The Guitar Hero franchise could be considered the biggest surprise for video game success. Once releseased in the U.S. on November 8, 2005 by the publishing studio RedOctane the game was instantly met by rave reviews. http://ps2.ign.com said “Great soundtrack, great peripheral, and best rhythm game ever made. Another video game review site www.1up.com rated it a 10 out 10 stating “are scale only goes up to 10 other wise it would have got a higher review.” Guitar Hero became a surprise success, being critically acclaimed and has won many awards. The success of this first game has launched Guitar hero into a billion dollar franchise, spawning the sequels Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80’s, and finally Guitar hero 3: Legends of rock.
It all began with a game released call GuitarFreaks. A game that had not much exposure in the U.S., and hadn’t been transferred from an arcade game to a console game yet. The publishers RedOctane, at the time best known for Dance Dance Revolution, was looking to branch out to different genres. With a balance of about 1 million dollars RedOctane approached Harmonix Studios with the idea of taking their dance pad controller and making it into a functioning guitar. Kay, lead programmer for the game, said “no one had any notions about it being a massive success; we all just thought it would be fun to do."
When developing the game they concentrated on 3 major focuses for game play. The first was the note matching aspect. Using Software algorithms, they identified key notes for each difficulty. So even on easy you still feel like you’re playing the song. The second development for the game is “star power”. This gave a lot more depth for the game and replay value. The final development for the game was the whammy bar and tilting the guitar. These added to the realism of the game making it feel even more like a real guitar. The controller they developed for the game was approxmitaly a ¾ scale reproduction of Gibson SG electric guitar.
Actual Guitar
http://www.abcsounds.co.uk/gibson-electric-guitars/gibson-sg-standard.htm
Game Controller http://www.videogamecritic.net/images/ps2/guitar_hero_controller.jpg
Game play in Guitar Hero works a lot like other rhythm games. Players must hit corresponding notes with their controller at the right time to receive points and complete songs. Players have the choice of either using the Gibson SG controller or the standard ps2 controller. A rock meter follows players progress through out the song and judges if you “rock” or are a failure. Players have the choice to play with friends of solo career. Solo career gives players a chance to unlock more songs, guitars, and characters.
So that’s how it all started, a 1 million dollar investment turns into a billion dollar franchise. Guitar Hero 1 sold approximately 1.5 million copies. Once Guitar Hero 2 was released to the world there was no surprise to see it fly off store shelves. This time around, instead of just being released for Ps2, it was also released for X Box 360, PS3, and Wii. Minor adjustments were added to the game but not really needed, because the main focus of Guitar Hero 2 was just get more new songs for players to play. Instantly it was a major success and doubled the sales of its predecessor and sold 3.1 million copies. The most recent Guitar hero Game which Activision has called its largest release in history sold over 100 million USD in the first week in the United States alone.
So what is it that makes this game such a success? People are naturally drawn to this game because lets face it who doesn’t dream of being a rock star? Now you can become a rock star in little to no time right in your own house. To pick up a real guitar and rock out one of your favorite rock songs could take years to learn and most people don’t have the patients. Guitar Hero has given the chance for every one now to play many of their favorite songs taking little time to master. By identifying the key notes as they did it really does make you feel as if you were really playing the song.
Is the video game company that created this game the only one benefiting? Not by a long shot. I have noticed from personal experience after playing the game I enjoy listing to rock a lot more. When ever I here a song that has a sweet guitar in it, I’m always playing away on my air guitar now (and I’m definitely not the only one doing this). When ever listing to 93.X or any other rock station, it seems like an hour won’t go by with out you hearing something about, or a song, from any of the Guitar Hero games. This is promoting back and forth between game and radio. The game makes people want to listen to rock more, while people that already listen here about this game all the time.
Was all this planned out from the begging or mere coincidence do to the success of the game? I’m not sure if this could have been a master plan from the begging but it didn’t take long for the one the biggest companies in music to get involved with this game. After RedOctane sold the rights for the game to Activision for 100 million, Activision turned around in September, 2006 and sold it to MTV for 175 million. For all you that don’t know MTV is just a lil sibling to its massive mother empire Viacom. This is not the first deal to go down with Guitar hero and MTV. They have previously had agreements involving air time with MTV promoting the game.
What to expect from the Franchise of Guitar Hero? I think it’s safe to say this franchise might just be getting started. After MTV got its hands on the franchise the have already released an extension of the game called Rock Band. This now gives you the chance to sing, play guitar/bass, and drum, the full rock experience. Also after seeing how many more songs were on this game its clear to see MTV using its pull to get all the songs they want and not just the covers(cover bands playing a popular song) any more but the original soundtrack recordings from the actual bands. Is Viacom taking this avenue to sell a game which helps recording studios, radio stations, rock bands, businesses where game is sold, and anything else that involves rock music, because these are all things that Viacom owns? It seems like a common sense move to make money off a successful game and also get huge free advertisement.
