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Analyst: Guitar Hero could get more instruments

August 01, 2007 in News comments 8

Analyst firm Janco has a funny feeling that Activision will be countering the threat of EA and Red Octane's Rock Band by introducing their own option for players to control other musical instruments outside of the guitar during gameplay. To this end, Activision may produce additional instrument peripherals for Guitar Hero.

On Rock Band specifically, Janco sees the Guitar Hero competitor creating "a compelling option for the music oriented category beginning in holiday ’07, which will pressure Guitar Hero’s growth."

"That said," says the group, "we expect Guitar Hero to follow a natural product evolution by adding additional music peripherals in CY08."

"Importantly," Janco adds, "the Guitar Hero franchise that is developed internally and owned, offers a meaningful operating margin expansion potential versus Rock Band, which is purely a distribution deal for [Electronic Arts]."
Wolfwood via gamasutra.com »
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  • 0
    King X2 Aug 1, 07
    At a first glance, I thought this would be disasterous. First of all, the game is called Guitar Hero, not Piano Hero or Drum Set Hero. Still, it looks cool.
  • 0
    Gary Aug 1, 07
    Seems a bit Oover the top to me having to buy all those peripheral just to play a game. Might not be so bad if you live with other games and can share the cost though.
  • 0
    sten mk II Aug 1, 07
    What would be the point in calling it "guitar" then?

    What would it be? Musician hero?

    I think they should just dump the "hero" name and all the cartoon characters because it's just boring.
  • -1
    Existenz Aug 2, 07
    Desperate much? I think it has finally dawned on them, that they are about to get destroyed by Rock Band.
    • 0
      JJBDude Aug 2, 07
      I don't believe this is entirely true as development of Guitar Hero 3 is going along excellently (from what I've read) however I can understand your opinion, but instead I think the guys at Red Octane are taking note and plan on implementing the pro's from Rock Band into their game, to make them hopefully superior.
  • 0
    chaos Aug 2, 07
    If it's true, I wouldn't like more instruments for Guitar Hero. I like what they've been doing. As for Guitar Hero getting destroyed by Rock Band, I doubt that will happen. Both games will be fun. I know a lot of games need to save up just to buy a $50-$60 game, let alone one that's well over $100, because everyone knows Rock Band will be expensive (but well worth the money if you have it).
  • 0
    bbb7002004 Aug 2, 07
    It depends on how many instruments you have to buy to play the game. If I can play Rock Band while only buying a Guitar, or play Guitar Hero with only buying a guitar, I think more people will go with Rock band for the online band functions. This would be an even better case if you can pick and choose which instruments to play the game with, so that someone who wants the drum set over the guitars could get just that, something Guitar Hero can't offer currently.
  • 0
    Evanster Aug 2, 07
    How about a "Flute Hero"? That would suck though.

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