RedOctane promises new Guitar Hero every year

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Apr 17th 2007 at 8:17PM }

Tina Turner be damned, you're getting a new Guitar Hero game every year. In a Eurogamer interview, RedOctane co-founder and president, Kai Huang, reveals that every guitar freak's favorite franchise will soon have something in common with large men tossing balls and slamming into each other. "I think that fans can definitely expect that we're going to have one major release a year," says Kai. Following that, the peripheral manufacturer plans to "release update packs and content packs so there's more songs."

And what about the controversial pricing of already released song packs? The pricing's "competitive," says Huang, though his comment may have been slightly garbled due to the degradation of interplanetary transmissions. "We've done a lot of evaluation on the pricing and the costs for each of the songs and how they work for each of the packs, and we think that they're priced competitively, but certainly we listen to the fans and we take that feedback, and if that's something we'll need to evaluate we'll do that."

An annual release of Guitar Hero is hardly something we'd consider to be terrible news, but one caveat certainly needs to be heard -- not many franchises keep their sparkle on a yearly release schedule. Even fellow music maniac, Dance Dance Revolution, has taken a few bad steps in its rapid-fire career. We cringe at the thought of seeing a great franchise doing a power slide... down a set of stairs.

Tags: Activision, Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero 3, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III, GuitarHero, GuitarHero2, GuitarHero3, GuitarHeroIi, GuitarHeroIii, Music, RedOctane

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Triforceowner @ Apr 17th 2007 8:24PM

Mick Jaggers Accepted Knighthood

John Lennon Was Shot

Guitar Hero Went Annual

All Rock Legends Give In

Imadogg99 @ Apr 17th 2007 8:28PM

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

Damn you!!!

I don't think this is good news at all... they should just give us yearly releases of like 50 songs for $50 or something

zebwinz @ Apr 17th 2007 8:29PM

Seems to me that a yearly release and tons of DLC is a good thing. That means my $60 guitar won't go to waste on just one game.

Save @ Apr 17th 2007 8:35PM

Tony Hawk

Ian Von Porter @ Apr 17th 2007 8:35PM

If they let you keep your DLC for updated games.. thats a good thing for everyone since they sell the updated game and you get to keep using the licensed track that you paid for.

Markster @ Apr 17th 2007 8:36PM

'The pricing's "competitive," says Huang'

Well, when there's no competition, I guess you could call *any* price 'competitive'.

Gold @ Apr 17th 2007 8:40PM

Is it sad that i can immediatly identify that the song in the picture is Sweet Child o' Mine? I need a life...

Lewis @ Apr 17th 2007 8:40PM

um i think guitar hero players should pick up a real instrument. It's like the same price as the system+game+peripherals.

Xanto @ Apr 17th 2007 8:44PM

LOL, competitve? The DDR song packs give you 5 songs for $5 and the megapack in Universe give 10 for $10, if GH's DLC pricing is competitve, it's not winning.

Gold @ Apr 17th 2007 8:47PM

@8

I know where you're coming from. But some people just aren't good musicians. I took guitar lessons for 3 years. I practiced hard, but I was still really bad, much worse than some one who'd been playing for 3 years should have been. I'm just not good with hearing notes and understanding them. Guitar Hero is basically for people like me and I guess its also for the people who aren't willing to put the work into learning an instrument. But isn't that really what most video games are about, instant gratification for doing something that, in real life, may be impossible or just too difficult (or in some cases illegal).

Jake @ Apr 17th 2007 8:47PM

I hope they release a Guitar Hero every year. That way, my guitar investment can be enjoyed on new songs. The update packs are a bit pricey for my tastes, but GHIII for 50 bucks would get bought up nicely.

I haven't had GHII for even a week yet, but I ran into my first real test. Woman on Hard difficulty is having its way with me. I can't quite get the pull-offs and hammer-ons working at a high enough level to get that done.

Well, the gf is gone so I am going to get back to gaming. I find it funny that I am choosing between Gears of War Annex mode and Paper Mario. Could any two games be more different?

joel @ Apr 17th 2007 8:54PM

#6

You beat me to the punch. Competitive pricing as compared to what?

#8

So I as a musician with three guitars cannot also enjoy my game consoles? I think you need to get a fucking life. You tell me where I can find a guitar with good quality for the price of this game and DLC, and I'll tell you you're fucking lying. You can go ahead and say you're also including the price of the console, but that's implying that no one who plays an instrument ought to game as well.

Eddie @ Apr 18th 2007 2:56AM

"every guitar freak's favorite franchise"

lol. Konami will sue.

Alec @ Apr 17th 2007 9:01PM

NNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOO ITS MARIO PARTY ALL OVER AGAIN!

Einhanderkiller @ Apr 17th 2007 9:10PM

MILK.

Blue_Falcon @ Apr 17th 2007 9:10PM

The more and more I read about Guitar Hero as of late, and the more I'm glad I've yet to pick the game up.

