Crisis averted.

Until now, the war between music game franchises has left frugal gamers with no option but to pick a side and hope for the best. Following Guitar Hero publisher Activision’s press conference, however, Chris Kohler over at Game|Life brings us good news:

At Activision’s E3 press conference Tuesday, Guitar Hero director Brian Bright told the crowd that if they already owned guitar controllers and drum controllers from “previous games” on the Xbox 360, they’d work with Guitar Hero World Tour.

As a person who owns Rock Band and all its peripherals on the 360, this makes it a lot easier to be on both sides of the music game fence. My Rock Band 2 purchase is all but sealed up, but knowing that I can get the full Guitar Hero World Tour experience without crowding my basement with even more peripherals makes it all the more enticing.

Specifics on now the RB drums will work with GH remain to be revealed, but it should be interesting, as the Guitar Hero World Tour drums require one more input than the Rock Band drums currently have. In addition, Bright did not adress PS3 or Wii compatibility. We’ll have to wait and see.

[Image and info via Wired]

Being the huge fans of the Guitar Hero series that most of us here at MEGATONik are, we’ve managed to stumble, and I do mean stumble, across the complete track listing for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. I was pretty leary about picking this edition up because I thought it would be nothing but songs done by Aerosmith, but I’m glad to report that only about 63% of the 41 songs listed below are.
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A new trailer for Guitar Hero: On Tour is out, and I have to say that it just plain sucks.

It’s not very well done and it just keeps on going, so it ends up being embarrassing for everyone involved.

I know this isn’t meant to be a serious trailer, but I don’t think it was supposed to be this bad either. They are trying to sell a game, after all. They could have went with the easiest option and just put some almost naked chicks in there somewhere, or they could have followed the Guitar Hero: World Tour approach and just showed people rocking out with a list of features, both of which would have ended up a lot better than some guy picking his DS and some dumbass singing about all the features. Especially when you have the kind of features that Guitar Hero: On Tour has.

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Here it is, the video that everyone who’s anyone has been waiting for, the debut video for Guitar Hero World Tour (also previously known as Guitar Hero IV)! The video shows players rocking out on the guitar, bass, drums and microphone, something that Rock Band aficionados will be quite familiar with. However, with the game boasting the biggest track list ever as well as the ability to create and share your own songs with other players, Rock Band might be a thing of the past!

One of my contacts at Activision (I can’t say exactly who for liability’s sake) recently leaked information as well as the possible set list for the unannounced upcoming game, Guitar Hero: Fall Out Boy. The game is set to follow the escapades of lead singer Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz and guitarist Joe Trohman as they play various locations, including such venues as emo/underground pop theater CBGB & OMFUG in New York City. Rumor has it that you’ll be able to customize the make-up that each member of the band wears at each performance, choosing just exactly how much eyeshadow Pete Wentz wears on stage. Also, you can customize the design and severity of the cuts that each band member has on their forearms! Kinky!

Like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the game will include other smash hit artists similar to the likes of Fall Out Boy, including Panic! At the Disco, Paramore, Gym Class Heroes, The All American Rejects, Linkin Park and many more!

Want to see the rumored (and probably incomplete) set list for the no doubt blockbuster hit? Hit the jump!

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IGN today revealed a lot of new info on Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS, most notably the little hunk of plastic seen above. AS you can see, the little peripheral only has four buttons as opposed to the console version’s five, but I’m sure that won’t keep die-hard GH fans from picking this one up when it’s eventually released. Strumming looks like it’s controlled on the touch screen, and with this setup I wasn’t sure if my right hand would get in the way of the top screen. I checked with my own DS. It didn’t. We’re safe.

Besides, now that I’ll be able to play Guitar Hero outside, I’ll just bring along a guitar case, lay it on the ground, and wait for the money to roll in. Plus I’m sure that the women will be all over me!

Sorry about the pic; I’m just used to articles about large sums of money being about Nintendo, but it seems like they aren’t the only ones with enough cash to pull a Scrooge McDuck. Turns out this little thing called Guitar Hero is also printing money, though I’ve been looking all over my GH3 guitar and can’t find the handy slot the bills come out of like on the DS. The NPD group, in their all knowing wisdom, is reporting that the Guitar Hero franchise has made over 1 billion dollars and this doesn’t include downloadable songs. Of course what’s a few million dollars here or there, really? Looks like Activision’s purchase of the franchise from Red Octane for 100 million dollars was a wise investment.

Does anyone else read 1 billion dollars with a Dr. Evil voice in their head?

That is right ladies and gentlemen, you will finally be able to confirm all those rumors and speculations about crazy gaming records, useless facts and zany trivia when the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition gets released on Feb. 8. Amazon has the book listed at $13.57 with the list price at 19.95, but can you really put a price on hundreds of random gamers finally getting their 15 minutes of fame? No, no you can’t.

You can flip through a few pages of the book at the Guinness Web Site and you’ll probably notice it looks pretty shiny, even if it is basically full of a whole metric ton of filler like awards for the largest Tomb Raider enemy and giving Myst the record for the “least violent action game”, a title that is both impossible to judge and strangely attributed to a game most people would say falls into the puzzle category. Still, there are two whole pages of pretty Lara Croft pictures, along with some truly impressive game records, to distract you from the fact that some of these records might not be totally up to snuff.

Along with all this Guinness is offering a chance for you (yes, you!) to be part of the longest Guitar Hero Marathon Relay ever. Hit up the Guinness site above to see details about how to participate in the fake guitar passing action on Feb. 6.

[Via Wired]

Following the recent merger, Activision Blizzard has revealed a fact sheet this morning that has announced a few working titles. Currently, the company is planning to release a new James Bond title, a new Tony Hawk title (which would make it the 11th installment), some new DreamWorks games, new Marvel titles, and a new racing title made by the recently acquired Bizarre Creations. Sequels to the two biggest multiplatform titles of the holiday season are currently in the “pipeline,” as well: Guitar Hero IV and Call of Duty 5.

Of course, the last two selections were no secret. Hell, the others weren’t as much either. The fact sheet didn’t say when all of these games are releasing, but I’m sure it’ll be within the next year as Activision loves its money.

Activision, the gaming publisher responsible for such hits as Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and Call of Duty, is now officially set to merge with Vivendi Games, publisher of such mega-hit franchises as Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo and Crash Bandicoot. The resulting company, now the world’s biggest publisher, will be called Activision Blizzard, or, as I like to think of them, the Third Reich. Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision, commented:

By combining leaders in mass-market entertainment and subscription-based online games, Activision Blizzard will be the only publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry and reach the broadest possible audiences.

By joining forces with Vivendi Games, we will become the immediate leader in the highly profitable online games business and gain a large footprint in the rapidly growing Asian markets, including China and Korea, while maintaining our leading operating performance across North America and Europe.

Does this sound like the beginning of an Axis-like companionship between Activision and Vivendi to anyone else? Are they actually planning an entire take-over of the online gaming world? I can only speculate.

Actually, this type of merger might be good for Activision. Hopefully, because they are now coupled with Blizzard’s excellent online system, Activision will learn a thing or two about how to get online ranked matches to actually work in their next update of the Guitar Hero franchise. Or will we see a MMO Guitar Hero game? Think of the possiblities!

[Via Gamesindustry.biz]