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Guitar Hero publisher doesn't care about compatibility with Rock Band guitars photo

Even though the controllers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band look similar, they're not exactly interchangable. As Nick pointed out earlier, the Xbox 360 Guitar Hero III guitar will work with Rock Band, but the PS3 GHIII guitar will not. It's worse in reverse: the Rock Band guitars do not work at all with Guitar Hero III.

While Rock Band developer Harmonix seems to be open to cross compatibility, Guitar Hero III publisher Red Octane would rather not bother with the competitor's peripherals.

“I don't think we're too interested in having their guitars work on our game, because they're having a lot of issues with their guitars,” said Red Octane's Charles Huang to 1UP. “From our standpoint, to be quite honest, if you know a competitor's product has issues, there's not a whole lot of motivation to make these problematic controllers work with your game. Why would you want to cause yourself the headache?”

Huang's "problematic controllers" remark references reports of Rock Band guitars breaking after little use. 

[Via DailyTech -- Thanks, Debbey] 








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Dale North is Destructoid's Editor-In-Chief, a founding editor, and specialist in Japanese gaming. An accomplished musician, Dale was reporting from Japan during the earthquakes of 2011. Luckily, he got the fuck out alive and is home in America now with his wife and beloved corgi, Einstein. Dale is also a co-founder of Destructoid's sister anime site Japanator. Likes Corgis, Sega Saturn, PSP, iPhone, Photographic tools. Meet the rest of the team



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32 comments | showing # 1 to 32
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GuitarAtomik's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 16:55
GuitarAtomik
Someone's a little jealous. Maybe because I'd like to play 2-player on GH3 with my Rock band guitar that I already own as opposed to buying a 2nd GH guitar.

Oh wait...I don't play GH3 anymore now that I have Rock band.
Kryptinite's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 16:57
Kryptinite
I don't see why they should from a business stand point. Yes it would be nice but I didn't expect them to make it work.
grrza's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:03
grrza
This is just retarded. It's a freakin peripheral. If I want to use a standard dualshock or sixaxis or DDR stomp pad, I should be able to plug it in, calibrate it (or assign buttons or whatever), and play with that. These guitars should be no different. Proprietary hardware is retarded.
Barcode's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:17
Barcode
whoah, we both covered this.
kielejocain's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:22
kielejocain
Does anyone else find it cute that Activision basically took a product that Harmonix made and tweaked it, then crapped on the next product Harmonix made from the ground up for not being as good as "their" product?

I find that cute.
Joe Burling's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:29
Joe Burling
Rock Band > Guitar Hero 3

This is an easy fix. Just don't buy GH3. Buy RB instead. Done and done.
Meta-Ridley's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:30
Meta-Ridley
Just another nail in the PS3s coffin.

>_> What? I had yo say it.
AgentMOO's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:39
AgentMOO
Incompatibilty hurts the consumer, spin it how you want, this is a dick move by Red Octane.
EternalDeathSlayer's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 17:54
EternalDeathSlayer
This is perhaps jealousy over Rock Band, which has attained better ratings then GH3. But in the end, money walks and BS talks, and GH3 is selling a lot faster than Rock Band, which still has sold well. So I guess Red Octane wins this one, bastards that they are.
Cheeburga's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 18:26
Cheeburga
Ouch.
gamermasterman's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 18:27
gamermasterman
I'll translate for them.

Red Ocatane:“I don't think we're too interested in having their guitars work on our game, because they're having a lot of issues with their guitars,”

Translation:"We don't want you using their guitars, then you would have no reason to buy another GH Guitar"
parrothead's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 19:05
parrothead
My PS3 ghIII works on Rock Band.
Poopface Morty's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 19:05
Poopface Morty
Wow, good thing I haven't touched Guitar Hero more than once (for a two song session at that) since I got Rock Band.
vexed alex's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 20:00
vexed alex
Activision....that's a bitch move. A bitch move, indeed.
SourGr8pes's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 21:45
SourGr8pes
Guitar Hero can go suck it. I'd rather use the Rock Band guitars anyways, ANYTHING to get away from that goddamned strum-clicking.
Ichigo Style's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/08/2007 23:23
Ichigo Style
Thats funny, I recall people having issues with the connectors from the head of the Guitar to the Body for Guitar Hero...
As well as this whole mono disc...
Oh shit! I forgot that Activision is just making up excuses to not support Rock Band controllers, just like when they took that other company to court over making controllers that were compatible with Guitar Hero! God I forget these things.
loki d20's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 00:20
loki d20
Boy, they're being about as petty as you can get.
Samit Sarkar's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 01:22
Samit Sarkar
Wow...real mature, RedOctane.
niakori's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 07:12
niakori
@EternalDeathSlayer
Funny you should say that since it's hell trying to find rock band se for the 360 but I'm tripping over guitar hero 3 everywhere.
bubuli's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 08:01
bubuli
WOW. how arrogant.

