two-to-one last year, according to NPD sales data obtained by GameSpot.

Rock Band 2 managed total multiplatform sales of 1.7 million units in 2008, while Guitar Hero World Tour pushed 3.4 million units.

As GameSpot points out, Activision had an advantage by shipping all versions of World Tour simultaneously on October 26. The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Rock Band 2 didn't make it to stores until December 18.

Activision today announced that two Bruce Springsteen songs will be available for Guitar Hero World Tour on January 27. The release of the two songs, "Born to Run" and "My Lucky Day," coincides with the release of Springsteen's new album Working on a Dream.

The songs will be available for free during the first week. After that, from February 5 on, the songs will be available as a pack on the Xbox Live Marketplace for 320 Microsoft Points ($3.99) and the PlayStation Store for $3.99, and as singles on the Wii for 200 Wii Points ($2) each.

The two track pack will mark Springsteen's video game debut.

Supposed lackluster sales of Guitar Hero: World Tour could mean that the Guitar Hero brand is "reaching its peak," according to Electronic Entertainment Design and Research analyst Jesse Divnich.

"Currently, we expect [World Tour] unit sales to decline by more than 50 percent series-over-series for November. This is coming off the October month where series-over-series units declined by more than 60 percent," said Divinich today in a research note, according to Edge.

Divinich points to the below-retail prices of World Tour on Ebay as an idication that "demand and supply are currently in equilibrium."

Though Divinich suspects the series has topped out, he notes that this doesn't mean Guitar Hero will fade away--only that the rapid growth of the franchise has burned out.

"We expect Guitar Hero and Rock Band releases for the next 10 years as they will always have a large and loyal market base, just as [Dance Dance Revolution] is still today a very profitable franchise for Konami, even though that series reached its peak a long time ago," he added.

"Technical or licensing restrictions" will prevent Wii owners from receiving all of the Guitar Hero World Tour downloadable content that PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 players can access, publisher Activision Blizzard has revealed.

As the Wii's online Shop Channel lacks the ability to bundle multiple downloads into one purchase--the store only allows songs to be sold individually--some downloadadable content, such as last week's Jimi Hendrix Track Pack, will not be available on Wii.

"Certain artists prefer to keep the integrity of the track pack rather than releasing singles," Activision Blizzard told MTV Multiplayer, referencing the Hendrix pack.

Guitar Hero: World Tour will get a The Killers track pack November 25, publisher Activision announced today.

Containing "Human" and "Losing Touch" from the band's new album Day & Age, and "Mr. Brightside" from their debut album Hot Fuss, the DLC will sell for 440 Microsoft Points on the Xbox Live Marketplace and $5.49 in the PlayStation Store.

Each song will also be available individually for 160 Microsoft Points (Xbox 360), $1.99 (PS3) or 200 Wii Points (Wii).

Rock Band 2 designer Dan Teasdale knows that user song creation may become the next big thing in music-rhythm games, but he found the creative suite in competitor Guitar Hero: World Tour (PS2, PS3, 360, Wii) a bit lacking.

Teasdale wasn't short on details in his explanation to Videogamer.com:

We actually want to find a way to for people to create music and express themselves, but when we do we want to make sure that people can sing, or the songs can be longer than three minutes, or that you can have more than 1200 notes, or that you're not tied to some dodgy sample somewhere. We want to make sure it's an authentic experience and it fits on the platform.

"If you want to do a way to let players create and distribute music, you have to go all-in--not just do it as a bullet on the back of a box," the designer elaborated. "We've dabbled around with stuff like that before, with Frequency and Amplitude, and we learned a lot of lessons from it," he added.

"The main one is that you can't do it half-arsed," Teasdale said.

Following a number of complaints, Guitar Hero World Tour publisher Activision has admitted that a "certain drum kit controllers" are suffering from sensitivity issues.

The company believes the defective kits stem from an "isolated manufacturing issue" that occurred early on, with those affected urged to contact customer support.

Activision also noted that it will soon offer players a "drum tuning kit" to ensure drums are properly optimized, and said it will perform more random quality tests.

Guitar Hero World Tour arrived on PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii this past Sunday, with reports soon coming in of defective drums and guitars. Today's statement only applies to the drum kit issues--the company has not offered a statement on the guitar woes some report--with the controllers covered under warranty.

Activision's full statement follows:

We have learned that certain drum kit controllers manufactured for Guitar Hero World Tour have sensitivity issues. We believe that these controllers are limited to ones in the earlier manufacturing stages... Read more

Some buyers of Guitar Hero World Tour--which launched yesterday--are complaining of faulty instruments, mirroring the issues that afflicted last year's debut of the Harmonix-developed rival series Rock Band.

Complaints regarding the wireless drum kit focus on drum pads and cymbals that don't register every hit. The wireless guitar has also drawn criticism, with many, such as Shacknews' own GoS-CPT-Stewart and dblagent, finding that the guitars have stopped registering downward strums after a few hours.

Activision's official support forum for the game's instruments are filled with reports of the instrument failure across PS2, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii--the four platforms that received Guitar Hero World Tour yesterday. In response, the forum... Read more