Says company man

Jun 26, 2009 22:51 GMT  ·  By

Guitar Hero is the franchise that turned music games into a genre in videogaming but Activision is not content with its performance and hopes that DJ Hero, the spin off, will attract even more people and will prove to be more mainstream.

Michael Griffith, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Activision Publishing, told GamesIndustry.biz that “It's certainly hitting a more mainstream and expanded audience from Guitar Hero. I think it will build on what Guitar Hero has been able to do. If you look at what our Guitar Hero franchise has achieved, we now have 15 million households that are active Guitar Hero users and we continue to satisfy them with more experiences and the chance to indulge in more music and gameplay.”

The idea is that people who are not interested in guitars and in band-fueled tracks will never get a Guitar Hero game, no matter what kind of music it offers to the players. The DJ Hero brand is new and does not have any baggage attached, which means that it can offer a wider array of music, from hip hop to electronic, which will draw in a larger array of potential gamers. Activision says that 300 million homes could be interested in the new game.

The publisher is hedging its best as fall will see the release of two other titles alongside DJ Hero. Guitar Hero 5 is a natural evolution of the franchise, while Van Halen is set to offer fans of the legendary rockers a chance to relive their career in videogame form. Activision is probably hoping that all of them will sell better than the previous iterations of the series.

DJ Hero, which comes bundled with one very interesting controller, should be released for the Xbox 360 from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 and the PS3 from Sony, and the Nintendo Wii on October 27.