Sorry folks, but all good things must come to an end, it seems. According to Destructoid, the Guitar Hero video game franchise, one of the most successful series in recent years, has been disbanded by Activision. This also means that the less-successful DJ Hero games are done, too.
This news will surely come as a disappointment to middle-schoolers, shameless sell-out bands, and bored college students everywhere.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009 11:41AM - By Krystal Clark
The DJ Hero video game is following in the footsteps of Guitar Hero, and Rockband by including genre artists from the past and the present. The one thing that will set this game apart are the mash ups between various musicians. DJ Hero will feature an astounding 100 songs on its soundtrack, and we’ve got all of them listed for you below.
Hundreds of questions popped into my head last Friday on my way to Discotheque to see one of UK’s leading pioneers of sound and performance Annie Mac. We see it much too often regardless of genre of music, whether you’re a DJ, an artist, or in a band. How does a musical entity that is big overseas translate to success in the states? How will the crowd react to music that might be huge in the UK, but isn’t here in the states? How will Annie differ from DJ’s who have achieved critical acclaim in the states? Will anyone know who she is regardless of how powerful she is overseas?
Annie Mac answered all these questions and more by being a cut above every other DJ that played that night, enticing a crowd reaction that are few and far between.
Monday, September 21, 2009 12:45PM - By Krystal Clark
If you can have a Guitar Hero why not a DJ Hero? FreeStyle games have created just that and it will be published by Activision this fall. In an extremely smart move the company decided to tap into the club hopping, DJ fan base that has gotten ignored with Guitar Hero and Rockband. A promo trailer for the game has been released and features Daft Punk reworking the classic Queen tune “We Will Rock You.” How can you not get into that?
We all know that the games Guitar Hero and Rock Band are banking it right now. Some say that these games are helping the the music industry and some say that it’s just a big pain in the ass when it comes to royalties and licensing. However, neither of those statements change the fact that musicians who lend their songs to these games are getting their name out there as little teens (and some adults) are “playing” their hearts out in a competitive manner along to these tunes.
Now, the “Hero” series is branching out with DJ Herowhere players will be able to remix songs with an easy-to-use turntable. It may be nice for the company to reach out to other genres like so many mash-up and remix artists tend to do, but do we really need another Hero game?
Activision Blizzard is releasing a total of four new music-based video games later this year. We had already guessed that DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero were on their way, but now the company has also confirmed the existence of Guitar Hero: Van Halen to videogame blog Joystiq.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen will feature some of Van Halen’s greatest hits as well as music from Queen, Weezer, Blink-182, The Offspring and Queens of the Stone Age. Also, the first screens of the DJ Hero peripheral have been revealed. It’s a turntable controller, with three buttons to press while spinning a “record”, check out the photos after the cut:
Besides the cool new Nintendo DSi video with Jamie Lidell, other music game tidbits include Guns N’ Roses latest album Chinese Democracy in its entirety on Rock Band as downloadable content on April 14, and the release of Guitar Hero: Smash Hits in June, which will be a “best of” collection of the Guitar Hero series’ most popular songs.
RedOctane, the company that publishes the Guitar Hero franchise, is tackling the Hip Hop genre next with DJ Hero, which they believe will expand the audience for music games. Co-founder Kai Huangsaid that music games are “not a fad”, and that what the company has achieved so far is just “the beginning of a huge category.”
Check out some of the announced tracks for Guitar Hero: Smash Hits after the jump:
Why the Beatles haven’t made their catalogue available online, EMI reports massive losses for the first half of 2008, DJ Hero is confirmed by Guitar Hero publisher Activision and new online music service Lala combines iTunes with social networking features. Check out the round up:
We’re in 2009, and the Beatles have yet to make their songs available on iTunes, Amazon, Zune, or any of the other major online music stores. MSNBC reports that The Beatles’ business entity, Apple Corps, has to agree to anything done by EMI, which owns the group’s recordings, and the two sides have yet to cut a deal. There is speculation as to whether the music will ever go online, but industry executives say “we have to reach fans wherever they are.” [MSNBC]
EMI Group Ltd.reported a first-half loss of $221.9 million on Friday as cost cuts failed to outweigh falling CD sales. Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd., the private-equity firm run by Guy Hands that bought EMI in 2007, is struggling to turn the company around, as reducing marketing spending and paying smaller advances to musicians isn’t enough to make up for piracy. [WSJ]
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