U2: We, too, want to be in our own music game

by JC Fletcher { Oct 7th 2009 at 10:08AM }

Last year, U2 was apparently all set to add their virtual likenesses to Rock Band in some way, but the band decided against it. However, now that The Beatles have done it and people are playing their game on the morning talk shows, everything has changed.

"We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren't what we wanted," Adam Clayton told USA Today. "That could change. I love the idea that that's where people are getting music, and we'd love to be in that world."

Evidently the representation of the band was the issue the first time. "What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we're interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation. We didn't want to be caricatured." Fans looking forward to singing "Lemon" in an unlockable Mr. MacPhisto costume should be glad it's The Beatles: Rock Band the group saw, and not Guitar Hero 5.

[Via Kotaku]

[Image credit]

Tags: harmonix, mtv, music, rock-band, the-beatles-rock-band, u2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Frivolous @ Oct 7th 2009 10:11AM

I can't stand U2, thus, would never, ever play a single track by them... "oooooh, look how much money the Beatles made with rockband, I want some of that... after i make a useless appearance in Entourage... 1, 2, 3, 14?"

uncle jesse @ Oct 7th 2009 10:50AM

I can't stand you, too

Ghen @ Oct 7th 2009 10:51AM

Bono is such an ass, he wants everything everyone else is doing with all the profits but none of the risks by not doing it when they first asked. Plus the fact that there's just no way U2 can live up to what The Beatles provided anyway, so its guaranteed to be worse.

primetime4 @ Oct 7th 2009 11:02AM

Do you know that 1 in 6 kids in America are food insecure?

Jose @ Oct 7th 2009 11:12AM

I'd like to register my "3rd!" on this U2 hate train.

charlie b. @ Oct 7th 2009 11:40AM

Bono is a pompous dick.
U2 are a rather money hungry band, and they seem to love attention even more.

this said, i STILL love listening to "The Joshua Tree" all the way through every so often.

FNG @ Oct 7th 2009 11:43AM

does this mean they are changing the bands name from U2 to ME2?

Chilly P @ Oct 7th 2009 11:46AM

...and I always felt like such an ass when I expressed my distaste for Bono and his shitty music.

Grammar freak @ Oct 7th 2009 12:05PM

Are you telling me you can't appreciate a single song off the 1980-1990 greatest hits? Is your heart made of stone?

HedonisticKai @ Oct 7th 2009 12:11PM

WRITE THE FUCKING CHECK VINCE

Judd @ Oct 7th 2009 12:50PM

I don't know what you guys expected from the man who was the world's largest piece of crap for decades.

CTC XBL-supapaypamawio [Planeteer | Power of the Anti-Fanboy Bitch Slap] @ Oct 7th 2009 4:14PM

I'm glad to see so much Entourage love on here, that was a great season finale. On a side note, the other day I was at Walmart and they had the Rock Band 1 instruments/Beatles game value bundle and this woman stopped and looked at it. Then she said, "I don't get why a disc needs such a big box" and walked off...She thought the entire instrument bundle contained only a game disc. Classic.

Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Oct 7th 2009 10:12AM

Guitar Hero: U2 confirmed.

There's no way Harmonix could make a U2 centric game. The series fans would literally murder the devs if it was released as a separate game instead of DLC.

Activision on the other hand...

copa @ Oct 7th 2009 10:47AM

I think there's room for compromise here. Once I saw The Beatles, I knew it would open a floodgate of artists who would say, "Oooh, I want a game like that!" I would not at all be surprised to see bands like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin back at the negotiating table based on the strength of The Beatles release.

For a band like U2, that is not in fact bigger than Jesus, Harmonix has the leverage to propose, "Let's do a band game, but make it exportable." The band gets their fancy objet d'art, which preserves their likeness and lets them tell their band's story. We still get to have our user-created band of David Letterman, Sarah Palin, Flavor Flav, and Mohammed singing "Numb." Oh, and the band still gets to make lots and lots of money.

Now, as other people here have noted, U2 might not actually be the best choice for this type of game. But I do imagine that Harmonix will release single-band exportable games in the future.

Ghen @ Oct 7th 2009 10:52AM

David Letterman, Sarah Palin, Flavor Flav, and Mohammed singing "Numb."

I'd buy that.

Scott @ Oct 7th 2009 12:05PM

Is it really confirmed? I can only find "confirmations" of the rumor. I don't know how exactly to address this. The Beatles Rock Band game is definitely cool. I'd say about 10% of that is technical rock band wizardry, 40% is because it's been tailored well to the Beatles, with good production values, and 50% is because the actual band in question is the Beatles.

The Aerosmith and Metallica GH games have about zero appeal. I hope Bono tries those out before he puts his faith in Activision. Then again, I'm sure that since Harmonix has actually created something wonderful, that Neversoft has proudly stated to their superiors that they can copy that, too.

tmacairjordan87 @ Oct 7th 2009 12:33PM

"The series fans would literally murder the devs if it was released as a separate game instead of DLC."

