Hendrix and Queen Coming to Guitar Hero

The start of a new month means it’s time for another batch of songs for Activision’s Guitar Hero World Tour. This month, gamers will be able to rock out to extended set lists with over a dozen new downloadable tracks. Fans will soon be able to experience more music from the likes of rock icons Queen, Jimi Hendrix, and a host of various European superstars and more, which will add to the more than 500 songs already available in the Guitar Hero catalog.

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Metallica’s Death Magnetic Hits Guitar Hero

Metallica’s Death Magnetic album is available today for Guitar Hero III as a download via Xbox Live Marketplace for 1440 Microsoft Points. Available in all regions, the album offers 2 exclusive versions of “Suicide & Redemption”, including - “That Was Just Your Life”, “The End Of The Line”, “Broken, Beat & Scarred”, “The Day That Never Comes”, “All Nightmare Long”, “Cyanide”, “The Unforgiven III”, “The Judas Kiss”, “Suicide & Redemption J.H.”, “Suicide & Redemption K.H.”, and “My Apocalypse”. This downloadable content is playable in both Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero World Tour.

Get if you’d like, but I haven’t been a fan of this band since they cut their hair and started suing fans for web sites…

Source: Major Nelson

Warner Music Craves More Money From Music Games

An executive at Warner Music Group says that games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are not paying his company enough money. Forget that this is a new frontier for music companies and that its a brand new revenue stream - these guys want more.

Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman told Reuters video game makers will need to pay more to license songs for music-based video games. While Harmonix and Activision did not exactly invent the genre (Konami owns that distinction), they perfected it and made it popular, and seeing that popularity, record companies are going to want a bigger piece of the pie.

“The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small,” said Bronfman.

Expect other labels to put this sentiment in the echo chamber soon.

Source: Reuters

Done Deal: Activision Blizzard

Vivendi and Activision have officially completed the transaction to merge both companies together. The mega publisher will be called Activision Blizzard. In addition to having World of Warcraft, the #1 subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, under its umbrella, the new company brings together some of the top franchises in gaming including Diablo, Starcraft, Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Cabela’s, Shrek and Madagascar, and companies like Blizzard, Infinity Ward, Red Octane, Raven, Nerve, VU Games, Sierra and a number of other wqholly owned development studios.

Under the terms of the agreement, Vivendi Games merged with a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision. The Board of Directors of Activision Blizzard consists of eleven members: six directors designated by Vivendi, two Activision management directors and three independent directors from Activision’s board of directors. René Pénisson, a member of the Management Board of Vivendi and Chairman of Vivendi Games, will serve as Chairman of Activision Blizzard. Brian Kelly, Co-Chairman of Activision, will serve as Co-Chairman of Activision Blizzard. The three independent directors are Richard Sarnoff, Robert J. Corti and Robert Morgado. Other Activision Blizzard directors will be Robert Kotick (President and Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard), Bruce Hack (Vice-Chairman and Chief Corporate Officer of Activision Blizzard), Jean-Bernard Lévy (Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi), Doug Morris (Member of the Management Board of Vivendi and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Universal Music Group), Philippe Capron (Member of the Management Board and Chief Financial Officer of Vivendi), and Frédéric Crépin (Senior Vice President, Head of Legal Department of Vivendi).

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NAMM Teams with RedOctane

NAMM, the trade association of the international music products industry, has chosen RedOctane to help lead the Wanna Play? public awareness campaign using Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. This is the very first time that NAMM has chosen a videogame company as a partner, so it’’s a pretty big deal. Here’’s a bit more:

NAMM will run links between its wannaplaymusic.com site, RedOctane.com, and GuitarHero.com that will users to explore the variety of ways they can get involved with playing real and virtualguitars, including programs tailored to youth, baby boomers, seniors and weekend warriors.

NAMM approved retailers will also feature in-store Guitar Hero III:Legends of Rock kiosks and sponsor local contests where players can compete to win prizes, including music instruments and music lessons.