Geek Gestalt

In the newest version of the Guitar Hero franchise, Guitar Hero 5, as many as four players can all play guitar at the same time, instead of just two. Further, any combination of instruments is now possible.

(Credit: Activision Blizzard)

SAN FRANCISCO--The first couple of weeks of September are going to be a banner time for music video games. On September 9 (09/09/09), the much-anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band will hit store shelves, just eight days after Guitar Hero 5 gets its chance to rock living rooms everywhere.

With the Beatles game, it's easy to imagine long lines and huge sales figures. After all, this will be the first time that any of the recent slew of music-oriented video games will feature any Beatles songs, let alone dozens of them.

But with Guitar Hero 5 (see video below)--has so much time gone by already that there could even be five Guitar Hero releases?--one has to work just a little bit harder to envision the big bucks that its publisher, Activision Blizzard, surely is hoping to bring in.

Still, the guys at Neversoft, the game's developer, have proven time and again that they know what they're doing. The Guitar Hero franchise has produced hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue and created a dynamic in which people everywhere are now comfortable picking up and jamming away on a guitar, albeit a plastic one with buttons instead of strings.

And with that in mind, one has to give the Neversoft team the benefit of the doubt for their new game, which will be released for all the major video game platforms.

On Thursday, I stopped in at a Guitar Hero press event here and had the chance to speak with two of the executives most responsible for the new game: Brian Bright, the project director at Neversoft for Guitar Hero 5, and Tim Riley, who oversees the Guitar Hero franchise's music licensing.

Among the big-name rock stars who appear in Guitar Hero 5 as characters is Carlos Santana.

(Credit: Activision Blizzard)

One of the things I was most interested in was the rationale for a new Guitar Hero game. To be sure, game companies like Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two have a mandate to generate massive revenues, and so franchises like Guitar Hero are tried and true in that regard. But in spite of that, each new edition of a franchise game has to have something significant to offer to entice enough customers to earn its keep.

To hear Bright tell it, the best rationale for Guitar Hero--besides its 85 new songs by 83 artists--is its "Party Play" mode in which players can jump in or out of songs any time they please, all with the click of a single button.

What that means, Bright added, is that Guitar Hero 5 will offer a potentially broad new audience an entirely new level of "accessibility," in particular because in the previous versions, many people playing for the first time would have found themselves needing a little hand-holding to get started. Now, he said, that's no longer the case, and players new and old will be able to easily and quickly go right into rocking out.

Another important Guitar Hero 5 innovation, Bright said, is an "any instrument" selection that will, for the first time, allow more than two people to play guitar at the same time rather than someone in a foursome having to play drums and someone having to sing. And even if there isn't a mad rush to grab a guitar, this features means that any combination of instruments is, for the first time, possible, whether a group is playing cooperatively or competitively.

Downloadable content
Given that many players of the game's previous iteration--Guitar Hero: World Tour--likely paid to download songs, Activision is making it possible to port most of those songs to Guitar Hero 5. The company said 152 of the 158 downloadable songs from the earlier game will be compatible with the new one, though users will have to pay a "nominal re-licensing fee," the amount of which the company hasn't publicly spelled out yet.

Among the innovations in Guitar Hero 5 is the ability for Xbox players to use their Xbox Live avatars.

(Credit: Activision Blizzard)

And that means that with the 85 songs Guitar Hero 5 comes with, plus new downloadable songs, the new game's players can have set lists of potentially hundreds of songs, Bright said.

I wanted to know a little bit more about how Activision persuades musicians to allow their songs to be included in Guitar Hero, especially after learning how the Beatles were won over for the forthcoming Rock Band game.

Riley, the publisher's music licensing specialist, said that as the Guitar Hero franchise becomes better-known, he and his team have an easier time of it. In part, that's because "the larger the game gets, the more known it gets within the (music) industry (and) with the artists themselves."

And that means that Riley and his team have now had the chance to get musicians like Arctic Monkeys and Elliott Smith--whom they've never worked with before--to contribute songs to the game. Indeed, he said Guitar Hero 5 features songs from nearly 20 artists who have never allowed their music to be in a video game before.

Of course, it doesn't happen overnight. In the case of Arctic Monkeys, Riley explained, it took multiple visits with the band to show them demos and explain what the Guitar Hero franchise is all about to get permission.

One big factor, Riley added, was being able to assure artists that their music is "safe" in Guitar Hero, meaning that users won't be able to easily pirate the songs from the game.

At the same time, he explained that for a lot of musicians, games like this are now seen as an attractive way to get their music in front of large audiences, particularly because the record industry is becoming more and more notorious for doing a poor job of helping distribute new music.

