Guitar Hero 5 DLC not compatible with World Tour

by Xav de Matos on Aug 23rd 2009 8:30PM

While original Rock Band owners were given the luxury to continue to buy new tracks for the music title even after the release of its sequel, Guitar Hero fans won't be given the same option when Guitar Hero 5 lands on store shelves. An Activision representative told Destructoid that DLC for the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 will not be compatible with Guitar Hero: World Tour.

According to the Activision rep, Guitar Hero 5 DLC will be compatible with future titles in the franchise, but "advancements and innovations" made to the upcoming music title do not allow for tracks to be backwards compatible with World Tour. Don't light the torches and grab the pitchforks just yet though, the same reason has been given for The Beatles: Rock Band's inability to work with previous versions of the game.

Thankfully, Activision has already confirmed tracks from Guitar Hero: World Tour will be compatible with Guitar Hero 5 via an in-game importing process -- which adds new features such as band moments, expert+ drumming and the new vocal star power to older tracks.

[Via 1UP]

Source

Tags: activision, dlc, downloadable-content, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-5, guitar-hero-world-tour, Microsoft, neversoft, Nintendo, rhythm, rock-band, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (100)

@Xav, that is not the reason you would see the Beatles on RB2 (or RB3)...

TBRB songs (from the disc or DLC) will not be in the regular RB series. Ever. It is not because of technical differences and advancements (3-mic harmony, no drum fill/whammy bar distortion, etc.), but to keep the Beatles special. Having my RB character (who looks like Dwight Schrute from The Office, by the way) singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" with all the standard RB animations would not do them justice.

@ Bearxor, you'll (most likely) be able to use songs for the discs on RB1, RB2, as well as DLC in the future, unannounced RB3... Just not songs from TBRB.

"If Harmonix is telling me that I can't use my DLC in a future RB3, I'll stop buying DLC right now."

That's not even what's happening here. All the current GH:WT DLC can be played in GH5. It's just that DLC for GH5 will not work for the previous games.

In other words, songs maintain compatibility with your future versions of the game, but the DLC you buy for the new game doesn't work for the old.

Honestly, this does make sense with the kinds of changes they are making in GH5. Taking the time to remove things from songs to work with World Tour doesn't make sense. It worked in Rock Band because RB2 isn't very different, gameplay-wise.

very true.

i, too, like to make excuses for activision being lazy money-hoarders who could give a rats ass what their consumers want.

I'm not making excuses, I could care less what Activision does to further destroy the GH franchise. I made my choice in this genre a long time ago, and it was Rock Band 2. Hundreds of songs later, no regrets.

I just don't buy Activision/Neversoft's story that they can't make it compatible because GH5 will have too many features. There are only 2 possible explanations for that:

1) The developers are too lazy to go back and rework the note charts; if people with GH on PC can hack the game and make note charts on their own, I'm sure that the very people that created the game have note chart creation down to a science and redoing the songs would be minimally complicated. After all, they did release GH: Hits with that exact idea in mind.
2) The publishers want your money, but can't actually say that out loud. So they claim it's features and soon they've got 23 separate GH games that don't work with each other.

I can understand if they don't want band-specific games to be integrated into their general selection of songs. But basic installments in the series itself???? I'm so glad I made the switch to RB.

I'm just here to say that I really dislike "could care less" as it is supposed carry a sarcastic tone that is not really communicated via text. Just adding 3 characters to the end ("couldn't care less" for those of you playing at home) is all it takes to make the line make a lot more sense in writing and make me a lot happier.

I'll be off now.

I'm sorry, but I just don't buy the whole "Too many features to make it feasible for World Tour", especially considering that Harmonix has taken the time with their DLC to not only make sure the new content works with all the features of RB2, but that when played on RB1, the tracks play just as well without the enhanced features of RB2.

Neversoft COULD make GH5 DLC for WT where GH5 features don't apply and that the tracks play as a more stripped down version to work with what WT can do, but they aren't. That's not only lazy, but a cheap tactic to force fans to upgrade if they want to keep getting support for the series they love. Harmonix on the other hand gives you a choice if you want to upgrade to RB2 or not, either way, you still get weekly DLC support that functions on both games.

Thank you! At least someone realizes that Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2 aren't any different, ergo the DLC should be compatible. If GH5 is adding actual gameplay changes, it can't go backwards without a lot of work and without taking up a shit ton of hard drive space.

I mean, LOOK at how much hard drive space the Death Magnetic album takes up! Making it work across both the GH3 and GHWT engines was murder on my hard drive!

I think you guys have something backwards. They wouldn't want or need to release 2 versions of the DLC. What they would have to do is release a title update to GH:WT with some new code to ignore the new feature data in the GH5 DLC. This is very doable, IMO. I think this is a calculated move by Activision it maximize profits (shocker!) But I don't blame them for that. I don't appreciate the "'advancements and innovations' can't fix it" excuse, but that's typical PR BS.

Ignoring the ignorant RB fanboys trolling legions that populate Joystiq like krill in the ocean...

I feel bad for WT owners who didn't plan on picking up GH5 (even though there probably aren't too many people in that group), but the fact that NS is going back and adding Expert+ and the other new features to all the old songs is so overwhelmingly awesome that I can look right past this.

That is sporting of them. I just prefer Rock Band.

Also, thanks for the Treaty of Kanagawa.

The RB people are mighty virulent today. I apologize any comments about trolling I may have made about you and other trolls. It appears the RB guys are much worse and more numerous than the GH ones. I choose not to take sides, but I admire your gall to keep taking on the hordes of haters either way. BTW, gameplay aside, GH instruments are better. Meh...

I want One Winged Angel in RB.

if you mean the black mages version, then i agree completely.

