Activision dreams up Guitar Hero music platform to rival iTunes

by James Ransom-Wiley on Jul 10th 2008 4:24PM

Bobby Kotick, CEO of newly minted mega-publisher Activision Blizzard, has forecast the "the natural evolution" of the Guitar Hero franchise: iTunes. "I don't think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes but Guitar Hero certainly has that potential," Kotick told Financial Times.

While Kotick stopped short of actually detailing the proposal (we're imagining a typical music download service that features some Guitar Hero compatibility), Activision's merger with Vivendi Games ostensibly unlocks the Universal Music catalog, and Vivendi chief exec Jean-Bernard Levy added that the company has payment and processing capabilities in "virtually every country." Certainly, Activision Blizzard has a strong enough backbone to launch an iTunes competitor -- and an untold war chest ($3.5 billion, you say?) to make a bid for the highly coveted Beatles songs -- but to date, releasing 3 or so tracks a month ain't gonna cut it. Let's just get the Guitar Hero DLC updates on par with Rock Band's. Then we'll talk iTunes, m'kay?

Source

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, breakingnews, guitar-hero, itunes, music

Reader Comments (43)

"I don't think there have been a lot of credible alternatives to iTunes"

Amazon says hi.

"a lot" != any

Joystiq, please fix your comment system.

One of the characters '_' or '__' don't work.

_ = <
__ = >

We here in Canada can't use the Amazon online music service... or most other online music services for that matter. Apparently there's something about copyright laws that I don't understand.

And the music industry wonders why we steal so much?

P2P says hi!

As a general rule, the artists aren't getting jackshit from ITunes, so why bother at all?

It's nice to want things.

How can they say this when their support for Guitar Hero 3 DLC has been horrible?

This is true. DLC has kept me playing Rock Band, and lack of DLC has been what keeps me away from GH3.

For me, GH3 has been a really big disappointment. I owned both RB and GH3. A lot of the DLC for GH3 just doesn't belong IMO. Coldplay and No Doubt to me are both examples of DLC that would be much better in RB. I certainly don't think of guitar when I think of those two bands. The songs included on the disc of GH3 were of poor caliber IMO as well. Don't get me wrong, of course there are some good songs on there, but RB has a significantly larger variety.

Because of this?

"Activision's merger with Vivendi Games ostensibly unlocks the Universal Music catalog, and Vivendi chief exec Jean-Bernard Levy added that the company has payment and processing capabilities in "virtually every country.""

And for the most part, they are right, now that they have merged, Activision has more content to work with....actually much more, its just a matter of time to see whether they take advantage or not, just look at Sony and the poor job they have done with Singstar...

I remember seeing an article a while back with the DLC for singstar and it had way more music than I've seen for Guitar Hero 3 in quite some time.

Activision, although this was the ...5th installment? (5 th right?), still didn't have as much experience as Sony or Mtv have on the music business...

Now they have a huge catalog to work with, but like I said, we have to wait, just look what happened with Singstar...

Not going to happen. That's way too much licensing and work for Activision to go through. Not to mention they wouldn't have the base that iTunes has with Guitar Hero which means less pay off. Keep dreaming Activision.

How does one get their foor back out of their mouth? he is getting way ahead of himself with this kind of idea.

I am so tired of developers and executives over promising and under delivering. This seems to be especially prominent with music games. In this current generation of games every music game that I have played (RB, GH 2, GH 3)has over promised. Hey Kotick, why don't you shut up and let your game do the talking!

So Guitar Hero is turning into Activision's Spruce Goose. I think they're in for a reality check soon.

I'll eat a bag of dog shit if Guitar Hero is ever close to iTunes.

Man, I am so totally quoting you for truth.

Hang on a second, I'm going to write this down.

Never Forget.

Is like I want to see it but at the same time I don't want to see it.

you can buy all the song you want but do you really own them?
music industry is in shambles...

well did you write them?

Buying a copy of a Van Gogh painting doesn't give you rights to the original

Yeah sure. The only way iTunes could be like Guitar Hero is if you had to buy a new iPod every year in order to download the latest songs.

Well, some people do, but it's not necessary.

HAHAHAHAH

OH STOP IT STOP IT YOU'RE KILLING ME

iTunes 14 gazillion songs and growing every day.

Guitar Hero 3 DLC songs 1x/month. If we're lucky.

Riiiiight. This guy is such a clown...perfect fit for Activision. Let's hope he runs them into the ground.

Judging by your avatar,you wouldn't talk crap if Harmonix was speculating about this kind of stuff.