Rock Band's sounding better and better to me.

Cristian @ Apr 17th 2007 9:16PM

New release every year? I'm not sure how the PS2 version works, but I hope that for the 360 they will release it in both a normal and a pack form. I don't really wanna be buying a new GH every year and pay for another guitar. I have my two guitars already.

YoYoBoY @ Apr 17th 2007 9:22PM

So RedOctane got bought by EA, I see. :D

Derka @ Apr 17th 2007 9:32PM

Hoping I can just buy the game by itself and not bundled with the guitar

Sean @ Apr 17th 2007 9:41PM

This'll work out well, since the game's already barely any fun any more. I'm sure Neversoft's not going to do as quality of a job as Harmonix did anyways.

nate @ Jul 15th 2007 2:15AM

Sean: This'll work out well, since the game's already barely any fun any more. I'm sure Neversoft's not going to do as quality of a job as Harmonix did anyways.

Nate: neversoft? what this is ganna suck i bet anything the quality of the games is going to go down cause there going to either
A.rush everything cause there realsing them yearly
or B. try to do to much at once and ruin the simplicity of the game this guy obviously dosent care about the fans as hes not going to take any time to improve the quality of the game rather hes just going to try to capitalise on the popularity of guitar hero and try to make as much money as possible befor he runs it in to the ground fuck neversoft i want the original

jcmschwa @ Apr 17th 2007 9:47PM

the difference with DDR, though, is that a vast majority of the songs really aren't that great. that, and it seems there are a few songs they just remix from year to year. i play ddr to dance, not for the music. i don't see how a yearly GH could end up like some of the ddr versions. people play GH for the music, and the game is really all about the music. with every new game, someone else is going to say "i have to get this one because it's got these songs." we knew the music before the game. we loved the music before the game. we love the game because of the music.

or at least i do.

Kevin @ Apr 17th 2007 9:50PM

The haters make no sense whatsoever. You would be happy if they released a new game every 1.5 years but not every 1? If you don't like it don't buy it. I'll pick them up until I'm sick of it, then I won't. It's really pretty simple.

jcmschwa @ Apr 17th 2007 9:50PM

#16, they'll sell the game without the guitar. GHII for ps2 came packed with or without the guitar.

jcmschwa @ Apr 17th 2007 9:55PM

@2

why in the world would you want them to do that? then you would be stuck with just the features you have in GH2. if GH1 came out for 360 and GH2 was just a bunch of songs for $50, you wouldn't be able to play 2-player coop because it wasn't in GH1. new editions of the game (as opposed to $50 song packs) will allow the devs to add new features and playmodes and refine the gameplay.

jcmschwa @ Apr 17th 2007 9:59PM

#8...some of us play instruments that cost a hell of a lot more than guitar equipment. we just don't play guitar and we're perfectly fine with not spending the time to learn a new instrument.

Steve Shickles @ Apr 17th 2007 10:02PM

All I can say is the game rocks!

bounchfx @ Apr 17th 2007 10:15PM

I.... really can't see a problem with this... except for my fetish of wanting to own all the (official) GH guitars. Crap

I just hope the songlists dont start sucking butt. but it's all opinion.

but if theres green day or good charolette or some bullshit theres gonna be hell to pay.

Chappy @ Apr 17th 2007 11:22PM

That makes it easy; there's now zero need to purchase any downloadable content; I'll just wait for the annual release where they'll actually charge a reasonable price per track (assuming the game cost doesn't go up and the number of included tracks doesn't go down). Given the "competitive" DLC pricing however *cough* *cough* f*uck you too *cough*, I'm definitely looking forward to some real competition in this genre.

Mr BoomStick XL @ Apr 17th 2007 11:52PM

All I can say guy's is the President of RO is a TOOL BOX!! It is apparent that all he see's is GH as a cash cow and with those statements are giving to big F U to the fans who support their game!!! What a shame, I thought that I was buying from a company who gives a S**T about the fans like Epic Games. How disapointing!!

swoosh bnd @ Apr 17th 2007 11:48PM

I don't think any franchise needs a yearly release. One game every two years in a franchise is more than enough. Do you hear me EA? Once every two years with roster updates through downloadable content!

colin @ Apr 17th 2007 11:54PM

I believe this will water down guitar hero greatly, theres only so much fun to be had here. yearly franchises suck.

Jason @ Apr 18th 2007 12:24AM

I, for one, would like to welcome our new Guitar Rocking overlords.

Abscissa @ Apr 18th 2007 12:58AM

I would welcome annual releases *if* they...

1. Unblock the old TAC controller and never pull that crap again.

2. Don't pull a Tony Hawk by half-assing the beta phase just so they can release buggy unpolished crap in time for the holiday season.

3. Provide a mechanism for people who own copies of two different GH games to play the songs from the older GH on the newer GH. I find it a real PITA to have to switch back and forth between GH1 and GH2 if I suddenly feel like playing a song that happens to be on the other GH. I had the same complaint with Karaoke Revolution, too.