"Just by having a song in the game," Riley said, "kids become familiar with the song, or the artist, and will go out and buy (it) or go out and purchase more music from that artist."

The appearance by Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at the Microsoft Xbox E3 press briefing on Monday caught the world by surprise, and turned into a perfect way to formally introduce 'Beatles: Rock Band.'

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

LOS ANGELES--If you were among the thousands of people at Microsoft's E3 press briefing on Monday, it's a pretty sure bet that the appearance on-stage there of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Yoko Ono was one of the most unexpected things imaginable.

But if you think about it, the very existence of the game that led to their showing up during the Xbox press briefing, Harmonix and MTV Games' "Beatles: Rock Band," is even more surprising. After all, the Beatles have, over the years, maintained a stranglehold over control of their music. For example the Beatles are still the holy grail that iTunes has not yet been able to corral.

The game will be released on September 9 (09.09.09) on the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3, and the Wii.

So how did the game come to pass?

Since the two remaining Beatles weren't able to come to the phone for this article, I decided to stop by the Harmonix booth at E3 and ask the game's lead designer, Chris Foster, for the skinny behind what has got to be one of the biggest coups in video gaming history.

Foster said the story begins a couple of years ago, when MTV President Van Toffler ran into Dhani Harrison, son of the late Beatles guitarist George Harrison, in some random social setting.

"It was just sort of through happenstance," Foster said. "Dhani was a big 'Rock Band' fan, and there was this sort of, 'Wouldn't it be nice if...but it'll never happen.'"

Beatles RockBand rocks E3

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But being a "Rock Band" fan, Dhani Harrison took his idea to Harmonix CEO and co-founder Alex Rigopulos and began a conversation about what a Beatles version of "Rock Band" could be. Foster said that the idea seemed like a huge challenge, but, deciding to pursue it, Harrison began evangelizing the idea to Apple Corps, the Beatles' U.K. publisher, and its shareholders, particularly McCartney, Starr, and Ono.

"So then, from that point, it was just sort of getting them familiar with ('Rock Band')," Foster said, "and getting them understanding what the game could be like."

By now, the discussions were far enough along that Harmonix put together a simple demo of the kind of music and conceptual art that could be used in the game, Foster said.

And, amazingly, inexplicably, it worked.

Creative partners
"At that point," Foster recalled, things "moved to (the Beatles) being creative partners" in the project. One of the most vital things to happen at that point was the introduction of music producer Giles Martin to the "Rock Band" project. Martin, the son of the Beatles' original producer, George Martin, helped Cirque du Soleil put together its Beatles show, "Love."

That was crucial, Foster said, because Martin was able to help solve one of the most important problems any Beatles "Rock Band" game would have, adding multitrack capabilities.

"We needed multitrack," Foster said, "because in 'Rock Band,' (players) need to get (individual) feedback about whether they're playing well or not. So with all those pieces in place, we were able to do a demo of what the music (in the game) would be like."

As things progressed, the developers knew that to make the game feel authentic, they'd have to offer players real Beatles venues to play in. So they worked to add famous Beatles locations like Liverpool's famous Cavern Club, the Ed Sullivan theater, Shea Stadium, the Budokan in Tokyo, and the rooftop at Apple Corps.

Then, Foster said, the development team came up with the idea for adding psychedelic dreamscape visions to the game. The game's trailer (see below) does a great job of demonstrating that element, as do some of the best pieces of Cirque du Soleil's "Love."

'We respected them and their music'
To Foster, the chief reason that the improbable game ever came together at all is that "they liked that we respected them and respected their music. I don't want to put words in their mouths, but what was important to us was that we respected them."

That's one reason that the development team made sure to include venues where the Beatles had actually played famous shows. "We weren't shoving them into live venues that didn't make sense," he said.

Another important factor was the developers' adding the ability to include vocal harmonies as part of game play.

"Their music is so much about harmonies," he said. Adding vocal harmonies was something that had never been done in "Rock Band" before, but it was considered vital to accurately representing the Beatles' music in the game.

And that also presented the developers with a hurdle they had to clear.

"The challenge (was) making it so vocal harmonies were fun and challenging, but really accessible, and finding a way to put that in the game, without overwhelming" players, Foster said. "(We didn't want to make them) feel like they failed to sing like the Beatles."

Foster acknowledged that contracting with the Beatles was a huge win for Harmonix, especially when it's been clear for some time that "lots of people were thinking about doing it."

The game is already being anxiously awaited by players, developers, and industry executives alike, and for both game play and business reasons.

"Clearly, (the Beatles) saw an opportunity of reintroducing their music to the current music-loving consumer and it makes perfect sense for them as they try and manage their brand," said Nintendo President and COO Reggie Fils-Aime. "So I think it makes a lot of sense and, candidly, what the music industry is finding is that the games industry is a great way to drive music sales."