Black Mages version is the only way to go, at least until they release the French Horn and Tympani peripherals.

the black mages version is incredibly sick.

I'm not sure if the Black Mages covered it, but the FF7 boss theme I think would make more sense. One Winged Angle is too orchestral, while the Black Mages is more rock-based and instrument intensive.

Watch this video and just picture how awesome the guitar would be in RB:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YPVz0ys4bo

Why is everyone acting surprised? This is Activision we're talking about here. Not EA.

All the boycott requests go for naught, because a lot of the same folks slamming Activision with the right hand for GH, are there on release day with the left hand to pick up Modern Warfare 2. Yeah, those boycotts seem to work great when COD4 and WaW keep fighting for the top spots with Halo 3 on the Top 10 Live games.

Boycott Activision!

I have a lot of great memories with GH, but I just don't understand why Activision must do this.

On Beatles rock band, I understand that there are advancements in the technology, such as backgrounds and harmony and other stuff, but couldn't the older files still be imported and treated as older files, meaning not utilizing these new features, but maybe still using the Beatles 3d models. Or heck, even reverting to RB2 style gameplay completely for older files would be acceptable, as long as they would be easily accessible all from one disc.

I miss the day when Activision games were GOOD.

But about 95% of you weren't alive to remember the Atari VCS days, so I digress...

oh noes, it's someone who thinks that their age is actually a numerical measurement of how important his comments are!

Oh noes! A 13 year old who thinks I give a shit about their opinion!

Well, no argument from me there, obviously it's POSSIBLE for them to do it, they just don't want to / don't think it's worth the effort.

Fucking Joystiq comment system.

You're talking about including a separate file for GH:WT era DLC.

I don't want to download DLC that is twice as big. We all don't have 120 gig HDDs. Besides, Death Magnetic had to have two versions of the album in the package. The entire Death Magnetic album is almost a gig because of it! I loved being able to play it in 3, WT, and Metallica, but I would have waited for WT for the smaller file size.

Besides, if you are still playing WT, you are probably a fan of the GH series, and will buy 5.

Most of the people whining about this don't even own Guitar Hero World Tour and have NO reason to complain.

Was considering the purchase of Guitar Hero 5 but now I think I will be going the Rockband route. Thanks for making the decision easy their Activision.

Hold it now, if you were to own GH5, why would you play your DLC in World Tour? Have you seen GH5? It fixes almost everything that was wrong with World Tour.

Or......................

You had no plans on ever buying GH5, and you are just being a whining bitch.

FUCK ACTIVISION AND FUCK GAMESTOP WORSED PLACE TO BUY GAMES EVER!!! THE EMPLOYEES HERE ARE SUCH FUCKING IDIOTIC PSYCHO BITCHES THAT DESERVE TO BE FIRED!!!

I needed to vent! RARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

okay done now...

Have a cyber hug.

No not that kind of cyber.

Dunno how I feel about Cobain being a character... I don't think he would've wanted this.. ,':/

I won't buy your tracks even if they were compatible with Rock Band!!

When GH6 comes out, it's DLC wont be compatible with WT or 5 because it will be adding new features that are going to be in RB3. See what I did there? Its going to be a never ending cycle.

They already announced that GH5, Band Hero, and all Downloads, Exports, etc. will be forward compatible.

They announced this, but Joystiq never reports it.

I like how everyone in their anti-Guitar Hero rage completely overlooks the part about Rock Band Beatles.

Stay classy Joystiq users.

And the day is coming when RB3 or RB4 will not be compatible with previous DLC. Then I guess they'll all switch to Rock Revolution.

the beatles rock band is a different platform, unlike the GH band games, it will have DLC, harmonix is trying to get as many beatles songs as they can for the game, and its the beatles, the BIGGEST band in history, i'm pretty sure they deserve a music game, unlike metallica, van halen, and aerosmith
stop bitching, harmonix is milking the RB franchise, but they are treating it like a platform too, so you don't have to go out and buy the latest game every year, opposed to GH's 3 or 4 a year, and even if you do, every song will be compatible

"i'm pretty sure they deserve a music game, unlike metallica, van halen, and aerosmith"

That's an opinion. To me,the Beatles have the most boring music in history,but I love thrash and metal in general,so I much enjoy GH Metallica and would rather that over a Beatles game. The difference is that's an opinion,not fact to give anyone a free pass for making a game.

Another Guitar Hero game to me only = more content/songs. I'm not looking for anything else but that. Just like I buy Guitar Hero,I also buy Rock Band because they both contain different songs.

So...they can adjust the charts if you are playing with a RB drum kit, but they can't do shit for you if you have a game you actually bought from them.

Fuck this, I'll just wait for RawkSD to allow GH5 imports and rent the damn game.

Aww boohoo. The DLC isn't backwards compatible. Now we have to get all the way off the couch to switch a disk. Damn the heavens.

This isn't about disc switching; if you have both games, you won't be doing any disc switching anyway. It's about those of us who bought WT with the assumption that we wouldn't have to spend $60 10 months later to continue getting DLC. This is the last straw for Activision and the GH series for me.

How can I trust Electrocomputerwarehouse.com with all of my elctrocomputer needs when their damn bot can't even generate a cohesive spam post?

Please tell me which one is better
Guitar Hero 5 or Rock Band?

Well I thought WT sucked, and got RB2 while still playing WT. Have not played any GH since RB2 and have no plans.

To spew a bunch of rhetoric over not being able to use previous DLC is shameful.

God is dead, long live the new god; profit!

Another reason to stick with Harmonix? How many more do we need?

Dammit I hate how only Rock Band rabbid fanboys post on the Guitar Hero news, you only have headaches

Previous 50 Comments

Guitar Hero 5 DLC not compatible with World Tour

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