Marking 20 years after the legendary game debuted across the Atlantic, giving players everywhere the means to become a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that someone who's mastered the epic four-minute guitar solo before a packed living-room audience.
Developed by Harmonix, the game provided users with a guitar-shaped controller to follow on-screen cues moving along the screen synchronized to the music. Every sequence corresponded to specific notes, producing the feel of an authentic performance.
Harmonix previously tried its hand with rhythm games prior to teaming up with the publisher, later acquired by Activision during the mid-2000s. Together, they established the groundwork for a surprising billion-dollar franchise which made a remarkable impact for many of the artists featured, showcasing classic groups to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer from the developer, recalls the initial financial challenges in securing the recordings – despite the fact the first two games mostly used cover versions.
“We reproduced all the music because the cost prohibitive,” he explains. “Despite having the publishing rights alone, it proved nearly impossible. We couldn’t get bands like the Who – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once the game became a hit, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was the number of parents reached out expressing gratitude for introducing their kids to the music they adored. It evolved into an intergenerational phenomenon.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Irish blues-rock band one featured act included their track on the 2008 game the popular installment. Guitarist the artist recalls the way the game revived classic rock to the forefront: “Guitar Hero provided a bigger, new demographic. Generally such music was seen as music that was past it, however when it was included in the game and teenagers were finding it, suddenly it became trendy. That legitimised the genre, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the Answer’s debut album was still not available stateside, meaning Guitar Hero was a key medium for exposure for the group during their US tour opening for AC/DC. “The roadies were playing Never Too Late during travel, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” he notes.
Major Band Spin-offs Enduring Influence
Rock’s biggest acts quickly took advantage of the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in dedicated spin-off titles that focused on their music collections and related lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly to have made the group more money than any of their records. It sold more than 500,000 units in its first week, while sales of their songs rose of up to 40% at a time when the music business was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire quick-handed dedication within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality completed a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult power-metal song made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar mechanics and extensive personalization features. The song is difficult enough on the hardest setting, not to mention played at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. They stated requiring months of practice of practice.
“Guitar Hero offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, it doesn't imply you ought to pick up actual weapons and enlist,” says musician the artist.
The band had already completed a profitable run before their hit was featured in the third game, but Li says it made them a household name. “I recall the record label informing us that our selling albums rapidly,” he says. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we were playing right ahead of the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it threatened to overshadow everything else accomplishments. Recently, the song featured in a trailer for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I felt differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only hear a single track, that's fine – each person has their own path in music and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
Enduring Legacy from the Plastic Guitar
The best marketing, be it for cars, apparel or video games, goes further mere transactions – it inspires a desire. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “That’s exactly what our team trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of being a rock star on the stage. From day one, the co-founders felt that there’s an instinctive human desire to create songs, and they wanted to use technology to enable everyone to participate”.
Most installments were released in just a five-year period between 2005 and 2010, including derivative titles such as the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, aside from a short-lived revival in 2015.
Titles like the fan project and newer releases have maintained the scene active, and there’s expectations of something from the original publisher in development. Recently formed developers has begun work on their first rhythm-based title. The initial creators are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome another game following Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed those games could be like Madden allowing annual releases,” he remarks. “With abundant new music it could remain perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t persist for future fans.”
