It has been two decades since Guitar Hero first launched in North America, providing everyday gamers the opportunity to become rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed telling that anyone who's nailed the epic four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed crowd of friends.
Created by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match on-screen cues scrolling down the screen synchronized to a song. Each riff mimicked specific notes, creating the sensation of a genuine performance.
Harmonix previously tried its hand with rhythm games before partnering with the publisher, later acquired by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Together, they established the foundations for a surprising massively profitable franchise that had a remarkable influence for many musicians featured, showcasing classic groups to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, remembers the early financial challenges of licensing the songs – even though initial releases mostly used rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced every song since the dollar figure prohibitive,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights by themselves, it was extremely difficult. We couldn’t get bands like the Who – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was pretty convinced the project would flop. But once Guitar Hero took off, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to participate.”
He adds: “Among the remarkable aspects was how many mothers and fathers got in touch and thanked us for introducing their children to the music they adored. It became a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Northern Irish group the Answer had their track in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist recalls the way the game revived classic rock to the forefront: “The game provided a larger, new demographic. Generally this had been seen as outdated material, but then once it got included in the title young people discovered it, abruptly it became trendy. That legitimised it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ label. It provided our catalog a new life.”
In 2008, the Answer’s first record remained not available stateside, so Guitar Hero served as a primary platform of discovery for the group during their a North American tour supporting the rock giants. “The roadies had on Never Too Late on the tour bus, and some of them knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Major Band Titles Enduring Impact
Music's biggest acts quickly capitalised on the game's success, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in dedicated spin-off titles that focused on their music collections and associated stories, imagery and legendary status. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, it was said earned the band more money compared to their records. It sold well over half a million units in its first week, while sales of their songs rose of up to 40% during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered dedication among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt featuring the challenging track – an infamously tough power-metal song popularized through the game – using a fan-made version, a freeware game with similar gameplay and extensive personalization features. This track is challenging enough on the hardest setting, not to mention performed at double speed and without missing a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed requiring months of practice to accomplish.
“The game is a fun, fantasy thing. If you play Call of Duty, it doesn't imply you should pick up a real gun and enlist,” notes musician Herman Li.
The band previously completed a profitable run when Through the Fire and Flames was featured in the third game, yet he explains it made them widely recognized. “I recall our distributors informing us that we were selling albums like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game proved so vast that it has threatened to eclipsing everything else the band has done. Last year, the track featured in promotional material for a major film. “Previously I felt differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” he admits. “Should you just listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – everyone’s got a unique musical journey and I’m glad we played a role in fans' experiences”.
Enduring Legacy from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier marketing, be it for automobiles, clothes or video games, goes further mere transactions – it evokes a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “Precisely what we were aiming to achieve,” he confirms. “The excitement of being a music icon in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the creators believed humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to enable everyone to do it”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games were released over a mere half-decade from 2005 to 2010, including derivative titles like DJ Hero, complete with a turntable controller, and Band Hero. Subsequently, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, aside from a brief comeback several years later.
Games such as the fan project and newer releases have maintained the community active, and there’s set to be something from the original publisher in development. A new studio has entered production on their first music game. Original co-founders are participating in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome a new entry in the spirit of Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed those games could be similar to sports games allowing annual releases,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much fresh tracks that it could be evergreen, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible for it to continue with new generations.”
