Guitar MX Blog » Guitar Hero

Gibson Guitar Hero Lawsuit Thrown Out of Court

Guitar MX Admin — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:48:41 +0000

You may recall a lawsuit filed last year by Gibson Guitars against Activision, owners of the Guitar Hero game. Gibson’s lawsuit claimed that the video game infringed a patent of theirs, and requested that Activision obtain a license from Gibson to distribute the video game. There has been a recent development to this story. Last week, the lawsuit was thrown out of court. In a sternly worded decision, Judge Mariana R. Pfaelzer wrote:

No reasonable person of ordinary skill in the relevant arts would interpret the ‘405 Patent as covering interactive video games…Gibson would have this Court determine that any device that controls something that produces musical sounds is covered by the ‘405 Patent

This is good news for Activision, who already had a relationship with Gibson with the Guitar Hero game. No word on if that relationship will continue. You can read more about this story here.

Guitar Hero Metallica Tracks Revealed

Guitar MX Admin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:01:19 +0000

Activision has just announced that their much anticipated Guitar Hero Metallica video game will be released on March 29, 2009 for Xbox and PS3. Metallica is the second band to have their own Guitar Hero game; Aerosmith being the first.

The game will include the following tracks, provided by FEARNet.

All Nightmare Long
Battery
Creeping Death
Disposable Heroes
Dyers Eve
Enter Sandman
Fade To Black
Fight Fire With Fire
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantic
Fuel
Hit The Lights
King Nothing
Master of Puppets
Mercyful Fate (Medley)
No Leaf Clover
Nothing Else Matters
One
Orion
Sad But True
Seek And Destroy
The Memory Remains
The Shortest Straw
The Thing That Should Not Be
The Unforgiven
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Wherever I May Roam
Whiplash

XBox and PS3 users can also play songs from the Death Magnetic Guitar Hero download. In addition to these are tracks by other bands, including Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, Judas Priest, Slayer, System of a Down and more.

Here’s a video promo of the game.

You can find out more about Guitar Hero Metallica here.

The Best of 2008

Guitar MX Admin — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:45:13 +0000

It’s time to say goodbye to 2008. In a tradition started last year, let’s review some of the popular and interesting guitar stories talked about here at GuitarMX in 2008:

How Can This Be Eddie Van Halen?
The Van Halen reunion tour started showing some troubles as 2008 began. In a pre-New Years concert, Eddie Van Halen performed this very bizarre guitar solo.
YouTube Pulls Parody Videos of Guitar Greats
YouTube pulled the hilarious “Shreds” videos, which parodied the performance of guitar greats. They were removed due to copyright complaints, even though parodies are not bound by copyright laws. Some people need a sense of humor.
The Top 25 Greatest Guitar Riffs Of All Time
Music schools in London were polled and asked to rank the 25 greatest guitar riffs of all time.
Gibson Claims Guitar Hero Was Their Idea, Activision Sues
Wanting a larger piece of the Guitar Hero action, Gibson, who already had their name on the Guitar Hero controllers, suddenly remembered that they came up with the Guitar Hero Idea several years earlier.
Dr Pepper Makes Bizarre Offer to Guns N’ Roses, Excludes Slash and Buckethead
In what is probably the worst publicity stunt ever, Dr. Pepper offered a free can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in the United States if Guns N’ Roses released their long awaited Chinese Democracy album by year end. Dr. Pepper picked the wrong year to make the offer, because Chinese Democracy was released shortly after. Dr Pepper has since reneged on their offer.
Hagar/Satriani Supergroup Claims to Rival Led Zeppelin
Sammy Hager thinks that the new band he formed with Joe Statriani could be the next Led Zeppelin.
Complaints Get 8-Year-Old Guitarist Banned From Performing in Taverns
Guitarist Tallan “T-Man” Latz, who is just 8 years old, was banned from performing in Wisconsin taverns. What makes the story even more interesting is that it may have been jealous guitarists who originally filed the complaint.
Joe Satriani Comments on Copyright Lawsuit With Coldplay
Joe Satriani filed a lawsuit against Coldplay in 2008, claiming their popular song “Viva La Vida” is a rip off of his song “If I Could Fly”

Check back here for the interesting guitar related stories of 2009. Have a happy and safe new year everyone.

Yngwie Malmsteen Credits Guitar Hero for New Interest in His Music

Guitar MX Admin — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:13:27 +0000

Yngwie Malmsteen recently gave his blessing to the Guitar Hero game. He attributes the game for creating a new interest in his music among young kids, who have been showing up to his shows, something that wasnt happening happening a few years ago.