And for Microsoft, having McCartney, Starr, and Ono take the stage at the Xbox press briefing at the University of Southern California's Galen Center was a gigantic victory. A Microsoft spokesperson said that the appearance came about because the company is always talking to its publisher partners, including, in this case, MTV Games. And that as "Beatles: Rock Band" progressed, the Beatles decided that the Xbox press briefing would be a very appropriate place to announce the game.

Note to Sony and Nintendo: Work harder at finessing those publisher partner contacts, and next time, maybe the stars will pick your E3 briefing.

To Foster, a big part of what makes the game seem authentic was that the designers concentrated on "telling the Beatles' story" but still finding a way to do so in the context of a "Rock Band" game that fans of both the band and the game franchise would appreciate and recognize. And also because the game will appeal to even the youngest Beatles fans.

He explained that the Harmonix team liked the idea of bringing new, younger audiences to the Beatles for the first time. But reality soon disabused them of that notion.

"The (Beatles') music is like the air we breathe," Foster said, "and it catches every generation...It's sort of presumptuous to think you can introduce the Beatles to anyone."

Shares of video game giant Electronic Arts were down 3.27 percent in after-hours trading in the wake of the company's worse than expected first quarter.

On Tuesday, EA reported that it had lost $95 million, or 30 cents a share, during Q1 on net revenues of $804 million. During the same period a year ago, it lost $132 million, or $0.42 a share, on net revenues of $395 million.

The company's adjusted losses came out to 42 cents a share in Q1. Thomson Financial's poll of analysts had predicted the company would post adjusted losses of $0.33 a share, according to the Associated Press.

Still, EA's sales were up more than 100 percent over a year ago, thanks in large part to the success of such titles as Rock Band and the launch of Battlefield: Bad Company and Mass Effect.

And the company's fortunes should be boosted in the next quarter by the expected September 7 launch of the much-anticipated Spore, from its Emeryville, Calif.-based Maxis studio.

Among the dominant trends at E3 in Los Angeles this week were music games. Everywhere you looked, publishers were announcing new ones, and players were rocking out to them.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

As planes packed with video game industry people start heading out of Los Angeles in droves after this week's E3 convention, the question is, What really transpired during the confab?

If one thing was clear, it was that the industry largely played it safe this week. Sure, there were a few big announcements--perhaps led by Microsoft's announcement of its planned revamping of the Xbox Live architecture--but for the most part, this was a pretty uneventful E3, an unsurprising reality given that we're a couple of years into the "next-generation" of consoles already and the fact that all the expected big games for the year have long since been announced and previewed and tested and showcased.

There were, of course, some themes that dominated the show, and for anyone who's been paying attention to the industry the last year or so, they shouldn't be surprising.

First, music games are taking off in a very big way. This is hardly shocking, given that Activision's Guitar Hero franchise and its first cousin, Harmonix's Rock Band, have brought in many, many millions of dollars in sales and have turned the industry on its ear.

Now, Activision has a new version of Guitar Hero coming out called Guitar Hero: World Tour, for the Xbox and Sony's PlayStation 3. Among its innovations will be an entirely new guitar controller as well as a drum kit and, more interestingly, a system called Tunes which will allow anyone using the game to create their own all-new music and then upload it to a network where other users can listen to it and rate it. The upshot of this is that there are almost certainly going to be future rock stars emerging from the Tunes community, much the way that some stars have come out of the YouTube world.

Brian Bright of 'Guitar Hero' developer Neversoft demonstrates the Music Studio element of 'Guitar Hero: World Tour' during the Activision press conference Tuesday evening. This is the part of the game that will allow players to create their own music and share it online through what is called the Tunes system.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

But Activision wasn't the only one riding the music wave. Nintendo, too, has jumped on the bandwagon and announced at its press conference on Tuesday that it will be releasing a game called Wii Music that will have some of the same elements of the next Guitar Hero, including the ability to create and share new music. And with the Wii's huge popularity, I think it's safe to say that Wii Music will be a gigantic hit, especially because it's the kind of far-reaching game that will appeal to core gamers and non-gamers alike.

And Rock Band was able to make some waves of its own with announcements of the set list for the forthcoming Rock Band 2, which will include tracks from AC/DC, Bob Dylan, Guns n' Roses and more.

'Resident Evil 5'

Another obvious trend was the emergence of cooperative, or "co-op" play in many games being showcased at E3. Such games included the next Call of Duty,MAG for the PS3, Resident Evil 5, Fable II. As my colleague Dan Ackerman wrote on Crave, "This year's big (E3) buzzword is 'cooperative gameplay'--meaning gamers play together, but are collaborating, rather than competing, to complete the game's goals. This often happens online, where gamers connect via Xbox Live or the PlayStation Network from remote locations."

