'Guitar Hero' Adds Backup To Compete With 'Rock Band'
In addition, "Guitar Hero World Tour" will feature bands such as Sublime, Linkin Park, The Eagles and Van Halen. And every single song will be an original master track, said Activision Thursday in a statement. Previous versions of "Guitar Hero" included many cover tracks.
"Guitar Hero World Tour" will have a new gameplay format, in which players will attempt to match notes on the screen by pressing corresponding color-code buttons on their guitar-controllers. "Guitar Hero World Tour" will also include a music studio mode, allowing players to compose, perform and record their own music.
These new features are part of a move by Activision to pit "Guitar Hero World Tour" against rival video game "Rock Band," produced by Viacom's MTV unit and distributed by Electronic Arts.
The "Guitar Hero" series of video games has been a major contributing factor to a 72 percent stock rise for Activision over the past year, and has generated over a billion dollars in revenue for Activision, according to Reuters.
"Guitar Hero World Tour" will be released in the fall, with versions for the Nintendo Wii, the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PlayStation 3. Activision has not said how much "Guitar Hero World Tour" will cost, but "Guitar Hero 3," which included a single wireless guitar-controller, retailed for $90, and "Rock Band", which included one guitar-controller, a microphone and drum kit, retailed at $170.