Marking two decades after the legendary game first launched in North America, giving players everywhere the tools to feel like a rock star. Figuratively speaking, but try telling that someone who's mastered Free Bird’s lengthy guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic crowd of friends.
Created by the developers, the game gave players a guitar-shaped controller to follow on-screen cues scrolling down the display synchronized to the music. Each riff mimicked specific notes, producing the sensation of an authentic live show.
Harmonix previously tried its hand in the music genre before partnering with the publisher, which was purchased by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for a surprising massively profitable franchise which made a remarkable influence on numerous of the artists included, showcasing decades-old bands to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, remembers the early budgetary hurdles of licensing the songs – even though initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded all the music because the cost was so high,” he explains. “Despite having the necessary permissions alone, it proved nearly impossible. We failed to secure bands like legendary groups – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. However, when Guitar Hero took off, and record sales airtime increased, all artists desired to be in.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was how many mothers and fathers got in touch and thanked us for exposing their children to the music they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Northern Irish group the Answer included Never Too Late on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitarist the artist recalls how the series brought classic rock back into vogue: “Guitar Hero provided a bigger, new demographic. Typically such music was considered music that was past it, but then once it got included in the game young people discovered it, abruptly it became trendy. This validated it, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ tag. It gave our catalog renewed popularity.”
At that time, the Answer’s first record was still unreleased stateside, meaning the game was a key medium of discovery for the band as they went on US tour supporting the rock giants. “The roadies were playing Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles and Lasting Influence
Rock’s heavyweight names soon took advantage of the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized spin-off titles centered around each band’s catalogue and associated stories, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly to have made the band greater revenue than any of their records. It moved more than half a million copies in its first week, while sales of their songs rose significantly during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered fanaticism within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved a remarkable feat featuring the challenging track – an infamously tough 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 increased tempo while hitting a single one of the thousands of cues. They claimed requiring months of practice to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero offers a, imaginary experience. Just as with other games, that doesn’t mean you should use actual weapons and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
The band had already wrapped up a successful tour when their hit appeared in the third game, yet he explains it made them widely recognized. “I recall the record label calling to tell me that we were records were moving rapidly,” he shares. “Popularity surged on the subsequent tour, and we performed just before the headliners at the event.”
Indeed, the band's visibility from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it risked overshadow everything else accomplishments. Last year, the track was used in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – each person has their own path in music and I’m glad we played a role of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Legacy of a Iconic Controller
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for automobiles, apparel or games, extends beyond mere transactions – it evokes a longing. Was the game able to harness this? “Precisely what our team trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star on the stage. From day one, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games were released over a mere half-decade from 2005 to 2010, featuring derivative titles such as DJ Hero, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, aside from a brief comeback in 2015.
Titles like Clone Hero and newer releases have maintained the community alive, and there’s expectations of a new product from the original publisher on the way. A new studio has entered work on their first rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are both involved as special advisers. Are gamers prepared to welcome another game following Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed such titles could be similar to sports games where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant fresh tracks that it could be evergreen, thus I remain hopeful. It's entirely possible for it to persist with new generations.”
