We’ve seen hints that Aerosmith was making their tracks exclusive to Guitar Hero (what with them getting their very own game and all), but some digging by Newsweek has now confirmed it as fact. According to Aerosmith’s publicist and Activision’s VP of music affairs, Aerosmith is signed exclusively to Guitar Hero for an unknown amount of time. Bottom line: don’t expect to see any more Aerosmith tracks for Rock Band or any other rhythm games for awhile. There’s still a lot of speculation though that Harmonix may have similar deals worked out with other bands, but has been hesitant to reveal which ones. All I know is that in either franchise, Aerosmith songs are usually the more difficult and therefore frustrating to play; so this deal makes very little difference to me.

Via Level Up

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Industry analyst Janco predicted it back in August and now an interview with Activison CEO Bobby Lotick over on Conde Nast Portfolio, confirms that new additions to the Guitar Hero franchise will indeed include additional instruments.

“It’s not just about guitars. We’ll include a lot of other instruments, vocals.”

Kotick also commented that the merger with Vivendi will benefit the GH franchise by it having access to the Universal Music Group’s library thus broadening the game’s appeal. Cool, maybe this means we will finally see some Godsmack in the near future - say what you will about them, it would be fun to play “Keep Away” and “Alive”. Just think, if vocals were added you could try and mimic Sully’s trademark scream.

According to Kotick:

“The artist’s relevance and importance to 17-year olds change in a way that you could never get in any other medium. Forty per cent of [Guitar Hero] users are women. The age appeal is something we’ve never seen before: 7 year-olds who have no idea who Aerosmith is are playing the band’s music on Guitar Hero. So are 45-year olds who spent a good portion of their lives following the band around.”

I can actually agree with those numbers because the majority of my female friends, which are not gamers at all, love to play Guitar Hero. Heck, my Mom even likes to play the game and she is lucky to be able to surf the internet and check her email. Sorry Mom.

Via: GamesIndustry.biz

Activision has unveiled the new bundles for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith that are now available for pre-order. Each bundle will come packaged with a guitar controller, an exclusive Aerosmith faceplate, an Aerosmith tour book, and the game itself. Prices will be as follows:

$99 for Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii

$89 for PlayStation 2 wireless

$109 for the two-guitar (wired) PlayStation 2 bundle which includes both a black and silver guitar.

I guess this is for all those people who still haven’t bought any Guitar Hero game or Rock Band. Either that or it’s for all the die-hard Aerosmith fans that would gladly take a bullet for Steven Tyler. 

You can go to the official site for a list of participating retailers and to pplace your pre-order.

Prepare to feast your eyes on the latest attempt by Activision to overexpose their top franchise into oblivion. A new trailer for the upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has showing the whole group in action on stage. Really it doesn’t show anything new here, except that the songs “Sweet Emotion” and “Walk This Way” will probably be part of the track list (which anyone remotely familiar with Aerosmith could have guessed). Personally, I still think this is a terrible idea unless they get a good variety of “guest artists” on there as well, which has yet to be determined.

When we heard the news regarding the Aerosmith addition to the Guitar Hero franchise back in February we were all a bit skeptical about how well a “band specific” game would fare. Then, we got word that there would be other bands included in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith that have inspired the band, or would be “opening acts” for the band in the game.Today, news has reached our ears that some of the other acts included in the game would be the following artsists:

• Mott the Hoople - “All the Young Dudes”
• The Kinks - “All Day and All Night”
• Joan Jett - “Hate Myself for Loving You”
• Cheap Trick - “Dream Police”

What is up with the crappy Cheap Trick songs? They have released much better songs than “Dream Police”, and “Surrender” and if you have ever been to one of their shows you would know this. What about “I Want You to Want Me”? That is their biggest hit.

Now, as far as Joan Jett goes, I understand that “I Hate Myself for Loving You” was probably her biggest hit since “I Love Rock N Roll”, but “Do Ya Wanna Touch” rocks harder, is less cheesey, and just all around more fun.

