Forbes profiles Kotick, calls Rock Band 'shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero'

by Ross Miller on Jan 19th 2009 4:55PM

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is the cover story for the latest issue of Forbes magazine, and the article's got one helluva quote -- and it's not even from the man himself. While you might balk at the businessman's lack of gaming credentials (read: he doesn't play games), this is the line, written by Forbes itself, that'll cause more than a few raised eyebrows: "EA also teamed with MTV to sell Rock Band, a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero that added drums, bass and a microphone to the world of make-believe rock stars."

The decidedly negative tone without attribution is uncharacteristic for the magazine, and also feels a bit ... off? We know the Harmonix-RedOctane schism can be a bit confusing, but when the creators of the hit franchise are the ones making Rock Band -- and doing the multi-instrument thing first -- is that really the best choice of words?

[Via geoffkeighley]

Source

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, bobby-kotick, forbes, kotick, robert-kotick, wtf

Reader Comments (125)

Now thats a face only a mother could love.

well, someone asked for more J. McElroy look alikes...

funny thing is he's probably got a hot wife who just swims in their money filled in door pool

It's not just his face.

I mean Jesus Fucking Christ, does Activision suck so hard because that lardass ate all the original IP's?

At least Justin's a smooth pimp.

Has he played the ravesty that is Guitar Hero: World Tour? Sorry but Ill stick with Rock Band.

Exactly!

So i guess GH was supposed to be a monopoly in the musical games dept.??

Please, foolish quote from its blind source. Only thing RockBand has ripped from GH is its customers Constant songs, to dowload minus the $60 rip off additions.

Ohh look its Aerosmith, Metallica! Um honestly, most people that try to play their best,can barely glimpse at the toons in the background. Focus is mainly on the scrolling buttons. Unless you play something to the point where you have it utterly memorized. Then you need to really stop and just try and learn the real thing if your that dedicated to not have to look at the buttons(on screen) once. (My opinion)

Yea really.

I think what he means is that Rock Band is a shameless, superior expansion to Guitar Hero, and World Tour is a shameless knock-off of Rockband.

lol.. Harmonix could totally sue them for libel.

But they won't just because they would get a bad rep. I would agree that Rock Band was a knockoff if Rock Band wasn't created by the original creators of Guitar Hero. I think Forbes may want to read up a little before he says stuff for now on.

^

You do realize it was not Steve Forbes who wrote this, right?

He meant forbes the magazine as a whole.

As far as the quote goes, it sucks because you know as well as they do that they are going to get away with it. And Rock Band is getting the short end of the stick because only people like us know the cold hard truth.

This has bad publicity written all over it.

Dear Forbes,
Stick to bailouts, not videogames. We used to have magazines that would cover that thank you very much.
Signed,
All of us

Ah, print journalism: making itself irrelevant one dumb sentence at a time.

10/10 Rage material right here.

I think i burst a blood vessel in anger.

why? just play RB and be content. Forbes are entitled to their own opinion, even if it's an asinine one.

They also have a reader base who don't know the truth, and now have a false impression of a superior franchise and the original developer.

They have a reader base that is too busy jerking off to their bank statements to give a damn about who made what video game.

Fuck you buddy, Harmonix did it first and better. Way to take credit for something you inherited.

Actually, Konami did. People tend to forget that...

I know that. But Harmonix perfected it and made the brand what it is today.

Musikalisches Würfelspiel

Harmonix made the note highway. Enough said.

Thanks, Samfish. Unlike Forbes, we have the decency to issue a corrected statement:

Fuck you buddy, Konami did it first and Harmonix did it better.

Bobby's not taking credit, at least not here. The writer made that statement in his article about Kotick.

Konami slacked off after making the idea, screwed over fans around the rest of the world that ISN'T Japan, then released a crapfest called Rock Revolution after getting behind everyone else.

They're not even worth mentioning at this point.

Funny how a lot of ppl on this site NEVER reads the article since if you guys bothered to read it, you will realize that it is not the CEO of Activision who said that quote, but it was the magazine editor.

Joystiq is sneaky where they put any pic up there, resultin a several posters attacking the wrong person.

Talk about being negative and bitter.
Looming deadlines,perhaps?

Last time I checked adding to something and making it better is not a shameless rip off, but that's just me.

Gee, Activision TOTALLY didn't pay them to say that. They can't have.

Oh no he didn't!

Wow...not cool.

They both suck so who cares if one is a shameless rip off of the other. Ripping of crap still get you crap.

We get it. You hate music games. Is now the part that we pretend to care about you, and ask for your irrational reasoning? I hope I didn't offend you, lest you call me a fanboy.

is there anything you like? Besides space fps's

I imagine he likes masturbating. At least that's all his comments seem to be...