This is an important trend because it ties gamers together, no matter where they are, making the experience more meaningful for being less of a solo thing. And this, clearly, is the promise of connected play on systems like Xbox Live and, the PlayStation Network.

And it is becoming increasingly obvious that these kinds of innovations are crucial for the industry, especially as Nintendo has proved that it has opened up video gaming to entirely new markets with its Wii.

That success has a clear ripple effect, perhaps best seen in the revamping of Xbox Live, which Microsoft announced Monday morning at the first major press conference of the week.

Xbox Live will feature an entirely new look and feel starting this fall. It will have an avatar motif that reminds many of what Nintendo has done with its hit console, the Wii.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

With the introduction of an avatar-based interface for the new Xbox Live, it was obvious that Microsoft has decided that the mainstream appeal of the Wii is something it wants a part of. Microsoft says that it isn't trying to copy anyone else, and that it is just trying to open up its system to the broadest possible market of consumers. But to anyone watching the industry, it is evident that the Wii was on the minds of the designers of this new architecture. As one commenter on my Xbox press conference story put it, Microsoft's announcement could easily have been called "Mii too," in reference to the Wii avatar system.

Sony, while having the least newsy--at least from this corner--of the week's major press conferences, did still grab a few headlines.

Among those headlines was the announcement--without any promised release date--of God of War III, the follow-up to a very popular franchise; and it also announced that it was going to start offering its 80GB PS3 for $400.

Although it did not announce a publication date, Sony said 'God of War III' would be coming to the PS3.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

For its part, Electronic Arts gave the first glimpse of The Sims 3, the next major iteration of its monstrously-popular franchise. It also unveiled a new system in its next NBA game, NBA Live '09, called "Dynamic DNA," which will incorporate real-life stats on a daily basis in the game. The idea here is that players can see their playing experience change day to day, improving or regressing during the NBA season as the real players go through their year. Those changes will be reflected in the video game in how the digital point guards and power forwards perform on-screen depending on what happens on courts around the country.

But with all that news, there's no question that E3 was really kind of quiet and conservative this year. As I mentioned above, this wasn't a big surprise, but it did make the experience of walking through the halls of the Los Angeles Convention Center feel kind of flat and lacking energy.

This actually is kind of a relief after years at the convention center where being there was completely draining. But if anyone expected to come to Los Angeles this week and have their socks knocked off by the industry's giants, they most certainly did not get what they came for.

One hundred fifteen million dollars.

That was how much revenue Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock brought in in its first week on the market recently.

But the Guitar Hero franchise, which Activision bought in 2006, has lost its monopoly as the only major video game giving users the fantasy that they can join Steven Tyler or Bono onstage.

'Rock Band' includes dozens of hit songs, including one by the Rolling Stones.

(Credit: Amazon)

That's because Harmonix, the studio that developed the original Guitar Hero, has finally launched Rock Band, its own version of the rock star genre game, and the market is likely to heat up pretty quickly.

Many Guitar Hero fans still consider Harmonix--which is owned by MTV--the real deal, and so many of them are likely to eschew the new Guitar Hero in favor of Rock Band. Others will choose both games, and I can imagine dueling Guitar Hero, Rock Band competitions in bars, at parties, and even on TV.

Well, maybe not on TV.

It will be very interesting to see if Rock Band can come anywhere near the first-week sales figures of Guitar Hero III. My guess is it won't get there, only because of the name-brand recognition of the latter. But I'm willing to be surprised. There's definitely something to be said for true bloodlines, which is what Rock Band and Harmonix have going for them, even if they doesn't have the hit name anymore.

Either way, competition is good, and the end result is likely to be stronger versions of the games when both Activision and MTV issue the next iterations of their dueling titles.

Stand back. It's going to be guitar battles to the death.

If you're one of the millions of people who have shed your dignity to rock out to Guitar Hero and you've been waiting to find out what songs would be included in Harmonix Music System's forthcoming Rock Band, wait no more. I've got you covered.

(Credit: Amazon)

We're talking dozens of hit songs here, and mostly not the sound-alike covers included in many of these kinds of games.

The track list starts with the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter, continues on with David Bowie's Suffragette City, the Clash's Should I Stay or Should I Go, Metallica's Enter Sandman, R.E.M.'s Orange Crush, Radiohead's Creep, and many others.

All told, the game will include 58 songs, most of which are the original versions.

Rock Band is slated for release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on November 20, and for PlayStation 2 on December 18. And with Guitar Hero III just now hitting the market, be prepared for bars all over the world to be taken over by a new round of head-banging air guitarists whaling away on OK Go's Here it Goes Again.

God help us.