Guitar Hero: World Tour is not out yet and Activision Blizzard is still thinking of new things that can get the valuable Hero tag. It's pretty much sure that, in 2009, a Metallica themed Guitar Hero will make  an appearance and the company also says that it plans to release more games in 2009 and 2010, with seven teams now working on the franchise, which at the moment is one of the most important sources of revenue for Activision.

Kotaku seems to have uncovered signs that a new spin will be put on the franchise, with Activision Blizzard registering a trademark for Dance Hero with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This could indicate that they plan to make such a game, which will probably focus on dancing as the main game mechanic, or that the company is interested in not having anyone using a name which is so close to one of its core franchises.

The trademark is related to “computer game software and related instruction manual sold together as a unit; interactive video game programs; computer game cartridges; computer game cassettes; computer game discs; downloadable computer game software; video game controllers; interactive video game comprised of a cartridge or DVD sold as a unit with a video game controller”.

DJ Hero is another trademark the company owns which apparently is really being developed into a game, so it’s interesting to see that Activision is not only registering to prevent competition from using the name but even if a project is in development, the game will only make an appearance towards the end of 2009 or in 2010 at the earliest.

The game would most likely resemble Dance Dance Revolution or Pump It Up. I wonder how long it will take Harmonix to create their own dancing game.