With no pricing details explicitly stated before, it wasn't surprising when a few people were confused and contacted us about Guitar Hero World Tour showing up as a $240 bundle on Red Octane's official site -- especially when the company doesn't seem to be offering a non-deluxe bundle. The special bundle adds to the normal instrument and game package: a t-shirt (Male XL only), battery charger, key chain and guitar case. The standard pricing for GHWT, direct from Activision:

• $190 for the full band kit on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii.
• $180 for the full band kit on PS2.
• $100 for the guitar/game bundle on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii.
• $90 for the guitar/game bundle on PS2.

It may seem odd that we're still talking about leaking Guitar Hero World Tour tracks, especially when we've had a full set list for the competing Rock Band 2 for months now (heck, we've had the whole thing ranked by difficulty for a week). Nonetheless, four more included tracks were revealed at an Activision press conference in New Zealand. The newly revealed songs (as reported by Gamespot) are:

• "Prisoner of Society" by The Living End
• "La Bamba" by Los Lobos
• "Scream Aim Fire" by Bullet for My Valentine
• "Our Truth" by Lacuna Coil

In addition, the event revealed a Nov. 12 release date for the game in Australia. With 64 tracks already confirmed by various sources, we have to wonder when the rest of the reported "over 85" tracks will finally be revealed.

Who says you can't teach old bands new tracks? (Insert groans from audience). Activision sent word today that the Guitar Hero World Tour track list will include three classic songs that have been re-recorded just recently. First off, MC5's 40-year-old classic "Kick Out the Jams" has been "updated and modernized" by MC5's Wayne Kramer, with help from Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell and Guns 'N' Roses Gilby Clark. The Sex Pistols will be offering up a newly recorded version of 1969's "Pretty Vacant" and Motörhead came back to the studio to re-record their 1979 hit "Overkill" for the game.

Activision is casting these re-recorded classics as a way for fans to get "a unique experience of old yet new legendary sounds." Still, we have to wonder if the decision might have had more to do with missing or incomplete master recordings, a problem that afflicted the "Who's Next" DLC that was planned for Rock Band. Either way, it's nice to see some classic rock stars coming together to support a thoroughly modern interpretation of their songs. If only they all felt that way.

G4 claims to have gotten "the hot word" on a new Guitar Hero World Tour peripheral from Neversoft's Brian Bright who "wouldn't go into detail about what it will be," though he apparently said the new peripheral was "specifically for the game's Studio mode."

We've reached out to Activision for some kind of comment or confirmation; however, until then, speculation seems to be the name of the game. G4 is guessing keyboard, which is all well and good. And who knows, it may well be a keyboard. We're not oracles here. But as long as we're just guessing, why not guess a little bigger, y'know? That's why we're happy to announce Joystiq's official guess for the rumored new Guitar Hero World Tour peripherpal: keytar.

It's alright Lars, you don't need to keep it a secret any longer. With or without your intimations, we all know Guitar Hero: Metallica will be joining the pantheon of geriatric rock simulators right alongside that other game, probably next summer. But if you really just want to get it off your chest, go right on ahead ...

When asked about the existence of the aforementioned game by MTV News, Metallica drummer and lead Napster-hater Lars Ulrich said, "... if somebody's gonna follow [GH: Aerosmith] up ... we're talking, and its exciting, and the people at Guitar Hero and Activision are rapidly becoming our best new friends in the world. You can put the rest of it together yourself." We took a moment to put those various pieces together and, sure enough, they basically assembled the retail packaging for the game. For further evidence, hit up the video after the break.

We hope you didn't get your hopes up regarding Guitar Hero World Tour's hypothetical set list, which included songs from such bands as REO Speedwagon, Rob Zombie, and whole lot of Tool. Game Informer reports that both Activision and Red Octane have come forward, denouncing the list as a fraud.

While some of the tracks listed will make it into the game, such as Van Halen's Hot for Teacher, the report calls the lion's share of the list "wishful thinking and pure speculation." We're sorry Tool fans, but you'll have to get your progressive rock fix somewhere else.

Well, now what? After finding plenty of conflicting information as to whether or not the Rock Band Stratocaster works on the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (including a direct capture of it not working) we decided to ask you directly in the hopes we could arrive at some sort of answer. Instead, we've got this: 4.7% say it works while 5.6% say it doesn't (89.7% just wanted to play along at home).

Now, considering how unscientific this methodology is, we're pretty sure our margin of error is in excess of 5%. Even if we were to consider the information accurate, we're still at a deadlock. Activision isn't talking (really, we've asked for a comment several times), so we're going to go with this: there are multiple versions of the Rock Band Stratocaster and some will work with Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and some won't. Really, that's the best we can come up with. Of course, this would be a whole lot easier if Activision would just agree to play nicely.

While we may find ourselves favoring Rock Band's a la carte offerings far more than Activision's band-themed bundles, we're not sure whose model will win in the long run. Take the Beatles for example: getting the notoriously protective (note: they're not even on iTunes) band's tracks onto either offering (or both!) would be a huge coup, to be sure, but wouldn't Guitar Hero: Beatles be more attractive to the license holder than some downloadable tracks for Rock Band?

FT.com revisits the pursuit and reports that, perhaps unsurprisingly, Beatles "representatives have held discussions with both Activision and MTV Games" in pursuit of a "final deal [that] would be worth several million dollars" and "could be reached in a matter of weeks." Well, we'll be here in a matter of weeks ... say, E3 would be a really nice time to announce something. We're just sayin' ...

