E3 2008: Guitar Hero: World Tour Compatible with Rock Band Instruments
By Stephany on Thursday, July 17th, 2008 at 8:16 AM PST In Activision, E3 2008, Gamer Life, Games, Microsoft
No, I am not lying, I am not being sensational, this is what was told to MTV Multiplayer. I have been sitting on this news since yesterday and I cannot take it anymore, because I don’t know whether to be excited or a bit pissed off about it.
Stephen Totilo was at Activision’s unofficial E3 press conference Tuesday evening and like everyone else there he heard that Guitar Hero: World Tour would be compatible with non-GH instruments. Ok, so that piqued his interest enough that he sought out some clarification from two Activision reps that were standing by.
By the gaming gods, these wonderful Activision representatives confirmed that “the age of cross-game instrument incompatibility is nearing its end”, and supposedly the Xbox 360 version of GH: World Tour will be compatible with instruments from the first Rock Band. No tests have been made for Rock Band 2 due to the fact that neither game has come out yet, but other third-party drum sets will work with GHWT as well.
Here is where I get a bit annoyed. Activision will not comment on whether this compatibility applies to Wii, PS2 and PS3 versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but at the same time another rep told Stephen that “a recent auto-downloaded title update to the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith should make that game compatible with non-GH guitars, including the Rock Band ones.”
Great news, hip hip hooray, right? Maybe. Here is the rub – the new instruments for GHWT and RB2 are a step above what was released before. Granted, if you can afford, or have the space for all these peripherals, great. I just think is almost a little too late, and they should have done this not long after Activision took over the GH franchise. I know that both companies are in the business of making money, but if the peripherals were to be compatible with both games they would sell more games in the long run. The way to make theirs stand out from the other would be with the instruments themselves. They would all still work, but each would have something that would appeal differently to different people, and that is where their “war” should lie.
The thing that is really pissing me off about this is that so far it is just for the Xbox 360. No comment about the other versions hopefully means that they are currently working on how to do this. They better hurry if they plan to release GHWT in September. The main reason I am pissed, and if think I am silly, fine I feel the way I feel and that is that – I had planned on getting both games for the PS3 in the Fall. My huge purchase was going to be a PS3 and GHWT, and later getting RB2 and just the stand alone game for the original Rock Band. Now, I have to get one for the Xbox 360 and one for the PS3 and here is my dilemma. If I get them for Xbox 360, and RB2 for the PS3, I can’t play all my RB1 stuff. Therefore I would have to get them all for the PS3 and spend a fortune on the peripherals. Honestly, I am more pissed because it is making my head hurt more than anything trying to think about how to go about this. The only saving grace for me getting the Xbox 360 version is that all the GHIII content will work as well, and that is the version of that game I have – so, I suppose it is just best to buy the Xbox 360 versions anyway in the long run, but I have issues with XBL that I will go into at another time.
It is great news for some gamers, and not for others. I guess we will see how things develop, but in the meantime, I am just going to go sit in my corner and sulk until I figure out what I am going to do. I have been so slammed with E3 stuff that I cannot even remember my phone number let alone how to think properly.
Don’t worry, Stephany. I’m sure both devs will be allowed to patch/code specific console versions to make things hunky-dory. Otherwise, Activision is just blowing a bunch of hot air right now.
I’d say the status quo is more attributed by the influence of Microsoft. They are by far the more strict of the three to how perhipherals work with their console. Believe it or not, this strict adherence is what keeps devs from having controller wars within the confines of their hardware.
We saw this sort of thing when Rock Band came out. The GH2 & GH3 360 controllers worked instantly with Rock Band. Later, we were told by Harmonix that a patch could allow the PS3 such compatability, but Activision decided otherwise. So, realistically, it all comes down to effort. It helps that each side is aware of each other this time around.
I just wouldn’t hold my breathe that the instruments will be cross platform compatible. Especially since 360 controllers are pretty much locked down (via hardware) to only working with the 360.