Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Announced For June
By Shaun Hatton - February 15th, 2008
We thought they couldn’t possibly get uglier. We were wrong.
Well, we all knew this was coming when it was slipped that the makers of Guitar Hero were working with Aerosmith. But now, it’s official. Yes, that’s correct, you’ll be able to shred to some of Aerosmith’s best (and very likely worst) tracks in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which is set to release in June. We’re looking forward to seeing whether they include “Lick and a Promise.”
This, however, isn’t the first time the band’s been featured in a game. Remember Revolution X (you might have wanted to forget about it)? This will probably be a lot more fun. Never a band with much humility, the members of Aerosmith have commented on having their own Guitar Hero game.
“Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honour and really a great experience for us,” says Joe Perry. “We’ve put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band’s history.”
Steven Tyler says, “Any band that can go from ‘Don’t Want to Miss A Thing’ to the ass-kicking ‘Sweet Emotion’ to the cheekiness of ‘Love in an Elevator,’ to the classic ballad ‘Dream On’ shows why Activision chose us to headline this game based on the diversity of the Aerosmith catalog. Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies.”
Perry adds, “On a larger scale, it’s cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It’s great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats–and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It’s what’s happening now, and it’s only going to build more momentum in the future. It’s a massive change for the music business.”
The game’s being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Vicarious Visions is developing the Wii version, while the PlayStation 2 version is being developed by Budcat.
Bonus: In celebration of this news, players of Guitar Hero III will be able to download Aerosmith’s “Dream On” from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and from the PlayStation Store absolutely free from February 16 - 18.
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9 responses so far:I like how the first song he mentions is “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” and THEN “Sweet Emotion” as if that was the order in which they were written.
I’m actually hoping for “Pandora’s Box” to be included. Or at least “Home Tonight,” one of the greatest songs in the Tour Trauma genre.
Considering Guitar Hero games generally have a TONNE of tracks, I’m sure those will be in there. If not, they’ll probably offer them as downloadable tracks.
Perry’s right, as cocky as he is. This is a HUGE shift for the music business.
as long as it comes out on PS2….i’ll git it
I’d much prefer this to be DLC where you can pick and choose the tracks you want. The music industry gave us this with iTunes (buying individual tracks), so the music/rythm genre looks like they are going back in time.
Will this game come with more than 33 of the tracks that *you* like? ($60 game @ $5.50 per 3 song pack)
I can’t wait to play the song from Armageddon!
We’ll only let you play the Armaggeddon song if you let us act out the part in the movie with the animal crackers.
Adam - It reminds me of something that came up in last week’s discussion. If we consider the fact that Guitar Hero is very much a shelf/store display presence, it makes sense for them to release it in its own package. When products sit on store shelves for a while without some sort of package redesign, frequent shoppers are likely to become blind to them. Whereas if they see something new, they’re more inclined to pay attention.
That said, the ideal way to go would be to sell this game in-stores, but also offer all the songs as DLC.
As a GH Wii owner, I’d really rather their efforts spent on getting me the songs from GH 1 & 2 before they start getting into Greatest Hits packages by specific bands. It’s probably best i don’t hold my breath.
Oh well.. I guess that’s what i get for coming late to the party, and not bringing a hard drive.
I hear ya, Kirk. It would be great if they offered the entire two previous games as downloads. Considering part one was only on the PS2, there are a lot of folks (though admittedly not many, as the PS2 sold and still sells like mad) that haven’t had the chance to get it.
Anyhow, am I the only one confused by Steven Tyler’s comment that, “Not only is songwriting a bitch, but then it goes and has puppies?”
Seriously, dude… What?
Haha, yeah, that bit made me laugh. Probably because I’ve read several Aerosmith articles and interviews over the years and Tyler always has some bizarre or arcane quip to share.