It has been 20 years after the legendary game hit the market in North America, giving players everywhere the tools to feel like a rock star. Not in reality, though you'd be hard-pressed convincing anyone who's mastered Free Bird’s four-minute instrumental break before an enthusiastic living-room audience.
Created by the developers, the game provided users with a plastic guitar peripheral to match coloured notes moving along the screen synchronized to the music. Each riff corresponded to specific notes, producing the feel of a genuine live show.
The studio had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, which was purchased by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar franchise which made a remarkable influence for many of the artists featured, introducing classic bands to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer from the developer, remembers the initial financial challenges of licensing the recordings – even though the first two games mostly used cover versions.
“We rerecorded every song because the cost was so high,” he explains. “Even with the necessary permissions alone, it proved extremely difficult. We couldn’t get bands like the Who – RedOctane was operating on a shoestring budget, and our team was fairly certain the project would flop. However, when Guitar Hero became a hit, and record sales airtime were going up, everyone wanted to be in.”
He adds: “One of the remarkable aspects was the number of parents got in touch expressing gratitude for introducing their children to the music they loved. It became a multigenerational phenomenon.”
Classic Rock Finds Younger Fans
Northern Irish group the Answer had Never Too Late in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Lead musician the artist remembers how the series brought classic rock to the forefront: “The game offered a bigger, younger audience. Typically such music was seen as outdated material, but then when it was included in the game young people discovered it, suddenly it became trendy. This validated it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ tag. It provided our catalog renewed popularity.”
In 2008, the band's first record was still unreleased stateside, so the game was a key medium of discovery for the group during their a North American tour opening for AC/DC. “Their crew had on the song on the tour bus, and some of them knew us thanks to the game,” Mahon says.
Rock’s Heavyweight Titles and Lasting Influence
Music's heavyweight names quickly took advantage of the game's success, including bands like Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in dedicated spin-off titles that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, imagery and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, reportedly earned the band greater revenue than any of their records. It moved more than 500,000 copies upon release, while demand for their songs saw an increase of up to 40% during an era as the industry was already collapsing.
The series still motivates quick-handed dedication within the community. Recently, an online personality achieved an impressive attempt of DragonForce’s Through the Fire and Flames – an infamously tough anthem popularized through the game – on Clone Hero, a freeware game with almost identical gameplay but an array of personalization features. The song is difficult even in expert mode, let alone performed at increased tempo while hitting a single one of the thousands of cues. The streamer stated requiring months of practice to accomplish.
“The game is a fun, fantasy thing. If you play other games, that doesn’t mean you should use a real gun and enlist,” says musician the artist.
DragonForce had already wrapped up a successful tour before Through the Fire and Flames was featured on Guitar Hero III, yet he explains it turned them into a household name. “I remember our distributors calling to tell me that we were selling albums like crazy,” he says. “Popularity surged on the subsequent tour, and we performed right ahead of top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it threatened to overshadow everything else the band has done. Recently, the track featured in promotional material for Despicable Me 4. “In the past I felt otherwise, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “If you only listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – everyone’s got their own path in music and I’m glad we’ve been part of people’s lives”.
The Lasting Impact from the Plastic Guitar
Top-tier marketing, be it for automobiles, apparel or games, extends beyond than selling something – it inspires a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star on the stage. From day one, the creators felt that humans have a natural urge to make music, and they wanted to leverage innovation to allow people to participate”.
Most of Guitar Hero games came out in just a half-decade between 2005 and 2010, featuring derivative titles like the DJ version, complete with a turntable controller, and the band-focused game. After that, corporate focus on peripherals died down, aside from a short-lived revival in 2015.
Titles like the fan project and newer releases have kept the community alive, and there’s set to be a new product from the original publisher in development. A new studio has entered work on their first music game. The initial creators are participating in advisory roles. Is the world prepared to welcome a new entry in the spirit of Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed those games could be similar to sports games where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music it could remain perennially popular, so I’ve always been hopeful. It's entirely possible why it can’t persist with new generations.”