It seems that Activision has stumbled across the correct formula for getting us to drop our drumsticks and don our trusty, dusty Les Paul peripherals -- a three-song DLC pack for Guitar Hero III featuring the music of the epic British prog-rock trio, Muse. As of May 8, "Supermassive Black Hole" and "Exo-Politics" from their 2006 album Black Holes and Revelations as well as the fan-favorite "Stockholm Syndrome" from 2003's Absolution will be available to download for a heretofore unannounced price (we're assuming it will match the $6.25 price of former GHIII packs). We've got videos for all three tunes after the jump -- go decide which ones are purchase-worthy! (Hint: All of them.)

IGN reports that the May issue of Conde Nast Portfolio magazine sees Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealing a future direction that would put his company's Guitar Hero franchise on equal footing to last year's newcomer, Rock Band. Upgrades include additional instruments (including vocals and, we hear separately, drums), as well as "local content" from "local bands."

This corresponds with information Joystiq has received from a source close to the company, who tells us that multiple instruments – including a microphone and drumkit – will be a part of the next Guitar Hero game, likely to be called Guitar Hero IV despite its focus on multiple instruments (other potential names: Band Hero and Rockstar Hero). Also, our source reports that Activision insiders are proud enough of their drum peripheral to say that it will be "superior" to Rock Band's (we know, shocking).

Perhaps just as importantly, Activision's weakness in downloadable content could be resolved as early as the release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith this June, when content is expected to be released regularly, perhaps "even weekly." Also contributing to the company's positive outlook on DLC is the pending merger with Vivendi, potentially giving it unparalleled access to that company's Universal Music Group, the largest family of record labels in the music industry.

We've asked Activision to comment on this story. If anyone close to the story has any additional information to share, you know where to find us.

Each week Jeff Engel and Geoff Brooks contribute Counting Rupees, a column on the business behind gaming:

When Guitar Hero 3 launched last year it was an immediate success, selling out at a fairly quick pace throughout the holiday season. Following just behind it was Rock Band, selling very well, but not nearly as quickly as Guitar Hero. So far, all versions of Guitar Hero III have sold about 9.1M copies, versus just roughly 1.5M for Rock Band. Of course, part of the discrepancy lies in the fact that Rock Band launched on two platforms while Guitar Hero 3 launched on four, but that is about to be remedied with Harmonix's recent announcement of Rock Band for Wii. While Rock Band was a more ambitious game and representative of an evolution of the music game, it did seem like Activision may have made the right choice in buying the Guitar Hero publisher (and thus the Guitar Hero brand), but not the developer. With so much brand awareness already built into Guitar Hero, was there any way that Harmonix could possibly top the original creation that it no longer owned the rights to?

If the price is the only thing holding you back from Rock Band, then you might want to swing buy your local Target sometime this week. Starting today, Target's offering the PS3 and 360 versions of the special edition bundle for $149 USD, $20 off the normal price.

The offer's only good from the 17th to the 23rd, and sadly doesn't apply to the PS2 version. Despite those setbacks, it's still the cheapest we've seen the Rock Band bundle thus far. If you've already purchased the game, maybe this is a sign to buy it for a friend (or your favorite blogger who might have a birthday coming up...)

[Thanks, Jon B]

The trademark hunters over at Trademork have latched on to a Jan. 19 trademark filing by Activision for the words "Guitar Hero On Tour." "Big deal," you might well say. "That trademark could be for anything. A national promotional tour ... a Guitar Hero themed safari adventure ... a new show on the Travel Channel ... anything!" That's a good point, but when you put the trademark together with a Wiiz.fr post (picked up by GoNintendo) that lists Guitar Hero: On Tour as the name for the previously confirmed DS version of the game, then things get interesting.

Of course, knowing the probable name of the upcoming DS game doesn't really tell us much about how Activision is planning to squeeze Guitar Hero's larger-than-life gameplay onto the DS' small screens. Still, this information could be useful for impressing friends. Try this: The next time Guitar Hero comes up in conversation, casually mention that you "can't wait for Guitar Hero: On Tour" and watch your buddy's face sink in awe of your amazingly wide gaming knowledge. You can thank us later. We accept checks and money orders.

[Via CVG]

For those of you who own the Wii version of Guitar Hero III and figured out you couldn't hear what the other speaker was saying, Activision is slowly beginning to remedy Guiter Hero Wii's mono sound. There is now a page up on the Activision's support site with information to pre-register for a replacement disc.

The pre-registration is available for North American customers only, and the site claims new discs will be available in "early 2008." If you don't feel like pre-registering at this time, there is also a notification by email option for receiving updates on the situation. Guitar Hero Wii's mono sound should find a nice place in "How'd the heck that happen?" History, right next to Dead Rising's teenie tiny text.

Activision's let our pals at GameDaily know that a federal judge in Detroit has denied The Romantics request to halt sales of Guitar Hero Encore Rocks the 80s over its use of a cover of their track "What I Like About You." Though the judge said the publisher followed the proper copyright procedures in their use of the track, he has yet to announce what, if any, damages will be awarded to the former 80's stars.

Activision was predictably pleased with the judge's decision, saying the suit was "without merit" and that they had a "long history of supporting artists from a range of entertainment fields." No word from The Romantics though we think it's safe to assume you'll never have a chance to play any of their other singles in rhythm game form ever. Hope those radio royalties are paying the bills, fellas.