Marking 20 years since Guitar Hero hit the market across the Atlantic, offering everyday gamers the means to feel like rock legends. Figuratively speaking, but try telling that someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute instrumental break in front of a packed living-room audience.
Created by Harmonix, Guitar Hero gave players a guitar-shaped controller to follow coloured notes scrolling down the screen in time with a song. Every sequence corresponded to particular chords, producing the sensation of a genuine performance.
The studio had already experimented with rhythm games prior to teaming up with RedOctane, later acquired by the gaming giant in 2006. Collaboratively, they laid the foundations for an unlikely billion-dollar series which made a remarkable impact on numerous musicians included, showcasing decades-old bands to millions of younger players.
Michael Dornbrook, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, recalls the initial budgetary hurdles in securing the songs – even though the first two games mostly used rerecorded tracks.
“We rerecorded all the music because the cost prohibitive,” he explains. “Even with the necessary permissions by themselves, it was nearly impossible. We failed to secure bands like the Who – RedOctane had virtually no money, and we were fairly certain it would fail. But once the game became a hit, album purchases airtime increased, everyone wanted to be in.”
He continues: “One of the remarkable aspects was the number of parents reached out expressing gratitude for exposing their kids to the music they loved. It evolved into a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains Younger Fans
Irish group the Answer included Never Too Late in the 2008 release Guitar Hero World Tour. Guitarist Paul Mahon recalls how the series brought older hits back into vogue: “The game provided a larger, younger audience. Typically this had been considered outdated material, but then once it got featured on the game young people discovered it, suddenly it was cool. This validated it, and got rid of the ‘dad rock’ label. It provided all our music renewed popularity.”
At that time, the band's first record was still unreleased stateside, so Guitar Hero was a key medium for exposure for the band during their US tour supporting AC/DC. “Their crew were playing the song during travel, and several knew us from Guitar Hero,” he notes.
Major Band Titles Enduring Impact
Music's heavyweight names quickly capitalised on the series’ popularity, with Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen starring in dedicated spin-off titles that focused on each band’s catalogue and associated lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. In the case of, the Aerosmith edition, reportedly earned the band more money than any of their records. It moved well over 500,000 copies in its first week, while sales of their songs rose of up to 40% during an era when the music business faced decline.
Guitar Hero still motivates nimble-fingered fanaticism within the community. Recently, a streamer completed a remarkable feat featuring the challenging track – an infamously tough power-metal song made popular by Guitar Hero – on Clone Hero, a no-cost alternative with almost identical gameplay but an array of personalization features. This track is challenging enough on the hardest setting, not to mention played at increased tempo and without missing a single one of its near 4,000 notes. They claimed it took months of practice to accomplish.
“The game offers a, fantasy thing. If you play other games, it doesn't imply you should use a real gun and go to war,” notes DragonForce guitarist the artist.
The band had already wrapped up a successful tour before their hit appeared on Guitar Hero III, yet he explains it turned them into a household name. “I recall the record label informing us that we were selling albums rapidly,” he says. “Popularity surged when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of the headliners on the Mayhem festival.”
In fact, DragonForce’s exposure via the game was so immense that it has threatened to eclipsing everything else the band has done. Recently, the song featured in a trailer 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, it’s totally cool – each person has their own path in music and I'm pleased we’ve been part in fans' experiences”.
Enduring Legacy of a Plastic Guitar
The best promotion, be it for automobiles, apparel or games, extends beyond than selling something – it evokes a longing. Was the game able to tap into that? “Precisely what we were trying to create,” Dornbrook says. “The excitement of performing as a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders felt that humans have a natural human desire to make music, and their goal was to use technology to enable everyone to participate”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games were released over a mere five-year period between 2005 and 2010, including spin-offs like DJ Hero, complete with a spinning deck, and Band Hero. After that, the publisher’s interest in plastic instruments died down, except for a short-lived revival in 2015.
Titles such as the fan project and Fortnite Festival have kept the community active, and there’s expectations of a new product from the founders in development. A new studio has entered production on their first music game. Original co-founders are both involved in advisory roles. Are gamers ready to embrace another game following Guitar Hero?
“Our team believed those games might become like Madden where you can update every year,” he remarks. “With abundant fresh tracks that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been hopeful. It's entirely possible for it to persist with new generations.”
