Marking two decades since the legendary game hit the market in North America, giving everyday gamers the opportunity to become a rock star. Figuratively speaking, but try convincing someone who's mastered Free Bird’s four-minute instrumental break in front of a packed crowd of friends.
Developed by Harmonix, Guitar Hero gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes scrolling down the display in time with the music. Every sequence corresponded to particular chords, producing the feel of an authentic live show.
Harmonix previously experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, which was acquired by Activision in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the groundwork for a surprising massively profitable franchise that had a remarkable impact on numerous of the artists featured, introducing decades-old bands to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
Michael Dornbrook, ex-chief operating officer from the developer, remembers the initial financial challenges in securing the songs – even though the first two games primarily featured cover versions.
“We reproduced all the music since the dollar figure prohibitive,” he explains. “Despite having the necessary permissions by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We failed to secure bands like legendary groups – RedOctane had virtually no money, and we were fairly certain the project would flop. But once Guitar Hero took off, and record sales airtime were going up, all artists desired to be in.”
He continues: “Among the amazing things was the number of parents got in touch and thanked us for introducing their children to the songs they loved. It became an intergenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Finds a New Audience
Irish blues-rock band one featured act included Never Too Late on the 2008 game the popular installment. Guitarist the artist recalls the way the game brought classic rock back into vogue: “The game offered a bigger, new demographic. Typically this had been considered music that was past it, however when it was featured on the game and teenagers discovered it, abruptly it became trendy. That legitimised the genre, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided all our music renewed popularity.”
In 2008, the Answer’s debut album remained unreleased stateside, meaning Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the band as they went on a North American tour opening for AC/DC. “The roadies had on Never Too Late on the tour bus, and several recognized us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Major Band Titles Enduring Impact
Music's heavyweight names quickly capitalised on the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others starring in dedicated game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly to have made the band greater revenue than any of their records. It moved well over 500,000 units upon release, while sales of Aerosmith’s music saw an increase of up to 40% at a time as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero still motivates quick-handed fanaticism within the community. Recently, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt featuring the challenging track – a notoriously difficult power-metal song made popular by Guitar Hero – using a fan-made version, a freeware game with similar gameplay and extensive personalization features. The song is challenging even in expert mode, not to mention performed at increased tempo while hitting a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed it took nine months to accomplish.
“The game offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with Call of Duty, that doesn’t mean you ought to use a real gun and enlist,” says musician the artist.
DragonForce had already completed a profitable run when their hit was featured in the third game, but Li says it made them widely recognized. “I recall the record label calling to tell me that our selling albums rapidly,” he says. “It exploded when we next toured, and we were playing just before top acts at the event.”
In fact, the band's visibility via the game proved so vast that it threatened to eclipsing everything else accomplishments. Recently, the track was used in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to a single track, that's fine – everyone’s got a unique path in music and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Impact from the Plastic Guitar
The best marketing, whether it’s for cars, apparel or games, extends beyond mere transactions – it inspires a desire. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a music icon on the stage. Since the beginning, the creators felt that there’s an instinctive human desire to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.
Most installments were released over a mere five-year period from 2005 to 2010, including spin-offs such as the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, except for a short-lived revival several years later.
Titles like the fan project and newer releases have maintained the scene alive, and there’s expectations of something from the original publisher on the way. A new studio has begun production on its debut music game. The initial creators are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world ready to embrace a new entry following the classic?
“We thought those games might become like Madden where you can releases,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant new music that it could be evergreen, thus I remain hopeful. There’s no reason for it to persist with new generations.”
