The general consensus (at least among Dtoiders) seems to be that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was a gross misstep for the series. It appeared that Neversoft made up the note charts rather arbitrarily, with many songs being made difficult for difficulty’s sake. And Rock Band, which came out just over a month after GH III, has taken the videogame world by storm (well, in North America — it came out today in Europe) with its rocking party atmosphere and smart packaging of DLC.
However, as we’ve now seen (in video and screenshot form), Activision is attempting to cash in on the “full band of plastic instruments” phenomenon with Guitar Hero World Tour. Looking to one-up Harmonix, the game will feature a drum kit with three pads and two cymbals, and (for now) an untethered bass pedal. Oh, and it appears as if the guitars will look more realistic (and feature Rock Band-esque solo buttons).
But the big question on most people’s minds so far is this: how much will the full bundle cost? I, for one, am not too keen on the idea of spending another $170+ on a second set of fake instruments, especially when it comes with the attached strings of Activision’s DLC pricing/packaging. Well, now we’ve got an idea — and my friends, it’s not looking pretty.
If you head on over to GameStop.com and search for “Guitar Hero World Tour”, you’ll be presented with this page, which has twelve different listings for the game. You can pre-order the game now; GameStop is currently showing a release date of October 27th, with the bundle costing a whopping $189.99 on the PS3, 360, and Wii (the PS2 bundle is listed at $179.99). They’re also offering a guitar-only bundle, which is set at $99.99 on all four systems, and the game by itself (standard pricing of $59.99 for PS3/360 and $49.99 for Wii/PS2).
Of course, this is all tentative, but I’m just going to come out and say it: that’s too rich for my blood. What about you? Okay, time to go play that killer bass line in Muse’s “Hysteria”...
[power-glove is an Internet Matlock the likes of which we have seldom seen]
Contest:
5:09 PM on 05.23.2008
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I hope GHWT shows Activision that they can make a lot more money making better peripherals that are playable on both RB and GH games rather than forcing people to spend a lot of money on what they already have.
Us Brits have to pay £180 for Rock Band.
They aren't going to release at $190 when Rock Band 2 will probably be sold at like $150 or less for the full bundle.
The $189.99 is RRP as well and plus aprox 10% tax comes to $208.99 which = £104.49
Compare that to the RRP of Rock Band here in the UK which as you say is £180 plus the 6 months delay....
God I don't want to see how much GH WT will cost here....
And guys, stop acting like this game is going to fail. I'm not saying the game will be good or bad, but it's going to sell like hot-cakes. While Rock Band has gotten real popular, I see nothing to convince me that GH won't outsell it based on brand name recognition alone. All my friends want that shit now they know they can make their own songs.
Also, I'm tired of my Rock Band instruments breaking, considering I barely even use them. We're on our 4th Guitar now. It's BS.
Nobody's THAT stupid.
Not even Activision.
We still don't have Rock Band here and that fucks me off enough to get GHWT instead. They are both expensive as fuck, I won't be buying it when it first comes out though.
The ONLY thing that has won me over for Guitar Hero World Tour is the fact that I can import my own songs and set them up for GHWT which is pretty neat. If this fucker also ships over here when it is MEANT to I will be won over even more.
How long have the yanks had Rock Band for already? Fuck off, I don't want to buy a product that is already over priced from a company that doesn't give a fuck about the Aussie or UK market.
but still, even if it's true 190 is far too fucking much.
I like how RO/Neversoft do hardware so I'm sure the drums/guitars will be solid...but so far they pretty much failed on note charts/difficulty/DLC availability/sound mix and price for DLC.
Make up for all that and maybe I'll consider getting this one.
Hell even if you wanted Rock Band and just the drums, you would still need to pay close to $130.
As someone who LOVES Rock Band, I'm also praying for some sort of Drum/Game bundle, or the drum gets released at a cheap enough price that I don't mind buying it one more time.
I think it's pretty lame of Activision to re-make the drum like that so that the Rock Band one doesn't work, but that's obviously business as well.
Ah EA, you manage to find new and inventive ways to be stupid with each release.
Also: GHIII is too difficult? If i can rock out expert, does that put me in some top-tier of elite toy-guitar rockers?
Activision are douches.
The best point made in the article, is with the market penetration for Rock Band continuing to excel, who is really going to want to spend another $190 for ANOTHER set of plastic toys, that are proprietary, no less?
This is my idea of Activision's think tank:
...only remove the humor.
that is all.
With their backward-ass Rock Revolution.
Now the obligatory:
MOAR LIKE ROCK DEVOLUTION!
Ahem.