It has been two decades since Guitar Hero first launched across the Atlantic, providing players everywhere the tools to become rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who has mastered Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of a packed crowd of friends.
Created by the developers, the game provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to follow on-screen cues moving along the display synchronized to a song. Each riff mimicked particular chords, producing the feel of an authentic performance.
The studio had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with the publisher, which was acquired by the gaming giant in 2006. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar series that had a significant influence on numerous musicians featured, introducing decades-old groups to a new generation of gaming enthusiasts.
A former executive, former COO from the developer, remembers the early budgetary hurdles in securing the recordings – despite the fact the first two games mostly used cover versions.
“We reproduced all the music since the dollar figure prohibitive,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights alone, it was nearly impossible. We couldn’t get acts such as legendary groups – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced the project would flop. But once the game became a hit, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to participate.”
He adds: “One of the amazing things was how many mothers and fathers reached out expressing gratitude for exposing their kids to the music they adored. It evolved into a multigenerational thing.”
Timeless Music Finds a New Audience
Irish blues-rock band one featured act had their track on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist recalls how the series revived classic rock to the forefront: “The game offered a larger, new demographic. Generally such music was seen as outdated material, however when it was included in the game and teenagers were finding it, suddenly it was cool. This validated the genre, eliminating the ‘dad rock’ tag. It gave our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the band's debut album was still not available stateside, meaning the game served as a primary platform of discovery for the group as they went on US tour supporting the rock giants. “Their crew had on the song on the tour bus, and some of them recognized us thanks to the game,” he notes.
Major Band Spin-offs Enduring Influence
Music's biggest acts quickly capitalised on the series’ popularity, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen featuring in dedicated game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated stories, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, it was said to have made the band greater revenue than any of their records. It moved well over 500,000 copies upon release, while sales of their songs saw an increase significantly at a time when the music business faced decline.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered dedication within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – a notoriously difficult anthem popularized through the game – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with similar gameplay and extensive customisation options. The song is challenging even in the hardest setting, not to mention played at increased tempo while hitting a single one of the thousands of cues. They stated it took months of practice of practice.
“The game is a fun, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, that doesn’t mean you ought to use a real gun and enlist,” says DragonForce guitarist the artist.
The band had already completed a successful tour when their hit was featured in the third game, yet he explains it made them a household name. “I remember the record label calling to tell me that our selling albums rapidly,” he shares. “It exploded when we next toured, and we were playing just before the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, the band's visibility via the game proved so vast that it has threatened to overshadow everything else the band has done. Recently, the track was used in promotional material for a major film. “In the past I thought otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “Should you just hear one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – each person has a unique path in music and I'm pleased we played a role of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Impact from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier promotion, whether it’s for automobiles, apparel or games, goes further than selling something – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what we were trying to create,” he confirms. “That thrill of performing as a music icon on the stage. Since the beginning, the co-founders believed humans have a natural human desire to create songs, and they wanted to leverage innovation to allow people to do it”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games came out over a mere five-year period from 2005 to 2010, including spin-offs such as the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, corporate focus on peripherals died down, except for a brief comeback in 2015.
Games like Clone Hero and newer releases have kept the scene active, and there’s expectations of a new product from the founders in development. A new studio has begun work on their first music game. Original co-founders are participating as special advisers. Is the world prepared to welcome a new entry following Guitar Hero?
“We thought such titles could be like Madden allowing annual update every year,” he remarks. “There’s so much fresh tracks it could remain perennially popular, thus I remain optimistic. It's entirely possible why it can’t persist for future fans.”