As far as the Kinks and Mott the Hoople are concerned: Ray Davies is very cool and can certainly hold his liquor as a friend of mine and I can attest, and Mott the Hoople owes everything they have to David Bowie who wrote ” All the Young Dudes” and ex-member Ian Hunter who is one helluva song writer and musician.

I guess we will have to see which other bands will be included in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, but so far it is looking to be a giant snooze fest. Which of these songs are actually considered “rocking” I ask you?

Thanks: Videogaming247

Do you think that the upcoming Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will feature only songs from the classic rock group? It makes sense, but rumor is suggesting that they may be joined by a few others. The pre-order page for the game at Best Buy’s website says you’ll be able “jam to many of Aerosmith’s greatest hits, as well as songs by other popular artists that the band has performed with or been inspired by in some way” Besides that, an article in USA Today mentions that “some opening acts will appear in the game, as well as some special guests.” All this seems to suggest that the game may include tracks from bands that Aerosmith has played with in the past (*cough* Run DMC *cough*) or just happens to appreciate. Nothing official has been announced yet, but I doubt Activision would really put all its eggs in one basket with this one. Hopefully we’ll find out more as the game’s June release date gets closer.

I don’t really know how I feel about this game yet. The sheer variety of songs has been my favorite thing about past Guitar Hero games, as well as RockBand; so toning that down doesn’t sound very appealing. Plus, in all of those titles, Aerosmith represents a virtual brick wall to me. Sure, Metallica and Slayer give me some trouble, but I’ll be damned if I can pull of an Aerosmith song with more than a bare minimum score. Curse you, Steve Perry, and your awesome skills!

Remember last week when we mentioned that Activision would be releasing two new Guitar Hero titles as well as their plans for Guitar Hero IV? Today we got word that one of the titles will be hitting stores sooner than we thought, and it is not something you would expect. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be the new title, and lead guitarist Joe Perry kind of let the cat out of the bag last Summer when he mentioned a GH tribute during an interview. Of course, we were unsure if this was confirmed or just Joe talking nonsense about Activision dedicating a game solely to his band, but the proof of this rumor came today via a press release from Activision.

In celebration of this monumental occasion, Activision will be offering free DLC February 16-18 on XBL and PSN. What is this free DLC? Why Aerosmith’s huge hit “Dream On” for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. I suppose after the 18th it will cost you, so you better log on today and get it free while you can, because to be honest with you, I could think of other Aerosmith songs I would rather spend my Microsoft Points on than this one.

This latest installment from the franchise puts players in the shoes of Perry (lead-guitar), Brad Whitford (rhythm-guitar) and Tom Hamilton (bass), as they rock out alongside frontman Steven Tyler and drummer Joey Kramer. Gamers will get to experience Aerosmith’s Grammy winning career, from their first gig to becoming rock royalty. I take it then that you will start out in a garage in Boston and eventually move into football stadium sized venues - at least that is the impression I got from the press release, so don’t take my word on that one. You will however be able to see all members of the band do their signature moves on the screen.

This is what Steven and Joe had to say about being immortalized once more in a video game, although this time around, in Guitar Hero fashion:

“Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor 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.”

While for Aerosmith fans this is great news, and for the bands sake, I hope it sells well for them. It makes you wonder - if this does indeed sell well, will other band exclusive GH titles be released in the future? My “dream” band exclusive GH title would be Led Zeppelin - and with Jimmy Page being the money grubbing pagan that he is, one would think he would sell his soul to become immortalized once more for fans. Wait, I forgot, Satan already has dibs on his soul. Regardless, if he would sell out “Kashmir” to P. Diddy and “Rock n Roll” to Cadillac then why not Activision and Red Octane?

The actual release date for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be June 30th and pre-orders are being taken now. The set list has not been released yet, so check back often for updates. You can read the full press release after the break.

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