If one really likes playing instruments that much go out and actually learn to play one.

lolwut? GH 1 got me into real guitar. And now I play Rock Band, AND real guitar! I'm your wet dream! DATE ME.

"If one really likes playing instruments that much go out and actually learn to play one."

If learning an instrument was as fun and as easy as Rock Band, we'd all be mucisians.

I took 10 years of piano. I still have trouble sight-reading grade 5 material.

Music games are all the fun of being a mucisian without having to devote stupid amounts of time and money to buying, maintaining, and learning an instrument. It's fun. Try it.

I play piano, but only tunes from RPGs like FF and Xenosaga. And Portal. I made an exception.

Because of RB, I finally started taking guitar lessons. I'd been putting it off for about fifteen years, but now I'm actually doing it. You know what, I still play RB. Now why would I do that?

I play RB because the guitar is fucking hard to play. It will take me years before I am anywhere close to competent. With RB, on the other hand, I can have a lot of fun immediately - I'm all about instant gratification.

Oh Squid Lips, how overtaken with joy I was when I had discovered that you had imparted us with such an eloquent piece of information. Truly, you are a king amongst men for bestowing us with such knowledge and grace. If you would be so kind as to indulge me, please dance into the nearest grease fire and stay there until your flesh has the some texture, as well as consistency, of charcoal.

Sure, the guitar/bass part is exactly alike (not surprising since HARMONIX ORIGINALLY WORKED ON GUITAR HERO), but Rock Band did drums and vocals before Guitar Hero, so this argument is stupid. Stick to what you know best Forbes, and leave game-bashing alone.

I'm kind of embarrassed to be working for Activision right now...

Why does your company whore out it's IP's? Is it for dump trucks loads of money?

And your boss is fat

Please. Burn it.

You MAKE me hate you. You MAKE ME!

Funny. Harmonix made the first 2 Guitar Heros, then they sold the license to Red Octane who spilt off. I think GH4 is a knock off of RB because of teh drums and mic and band play. It's called GUITAR HERO, not Band Hero. Fucker

Though they have registered patents for "Band Hero", "Drum Hero", and even "Guitar Villain".

I imagine that plays much like L4D's infected mode. You jump into the game of someone playing Guitar Hero and annoy/distract them until they fail.

Just so your facts are straight:

Red Octane has always had the rights to the Guitar Hero name. They were bought by Activision around Jaunary 2007, hence how Activision now has the rights.

Red Octane actually approached Harmonix about developing a game for their new guitar controller.

Also, Harmonix developed three GH games. You most likely forgot about the 80s game (It is very underrated, despite the fact that it was $50 for 30 songs. It was $50 for 29 REALLY REALLY REALLY good songs! Rock Band fucking needs Seventeen, Play With Me, Only a Lad, Holy Diver, I Ran, and Turning Japanese so I can sell my copy of Rock the 80s.

Seriously, I want to sing Turning Japanese. Please? PLEAAASEEEE??

| 1 | 2 | 3 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

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 221 comments
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning review: A tempting fate 153 comments
David Jaffe leaves Eat Sleep Play, layoffs hit developer [Update] 107 comments
Don't call it a remake: Final Fantasy X is a 'remaster,' to be clear 95 comments
Blizzard taking Valve to court over 'DOTA' trademark 94 comments

Forbes profiles Kotick, calls Rock Band 'shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero'

Reader Comments (125)

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 4:59PM Shmil said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:06PM teamsammalone said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:25PM TheDarkWayne said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:26PM copa said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 9:12PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:00PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:16PM Negatron said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:58PM WiredKnight said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:00PM Haggard said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:29PM kamanashi said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 6:01PM Lone Starr said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 10:39PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:01PM JH315 said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 8:04PM aristokrat said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:04PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:32PM atrimus said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:53PM Haggard said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 7:29PM nandokun said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:01PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:07PM samfish said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:10PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:49PM Synnyr said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:20PM OMGOMG said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:22PM copa said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:23PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 7:17PM Ignatius said

Posted: Jan 20th 2009 3:24AM doom saber said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:01PM Soulcrux42 said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:02PM Sora said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:02PM Obienator said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:03PM Ulver said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:05PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:16PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:17PM Shmil said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:44PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 8:21PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 8:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 8:33PM Kif said

Posted: Jan 20th 2009 5:07AM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Jan 20th 2009 8:30AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 20th 2009 4:58PM jackal said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:06PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:07PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:11PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 6:24PM Haggard said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 8:41PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Jan 20th 2009 1:14AM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 5:07PM Goaliegeek said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 6:08PM Haggard said

Posted: Jan 19th 2009 7:01PM (Unverified) 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

The Joystiq Show - 024: Kingdoms of Double Fine

Shank 2 review: Refined brutality

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier brings information warfare to the front

The most popular postsin the last 7 days

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW

The most popular posts
in the last 7 days