No they wouldn't, because Harmonix fanboys are hypocrites. They didn't even bat an eye when they put out a AC/DC rock band pack sold seperately, and of course Beatles. They can do everything Activision does with Guitar Hero, and they would still be worshipped.

Ridgecity @ Oct 7th 2009 12:56PM

"We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren't what we wanted"

yeah the $$$$$...

Sadly, they are no Beatles.

Guitar Hero @ Oct 7th 2009 1:06PM

"No they wouldn't, because Harmonix fanboys are hypocrites. They didn't even bat an eye when they put out a AC/DC rock band pack sold seperately(...)They can do everything Activision does with Guitar Hero, and they would still be worshipped."

Ehem...I think not. Example:

HMX did the AC/DC Rock Band TRACK PACK and sold it as "An RB Track Pack with AC/DC (Live) songs!" at 30$. And it was that: A Track Pack (exportable into RB2, BTW) of AC/DC (Live) songs.

Activision did GH: Aerosmith GAME and sold it as "An new GH game about Aerosmith, including White Stripes and Deep Purple (and other bands) as guest acts!" at 60$. And it wasn't that: It was GH3 with Aerosmith songs/art and some minor modifications (HOs/POs changed, added a computer-controlled Rhythm guitarist).

I gotta say, thought, that even with me being a HMX fan(boy), I still recognize that GH is getting better.

Hoffer @ Oct 7th 2009 10:20AM

I played Guitar Hero: Van Halen last night. The animations of band members are hideous. I don't blame U2 not wanting to look so lame. GH5's animations were way better IMHO.

Ghen @ Oct 7th 2009 10:53AM

It's a shame that GH:VH is based more off of GH: world tour than GH5.

Sidebuster @ Oct 7th 2009 10:21AM

That pictures looks like an ad for Vox amps. I already know they mike up smaller amplifiers but they usually hide them behind a wall of fake cabinets.

Oh yeah, I don't care for U2. Never really did.

Daniel @ Oct 7th 2009 10:23AM

I'm a pretty big U2 fan, but I'm not going to pay $60 for a U2 Guitar Hero game.

Their catalog is simply not suited for this medium. There's a handful of rock driven songs that would be fun to play, but around two thirds of their songs are vocal driven with little instrumentals other than a few chords repeating constantly through an echo effect. They would be boring as hell to play in either popular rhythm game.

The only way I'd buy any U2 songs to play is through DLC.

Cerpin Taxt @ Oct 7th 2009 10:22AM

U2 wouldn't work. Reasons:

When Bono sings, he strains his voice. He doesn't sing correctly. He has a really sloppy (emotional, I guess) style. This type of stuff isn't fun at all to replicate.

When The Edge plays guitar, he plays stuff that anyone learning guitar can play within a few months of practice. The rest of his sound is based on the effects he uses.

And the bass and drums don't make up for this.

the_pop @ Oct 7th 2009 10:33AM

You could replace U2 with The Beatles and that would still be accurate.

Johnathan @ Oct 7th 2009 10:36AM

You could replace that response with an obvious fail troll and it would be exactly the same.

copa @ Oct 7th 2009 10:50AM

Yeah, dude, The Beatles are legendary for their sloppy, strained, vocals. You're a fucking genious.

NothingShocking @ Oct 7th 2009 10:51AM

You could replace most blog comments with "durghghghgablorginplax" and they would probably have more meaning and value.

uncle jesse @ Oct 7th 2009 10:54AM

He doesn't sing correctly? What the what?

PedoJokerBear [Planeteer | Power of Gall Bladder] @ Oct 7th 2009 10:55AM

durghghghgablorginplax

dark_inchworm (stronger than never, ever before) @ Oct 7th 2009 11:13AM

Can I borrow "borginplax" as a name for a Zerg ripoff in an ultra-generic RTS?

jorojoserojas @ Oct 7th 2009 11:15AM

Y'know, PedoJokerBear has a point...

dark_inchworm (stronger than never, ever before) @ Oct 7th 2009 11:19AM

er... "blorginplax"... how could I have fucked up such a beautiful word? Lawd have mercy on me.

Cerpin Taxt @ Oct 7th 2009 12:11PM

Beatles vocal harmonies are not sloppy. When I say that vocals are sloppy, I'm not referring to the production.

the_pop @ Oct 7th 2009 3:24PM

Well the beatles obviously have better vocals than U2 but I liked the part where no one disputed the fact that the guitar/bass/drums are extremely simple and dull, proving I was correct.

Grammar freak @ Oct 8th 2009 2:59PM

I must disagree - the drums and bass in U2 are the hidden secret weapons, especially in the 80's stuff (listen to October sometime, it's got some ridiculous high-hat and bass stuff)

I'd love to see a Police guitar hero, but most of their best songs are DLC anyway by now.