14 DAY TRIAL // It's all too well known that Neversoft took over the Guitar Hero franchise (launching the third installment of the series), leaving Activision and Harmonix to battle it out in the music game genre. No biggy, but when one of them starts trash-talking the other, boasting originality issues... things tend to become complicated and confusing for the poor gamer too.
Activision notes over 200,000 sales of the controversial Guitar Hero 2 downloadable song packs for the Xbox 360, in an interview posted by Gamasutra, saying that gamers have an "insatiable appetite for songs." However, when the developer was faced with answering the question to how Guitar Hero 3 presents them with competition, Activision said that Guitar Hero "has attracted imitators."
Is Activision implying that Rock Band is not an original concept? Wait a minute here... OK, I don't have the memory of an elephant, but I was absolutely sure that Harmonix were those who came up with the Guitar Hero concept, and also originally riffed off Konami's Guitar Freaks series, as 1UP points out. Maybe it was someone who gave them the idea and said they wanted a piece. Activision perhaps...?
I mean, it makes sense, otherwise why would they quarrel, separate and start developing their own music games, like 5 year olds would? Too complicated for my brain to process, so I'll just leave it the way it is. But there is one more aspect to look at: there are currently three similar music games out there (not to mention special editions), trying to make it to the top - Guitar Hero, Rock Band and that Frets on Fire that they want to do something with (not Harmonix or Activision... I can't remember).
Normally, as anyone would think, Guitar Hero has a big chance of making it to the top and mostly, because of its name. Then again, if Activision keeps their promise to fans, rolling out the above-mentioned additional content for Rock Band, Guitar Hero IV may never see the light of day. Only time will tell...