I'm not going to buy another GH game again. RB > GH anyway.
Holyetheline's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 09:02
Holyetheline
I prefer the Guitar Hero guitars. Rockband's fender feels so cheap.
SanityMask's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 12:46
SanityMask
why would you want your competitor's peripherals work on your game? so they can cash-in on your game? it's all movie driven, but what bothers me is it would have been better if they made rock band's guitar compatible with GH3 so they can cash-in on THEIR GAME.
Ninoog3's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 16:13
Ninoog3
My band is better than yours
RWarrior1CO's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/09/2007 18:18
RWarrior1CO
Actually RedOctane is absolutely right. All the Rock Band guitars I've ever used eventually wore out very quickly. If you believe me, go ahead and look for a Rock Band kiosk at a Wal-Mart, and try playing the guitar. If it's been there for a few days, then I can guarantee it's not going to work correctly.

Why bother?
Aaron Mxy Yost's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/10/2007 04:15
Aaron Mxy Yost
Read the entire interview people, before you jump down RedOctane's throats.
mandlebaum123's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/10/2007 08:43
mandlebaum123
Hold on here. Why are people jumping on Red Octane, when rock band's guitars don't have any compatibility on GH3. Are we sure that that was done specifically by Redoctane? Also, the destructoid review even stated that the RB guitars stink.
Dhaos's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/10/2007 08:57
Dhaos
this pissed me off so much. me and a friend split the cost of RB. he was going to get the drums and I was taking that Guitar so that I could play it on GH3 while he had the RB game. well imagine my surprise when I couldn't use it at all on GH3. I just about smashed the dam thing on the 360 but a cooler head prevailed.
Bob Muir's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/10/2007 09:42
Bob Muir
Christ, Red Octane and Activision, quit being such douches.
fraughtbiscuit's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/10/2007 20:17
fraughtbiscuit
hi guys i am new to the site and i wanna make a few comments about everything microsoft is doing with the 360 and dont think that i am bashing them because i own one.

Charging you for downloadable content that you SHOULD get is BULLSHIT. every pc game i own lets me download patches, updates, bonus maps, weapons and every fucking thing else i want for free without having to purchase Microsoft Points.

ANother gripe is to the fact that microsoft will throw its name on anything just to make a buck. Lack of product testing has lead to too many people losing out on their stuff. With the pricing thats going on today thats pretty much an investment for kids and thier parents.

Fuck the new rock band guitar because i have had it for two days and it is broken already. 2 DAYS!!!!! And guess what, i hve to wait a week or two to get my replacement. which some people who got their replacements say they did not get a working replacement. SO AS PETER GRIFFIN SAYS " NOW I PLAY THE WAITING GAME>"
Jdoe43's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/13/2007 11:19
Jdoe43
Quote "Why are people jumping on Red Octane, when rock band's guitars don't have any compatibility on GH3. Are we sure that that was done specifically by Redoctane?"

On the loading screen for GH3 it says something along the lines of "...Activision authorizes use of this game only with a guitar controller provided by Activision or a standard controller provided by the system manufacturer..."

Basically, you aren't "allowed" to use their game with anything third party. This includes third party normal controllers not just guitars.
Keely's Avatar - Comment posted on 12/23/2007 21:59
Keely
Its really not as hard as it sounds. Sure red octane is at fault STOP COVERING IT UP I have read all the interviews red octane was doing what they thought was a smart move which all of us would have done and that was not made it compatible with Rb guitars. They were looking to get more sales for the guitars, which is what any good business would want is more sales. RB don't mind sharing because look who pays for it MTV, EA games, they could really care less about selling a $30 guitar, when they just sold a $200 game also that knowing their suppliers cost like $60 for them to make it all possible. What red octane didn't think of is this. A kid has RB and GH3. His other friend come over to play. Well since obviously they cant both play GH3 with 2 guitars they are going to use RB so they can both use guitars. The other friend thinks he had so much fun playing RB that he decides to bug his mom until she buys him it and so on. Now if he got a chance to play GH3 maybe they could have shit out another sell. It is that simple really. They just didn't think of it all the way threw like they should have. But good luck having people own RB and GH3 and decide that GH3 is so much better they will pay like $70 bucks on top of the $100 they spent on GH3 in the first place. Because the only people who will actually say RB is gay is people who wont put out $200 for it cuz their cheap ass. If you think of it play multi player on GH3 with 2 guitars, your paying the same just about. face it RB out did GH3, it had a good run. I still bought GH3 I find it more challenge when it comes to
Guitar, but I like my RB more, I can play more instuments, create my character, and play with all my friends. Its better. Face it.
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