Here’s what he recently told the Artisan News Service:

I was sitting in the airport in Miami, I don’t know, a couple of months ago, we were flying somewhere, and me and my drummer and my bass player or somebody, my singer too, we were sitting at this restaurant waiting and this little kid, he couldn’t have been more than eight or nine years old, and he looks up at us and goes, ‘Hey, are you guys in a band?, We go, ‘Yeah.’ ‘I want to be in a band!’ And this was so cool because a few years ago that wouldn’t be happening. Plus, I see in the audience when I play now, every night there’s very, very young kids. This is a great.

You can view a video clip from the interview here.

Robot Plays Guitar Hero on Expert Level and Succeeds

Guitar MX Admin — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:43:25 +0000

A robot has recently proven that you don’t need soul to play Guitar Hero. A robot called “Cythbot”, developed by Cyth Systems, can play through Living Colour’s “Cult of Personality” at Expert level with up to 98% accuracy. Here’s a video of the feat.

Cythbot works a lot like Guitar Heronoid, a Guitar Hero playing mannequin developed by Israeli Software Engineers. A camera is used to view and analyze the notes appearing on the screen. Signals are then sent to Cythbots pneumatic fingers, which compress the fret buttons and strum bar on the Guitar Hero controller.

When it comes to Guitar Hero, we humans may have to someday concede to the robots. But when it comes to playing the actual guitar, robots still have a long way to go.

You can read more about the Cythbot here.

New Metallica Album Hits Stores and Guitar Hero

Guitar MX Admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:05:53 +0000

Friday September 12, 2008 marks the release of Metallica’s 9th studio album called Death Magnetic. Not only will the album be available in stores on Friday, but it will also be available for download for Guitar Hero III. The Guitar Hero version of the album includes two renditions of their new instrumental “Suicide & Redemption”, with extended solos by James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett. The album can be downloaded on Xbox LIVE Marketplace at a cost of 1440 Microsoft Points, and in the PLAYSTATION Store for a cost of $17.99.

Reviews of the album reveal that Metallica fans should be very pleased with the album, as the songs are longer and sound more like their older material. Word is that the guitar solos are not as good as expected, but at least there are solos on the album. Their last album had none. You can read a review of the album here.

Music Industry Threatens to Pull Songs from Guitar Hero, Rock Band

Guitar MX Admin — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 16:28:33 +0000

Warner Music Group, the third largest music publisher in the world, is threatening to pull their music from the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, because they feel they are not getting enough money from the use of their songs. Although MTV and Activision, makers of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, have paid licensing fees to use the songs, WMG feels it’s not enough. WMG CEO Edgar Bronfman said this:

The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small

WMG seems clueless to the fact that bands like Avenged Sevenfold and DragonForce have seen an increase in music sales due to their exposure in Guitar Hero.These games are actually helping promote their music, but the music industry is only focused on how to get the most money now, from both artist and consumer. Click here to read more about this story.

Guitar Virtuosos Featured on New Guitar Hero Track Pack

Guitar MX Admin — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 03:34:57 +0000

A new track pack for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is now available for download at the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live. The track pack has been dubbed the “Guitar Virtuoso Track Pack” and features the following songs by these great guitar virtuosos: “Surfing with the Alien” by Joe Satriani, “For the Love of God” by Steve Vai and “Soothsayer” by Buckethead.

Here’s a sample from the Virtuoso Track Pack. It’s “Surfing with the Alien” by Joe Satriani on expert level.

This track pack was just released today. You can find out more about it here.

Metallica to Get Guitar Hero Game

Guitar MX Admin — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 03:06:51 +0000

Later this month, Activision will be releasing “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith”, a Guitar Hero game featuring Aerosmith songs only. Now it’s been revealed that Activision will be releasing “Guitar Hero: Metallica”, a Guitar Hero game featuring nothing but songs by Metallica.

The news was released quietly in an SEC report by Activision:

In fiscal 2009, we plan to publish Guitar Hero: On Tour for the NDS; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: Metallica, and Guitar Hero IV across multiple platforms

There’s no doubt that this game will being more popularity to the Guitar Hero game, if that’s possible. Metallica is also working on their new studio album, expected to be out later this year.

You can read more about this story here.

Ted Nugent to Appear in Future Guitar Hero Game

Guitar MX Admin — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:50:59 +0000

Ted Nugent confirmed in a recent interview on a Detroit radio station that he is currently involved in the making of a future Guitar Hero game. It sounds like he could be one of the game bosses for the next Guitar Hero game, like Slash is in Guitar Hero III.

Here’s what he had to say:

They made me put on this silly ass suit, they wanted to make sure that the cartoon dude on Guitar Hero dances and prances like Uncle Ted.

You can hear the entire interview here or read more about this story here.