It has been two decades after Guitar Hero hit the market across the Atlantic, giving everyday gamers the opportunity to feel like rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that someone who's mastered the epic four-minute instrumental break in front of an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Developed by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a guitar-shaped controller to match on-screen cues moving along the display in time with the music. Each riff corresponded to particular chords, creating the sensation of a genuine live show.
The studio had already experimented in the music genre before partnering with RedOctane, which was acquired by Activision during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for a surprising massively profitable franchise that had a remarkable impact for many musicians included, introducing classic bands to millions of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, remembers the initial budgetary hurdles of licensing the songs – despite the fact initial releases mostly used cover versions.
“We reproduced every song since the dollar figure prohibitive,” he says. “Even with the necessary permissions alone, it proved extremely difficult. We couldn’t get acts such as the Who – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once Guitar Hero became a hit, album purchases airtime were going up, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was the number of parents reached out and thanked us for introducing their children to the music they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational phenomenon.”
Classic Rock Finds a New Audience
Northern Irish blues-rock band the Answer had their track in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitarist Paul Mahon remembers the way the game revived classic rock to the forefront: “The game offered a larger, new demographic. Generally this had been seen as music that was past it, but then once it got included in the game and teenagers discovered it, abruptly it was cool. This validated it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It gave our catalog renewed popularity.”
In 2008, the band's debut album was still unreleased in the US, so Guitar Hero was a key medium of discovery for the group during their US tour supporting the rock giants. “Their crew had on Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” Mahon says.
Rock’s Heavyweight Spin-offs Enduring Influence
Rock’s heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others starring in specialized game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and related stories, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, it was said to have made the group more money than any of their studio albums. It moved more than half a million copies in its first week, while sales of Aerosmith’s music saw an increase of up to 40% during an era when the music business was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered fanaticism within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – a notoriously difficult power-metal song made popular by the game – using a fan-made version, a no-cost alternative with similar gameplay and extensive customisation options. The song is challenging enough on expert mode, not to mention played at increased tempo and without missing a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed requiring months of practice of practice.
“The game offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, it doesn't imply you should pick up actual weapons and go to war,” notes musician the artist.
DragonForce previously completed a profitable run before their hit was featured in the third game, but Li says it turned them into a household name. “I remember the record label calling to tell me that our records were moving rapidly,” he says. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of the headliners at the event.”
Indeed, the band's visibility from Guitar Hero was so immense that it threatened to overshadow all other the band has done. Recently, the track featured in a trailer for a major film. “In the past I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – everyone’s got their own path in music and I'm pleased we played a role in fans' experiences”.
The Lasting Legacy of a Plastic Guitar
Top-tier promotion, be it for cars, clothes or video games, goes further mere transactions – it inspires a longing. Was the game able to tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star on the stage. From day one, the creators felt that humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
Most installments were released over a mere half-decade between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles like the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and Band Hero. After that, corporate focus on peripherals waned, aside from a brief comeback in 2015.
Titles like Clone Hero and newer releases have kept the scene active, and there’s set to be something from the original publisher in development. A new studio has entered production on its debut rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are participating in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome another game following Guitar Hero?
“We thought those games might become like Madden where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music that it could be perennially popular, so I’ve always been optimistic. There’s no reason why it can’t persist with new generations.”
