Marking 20 years since Guitar Hero hit the market in North America, offering players everywhere the means to become rock legends. Not literally, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that someone who's nailed the epic four-minute guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Created by the developers, the game provided users with a guitar-shaped controller to follow on-screen cues moving along the screen synchronized to a song. Each riff mimicked specific notes, producing the sensation of a genuine performance.
Harmonix previously tried its hand with rhythm games before partnering with RedOctane, later acquired by Activision during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar franchise that had a significant influence on numerous of the artists featured, showcasing classic groups to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the early financial challenges of licensing the recordings – despite the fact initial releases primarily featured cover versions.
“We rerecorded every song since the cost prohibitive,” he explains. “Despite having the necessary permissions alone, it was nearly impossible. We failed to secure acts such as legendary groups – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was pretty convinced the project would flop. But once Guitar Hero became a hit, album purchases airtime increased, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “Among the remarkable aspects was how many parents got in touch and thanked us for introducing their kids to the songs they adored. It became a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Finds a New Audience
Irish group the Answer included their track in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitarist Paul Mahon recalls how the series brought classic rock to the forefront: “The game provided a larger, new demographic. Generally this had been considered outdated material, but then when it was featured on the title young people were finding it, suddenly it was cool. This validated the genre, and got rid of the outdated label. It provided all our music a new life.”
At that time, the Answer’s first record remained not available in the US, so the game served as a primary platform for exposure for the group during their US tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” Mahon says.
Major Band Spin-offs Enduring Influence
Music's biggest acts quickly took advantage of the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in dedicated spin-off titles centered around each band’s catalogue and associated stories, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was said to have made the group more money compared to their studio albums. It moved well over half a million units upon release, while demand for their songs rose of up to 40% at a time as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero continues to inspire nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – an infamously tough anthem made popular by the game – using a fan-made version, a freeware game with similar mechanics but an array of customisation options. This track is challenging even in expert mode, not to mention played at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. They stated it took nine months to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero is a fun, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, it doesn't imply you ought to use a real gun and enlist,” says musician the artist.
The band previously completed a profitable run when Through the Fire and Flames was featured on Guitar Hero III, but Li says it turned them into widely recognized. “I recall our distributors calling to tell me that we were selling albums like crazy,” he says. “It exploded on the subsequent tour, and we performed just before the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, the band's visibility via the game was so immense that it has risked overshadow all other the band has done. Last year, the track featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I thought differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “Should you just hear a single track, that's fine – everyone’s got a unique path in music and I'm pleased we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.
The Lasting Legacy from the Iconic Controller
The best marketing, be it for cars, apparel or games, goes further than selling something – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero harness this? “Precisely what we were aiming to achieve,” he confirms. “That thrill of performing as a rock star on the stage. Since the beginning, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural urge to make music, and they wanted to use technology to enable everyone to do it”.
Most of Guitar Hero games were released in just a five-year period between 2005 and 2010, including derivative titles like DJ Hero, complete with a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, corporate focus on peripherals died down, except for a brief comeback in 2015.
Titles like the fan project and newer releases have maintained the scene active, and there’s set to be a new product from the founders on the way. Recently formed developers has begun production on its debut rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome another game following Guitar Hero?
“We thought those games could be similar to sports games allowing annual releases,” Dornbrook says. “With abundant new music that it could be evergreen, thus I remain optimistic. There’s no reason for it to persist for future fans.”