And how does the amount of DLC in Guitar Hero 3 affect their ability to start such platform? You're right, it doesn't and with the income of over 100 Million a month from WoW alone,I'm pretty sure that Acti-Blizz could easily afford to buy every band on Earth.

/speculation-rant

Now putting that aside, I doubt they will even bother in this "generation".Maybe by the time RB3 and GH5 comes out, but right now as long as they keep a steady supply of DLC they will sell a lot better than Rock Band just because Guitar Hero is a far more popular brand.Simple as that.

iTunes, 14 gazillion terribly encoded 128kbps MP3s and growing everyday.

Apple is the cancer of the music world. Until they release lossless music (in FLAC, NOT APPLE LOSSLESS) at sub-99 cent prices, they are just making it worse for everyone.

The key word is "credible". So he means to tell us that GH somehow has a chance of being a credible alternative to iTunes, while Rapsody, Amazon and a cemetery full of other noble and/or expensive efforts were not credible.

Unless its even more convenient than iTunes, I am not buying it.

@Jakka

But when casual people see drums in guitar hero they automatically say "they copied rockband". Trust me i just finished my senior year of high school full of kids that wear abercrombie and fitch clothing and have a different phone every week. Those kids buy anything that's "hot".

So in the casual world, rockband pwns the whole band aspect. So in other words, I disagree with you statement. GH won't sell more downloads if they released weekly tracks like RB.

i miss the old judy nails. the new one is ugly as hell.

and where the fuck is clive winston!?

He's in GHIV. All GH characters are. Even the 2 new ones from the DS game.

Rock Band called, they want the term "platform" back.

Apparently the future of Guitar Hero is to copy whatever Harmonix did last year.

We have a winner!

That's exactly what I said when I read the title of this post.

Hey...I know you Apples, your from the RB forums!
Anyway.
Activision doesn't know when to stop until its too late.
When will it be too late?

guys no1 copied anyone its a genre of games if this was a RPG no1 would say any thing about coping other RPGS so what you just said is flawed and dumb

So in order to hear a song in GH that cost 3x what it cost in itunes someone would have to stand there and FC for you everytime. what about burning a playlist to disc?

I can't even fathom the logistics of listening to purchased songs in the car or worse on an airplane.

WTF is this guy talking about?

Why does every successful franchise have reinvent the wheel. Just keep making fun games assholes.

But, if most of the songs on iTunes aren't even worth listening to, what would make them think that they would be fun to play on Guitar Hero?

And how would one go about getting R&B or Rap into Guitar Hero? What about techno, New Age, Jazz, and Classical?

I think that Mr. Kotick should really put a bit of thought into what he says on the record.

Well, they have all that music from Universal Music Group.... you know. That giant record company....

I just bought Da Unbreakables- Screwed and Chopped by Three 6 Mafia. Hey Activision, can I please have that for Guitar Hero too?

I bought it on iTunes......

Now what would happen if apple made a rhythm game?

Wait a minute!
Phase is a rhythm game that uses iTunes music.
Phase is developed by Harmonix?
Guitar Hero Keychain 2 (Compatible with GHTunes)
Oh No..What have I done!

Sorry, you must be logged in to leave a comment.

Breaking News

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days

Vita 'UMD Passport' won't be offered in US 220 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 108 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Battleship movie adapted into FPS by Double Helix 93 comments

Activision dreams up Guitar Hero music platform to rival iTunes

Reader Comments (43)

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:29PM Tez said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:45PM Tiptup300 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:53PM Tiptup300 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:03PM Huey2k2 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:32PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:36PM Vegnagun said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:10PM mirage said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:12PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:35PM Vegnagun said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:41PM Duke said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:42PM mirage said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:48PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:35PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:59PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:46PM juju187 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 7:08PM Top Cat said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 4:55PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:00PM booticon said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:10PM murph17 said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 6:41PM Korova Pamplona said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 8:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:17PM HighFiveJesus said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 7:24PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:19PM HeyApples said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:38PM loflyinjett said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 6:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 6:28PM Tegolin said

Posted: Jul 11th 2008 4:17AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:25PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:30PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 5:34PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 6:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 6:38PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 10:51PM Lekko said

Posted: Jul 10th 2008 11:45PM Tegolin said

Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

Double Fine Kickstarter passes $1 million in under 24 hours, breaking yet another record

Featured Stories

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

Rhythm Heaven Fever review: Crazy into you

Remedy not done with Alan Wake

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days