I am actually very interested in picking up GH-whatever-iteration-we’re-up-to on sale, since that’s the only way my wife will go for it. Sorry Activision.
I was interested in picking up RB4 now that my kid is at the right age to get into it. But I couldn’t justify the price for the full band set, and even used PS3 instruments got hard to find/expensive. So I might pick up one of them once they go on clearance.
Yeah, if my DLC and Guitar were cross platform RB4 would be a no brainer since I really like RB. But either way I slice it I am out $400 bucks to either get an Xbox or rebuy all my DLC, plus the Fender replica I have is no longer available. It was just more money and hassle than RB was worth to me at this point.
Where are you guys getting “RB4 didn’t sell well”? The Mad Catz financial statements said explicitly otherwise, so I think this is being, uh, made up?
You mean the financial statements where their CEO resigned, they laid off a third of their staff, and they lost money? It sounded to me like it sold decently, but wasn’t even close to being the sort of hit they were banking on.
Yeah, if RB4 sold well, Mad Cats had a weird way of rewarding their senior staff.
Soon as the Ion Drum Kit is supported on the Xbox One, I’ll buy RB4.
Until then, no sale.
My plan is to wait about four years, pick up used guitars at Goodwill for a couple bucks, buy RB4 for $5 at Gamestop, and rock out.
I guess it’s academic at this point, but this ex-Vicarious Visions employee says he came up with the concept of Guitar Hero Live (playing in first person and facing the crowd, instead of watching the band) and he has a pitch video from 2011 to prove it. He showed his prototype to Activision higher-ups but didn’t get any credit.
The six-minute video begins with him showing his rough prototype, made in Unreal. After some technical discussion, he demos the game at work, paying particular attention to the “on-stage immersion for the player, like he’s never had before.” It’s basically a first-person view of a performer on a stage in a large and noisy concert arena.
He turns the camera on himself. “Watch this,” he says. He speaks into a mic that is connected to the demo. “How’s everybody doing tonight?” The crowd roars its approval. “The crowd reacts based on the amplitude coming through the microphone,” he says, with some pride.
Cheesy as it is, I do enjoy the first person view of the on disc content.
Agreed. I especially like when you suck out how the hippie band guy throws his hat at you.
About half (roughly 50) of the FreeStyle Games studio staff has been laid off.
Activision and FreeStyle Games leadership have been considering a range of future options for the studio, and have been consulting with staff to explore all alternatives. The collective team have now reached the end of a consultation exercise and the decision has been made to restructure FreeStyleGames to better align the studio resources with future business needs. We are working with the studio teams to explore options to rebalance staff within Activision Blizzard and its related organisations.
The UK remains a key market for Activision Blizzard and FreeStyleGames continues to be a great partner. We thank all of the team for their continued passion, creativity and commitment.
Every time this thread makes it to the front page, I think “this must be the announcement that they’re stopping the Live part of Guitar Hero Live”. But no, not yet.
I have so almost pulled the trigger on this game a good half dozen times, but then I find reasons not to - like you can’t choose the songs you want to play, or preset playlists? I don’t know, reviews don’t all say the same thing, but I’m nervous.
The developer of this game (who also did the DJ Hero games) has been picked up by Ubisoft. They are now Ubisoft Leamington, which is kind of an awesome name.
Huh, possibly folded into Rocksmith team? Are they ever gonna do a new Rocksmith? The last release was in 2014.
I still get pissed off every time I think about Activision’s involvement in every aspect of the demise of the fake plastic rock genre. No doubt it was going to die off eventually, but everything Activision touched made it worse not just for their own efforts, but hastened the end for Harmonix and the Rock Band franchise.
I actually bought this game super cheap a while back and then maybe a week later they announced their Guitar Hero TV service was shutting down so I just never played it.
I picked it up super cheap as well. The core idea was solid, but the monetization model was pretty gross if you wanted to play specific songs, and not having any faith in Activision to keep the servers running I didn’t want to get invested. Legitimately surprised they kept the lights on as long as they did.