Marking two decades after the legendary game first launched in North America, giving everyday gamers the tools to feel like rock legends. Figuratively speaking, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who has mastered Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo before a packed crowd of friends.
Created by the developers, Guitar Hero provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes moving along the screen synchronized to a song. Every sequence corresponded to particular chords, producing the sensation of a genuine live show.
Harmonix previously tried its hand in the music genre before partnering with RedOctane, later acquired by the gaming giant in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the groundwork for an unlikely billion-dollar franchise that had a remarkable impact on numerous of the artists featured, introducing decades-old groups to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, former COO of Harmonix, recalls the initial financial challenges of licensing the songs – despite the fact initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded all the music because the cost was so high,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights by themselves, it proved extremely difficult. We failed to secure acts such as legendary groups – the publisher had virtually no money, and our team was pretty convinced the project would flop. However, when the game became a hit, album purchases and radio play increased, everyone wanted to participate.”
He continues: “One of the amazing things was how many parents got in touch and thanked us for exposing their kids to the songs they loved. It became a multigenerational phenomenon.”
Classic Rock Finds a New Audience
Irish group the Answer included their track on the 2008 game Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist recalls how the series brought classic rock to the forefront: “The game offered a larger, new demographic. Generally such music was considered outdated material, but then once it got included in the title young people discovered it, abruptly it was cool. That legitimised the genre, eliminating the outdated tag. It provided our catalog a new life.”
At that time, the band's debut album was still unreleased stateside, so Guitar Hero was a key medium of discovery for the group during their US tour opening for 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.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles Enduring Impact
Music's heavyweight names quickly capitalised on the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others featuring in specialized spin-off titles that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, visuals and legendary status. For example, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly earned the band greater revenue than any of their records. It moved well over 500,000 copies in its first week, and sales of Aerosmith’s music rose significantly during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
The series still motivates quick-handed dedication within the community. Earlier this year, an online personality achieved a remarkable feat of DragonForce’s the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem made popular by the game – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with almost identical mechanics but an array of personalization features. This track is difficult enough on the hardest setting, let alone performed at increased tempo while hitting every one of the thousands of cues. They stated it took months of practice to accomplish.
“Guitar Hero offers a, fantasy thing. Just as with other games, it doesn't imply you should pick up a real gun and go to war,” says musician Herman Li.
DragonForce had already wrapped up a profitable run before Through the Fire and Flames was featured in the third game, yet he explains it made them widely recognized. “I recall the record label informing us that our selling albums rapidly,” he shares. “It exploded when we next toured, and we were playing just before top acts at the event.”
In fact, the band's visibility via the game was so immense that it threatened to overshadow all other the band has done. Last year, the track featured in a trailer for Despicable Me 4. “Previously I thought differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only hear one DragonForce song, it’s totally cool – each person has their own musical journey and I'm pleased we’ve been part of people’s lives”.
Enduring Impact from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier promotion, be it for cars, clothes or video games, extends beyond mere transactions – it evokes a desire. Was the game able to tap into that? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” he confirms. “The excitement of being a music icon in the spotlight. From day one, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural urge to create songs, and their goal was to leverage innovation to enable everyone to participate”.
The majority installments were released over a mere half-decade from 2005 to 2010, featuring spin-offs such as the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and the band-focused game. After that, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, aside from a short-lived revival several years later.
Games such as Clone Hero and newer releases have kept the community active, and there’s expectations of a new product from the founders in development. A new studio has begun work on their first rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are both involved as special advisers. Are gamers ready to embrace a new entry in the spirit of Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed those games could be like Madden where you can releases,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been hopeful. There’s no reason for it to persist for future fans.”