BTW, To the people worried about having to buy an extra controller: They already have guitarless standalone versions of GH1 and GH2, I don't know why you think GH3/GH80's/etc. would be any different.

Mat Schwartz @ Apr 18th 2007 1:24AM

Not sure if the comment has been made already, but even more than 3-song packs, yearly releases are just bigger bundle packs of songs (unless new innovation are made).

#26 has it right: if the song lists start going downhill we'll have to take the hit for the few we can't go without *cough* Hotel California *cough*. I had a dream about a single game with a huge library of single songs to choose from, but it doesn't look like there's much chance of it.

Can't help but feel that they may hold back some of the more requested songs for the games vs. DLC to suck more money out of us.

Pzychotix @ Apr 18th 2007 2:22AM

New Guitar Heros should only be made when the features to be added overflow.

Honestly, it's how it should be. Otherwise, you'll be wasting $30 bucks just to buy the system all over again. More song packs should be done in lieu of newer versions.

Alex @ Apr 18th 2007 3:11AM

Competitive pricing? Call it what you want, but I haven't and don't intend to invest my money in those prices!

If they sold the 3 packs of songs for 300 points, I'd be game for that. Or if they sold indiviual songs for 100-150 points, I'd be game for that. Hell, even if they insist on a 200 point price for each song, at least I don't have to waste an extra 400 points on 2 songs I don't want. (I want that Killer Queen song, but not interested in the other two, so I HAVE to pay 600 points for one song? That's bullshit.)

Dirk Dorkelson @ Apr 18th 2007 4:06AM

Wow, that DDR comment seems a little unfair. The game you link to has a 75 score on Metacritic and you guys link to the review that gave it a 3/10, which translates to 30 on the Metacritic scale? The next-lowest score for the game is 60/100.

75 is certainly a respectable effort, right? Geez, one site even gave it a 94.

GunForHire @ Apr 18th 2007 5:59AM

So when we buy GH3 on the 360 later this year, if we've bought any of the song packs, will they work with GH3? Or will we have to rebuy them (wouldn't be surprised)?

There's a question that needs asking.

Kye @ Apr 18th 2007 6:44AM

I wonder if there'll ever be a piano hero.
Or a drum hero? That would be soo sweet. Especially on the wii remotes.

Jack of No Trades @ Apr 18th 2007 8:32AM

They will run this game into the ground.

joystiq @ Apr 18th 2007 9:56AM

@39

"Drum Hero"? You mean like Donkey Konga and DK Jungle Beat for the Gamecube (they used drum controllers -- the former is a rhythm game, and the latter is a hybrid rhythm/platform game)?

The upcoming Wii drum game almost counts, but I think they're transforming it from a rhythm game into a racer. But Wii Music has a drumming mode - there are probably videos of it floating around online from last year's E3.

heretrix @ Apr 18th 2007 10:10AM

Well I guess this should clear up all of the bullshit that went on about the DLC packs last week. Now you know who's fault it really is. MS is guilty of a lot of shit, but the fucked up pricing for the GH2 DLC lies squarely with RO and Activision.

This is why I get really sad whenever a developer with a decent franchise gets bought up by one of the big boys..Milkage will ensue because now the franchise must become a steady moneymaker. Why in the hell did you think they bought the franchise in the first place? They saw the ability to make tons of money..

But to be fair this is what fans want, steady content from a franchise they love. They also like to bitch about everything.So I guess everybody's happy now....

Abscissa @ Apr 18th 2007 1:18PM

"Tina Turner be damned, you're getting a new Guitar Hero game every year."

What's Tina Turner got to do, got to do with it?

Ludwig Kietzmann @ Apr 18th 2007 2:04PM

That comment was simply the best.
(OOF!)

BustahWolf @ Apr 18th 2007 2:11PM

As an addict of Beatmania IIDX, I can't possibly complain about the rate of releases for rhythm games. That series has been around for about 8 years, and have FOURTEEN arcade releases (15 if you count Substream as a seperate game), 11 of which have been ported to consoles. But what keeps the series going for me is the chances they take on different styles on music (not contsantly jpop and eurotrash), willingness to try new artists while keeping some of the popular ones around, and a desire to try and keep the general diffculty balanced even while trying to find harder levels to throw at the best players. Most of the time a new sequel feels like a welcome extension to a working formula, which I wouldn't mind seeing Guitar Hero fall into.

However, at this point, I'm still not convinced that Neversoft will even make a good sequel to begin with. I don't care how derivative the game may be now, a certain level of quality in song selection and level designing must exist for the game to still be fun. Take a look at the Stepmania community (or for some people, In the Groove) to see how easy it is to make an uninspired, slapdash level that's nowhere near as much fun to play. Neversoft needs to prove to me they can make a good rhythm game first, then I'll think about whether they can keep up the series for the long haul.