The codes are there

Oct 6, 2009 08:04 GMT  ·  By

Yesterday, we talked about how Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero: Van Halen, although released by the same publisher and part of the same franchise, appeared to be incompatible as far as song importing went. It seemed that the tracks from the Van Halen branded title, which was offered as a pre-order bonus for Guitar Hero 5 (a full list of the tracks can be found in our article), could not be brought over to the flagship release, thereby requiring a disk change.

Now, it appears that the knowledge related to the relation between the two videogames has changed somewhat since yesterday.

The 5frets.com site, which broke the initial story, is reporting that the 20 digit code allowing for songs to be imported seems to be there but the option is disabled at the moment and could be reactivated by Activision at a later date. Josh Straub said in an e-mail that “song importing - while not currently available - may very well become available in the future”.

Activision probably chose not to allow importing of the songs initially in order to boost sales of the Van Halen edition of Guitar Hero or to limit its resale potential. The company has offered no official information related to the issue but it might quietly introduce the option to import the tracks at a later date to placate the more vocal fans of the series who like to have most, if not all, of their favorite songs clustered in just one videogame.

The publisher is moving forward with its expansion of the Guitar Hero franchise. On the one hand, it is creating a spin off with a wider mass appeal, DJ Hero, and there's already talk of a sequel for it. On the other hand, the chain of band-themed edition of Guitar Hero might continue with one dedicated to Pearl Jam.