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Guitar Hero Has Aerosmith Soaring To New Heights

News from the gaming industry is proving that veteran rockers like Aerosmith can make a very significant contribution to their bottom line by forging deals with game makers.

A lot of credit has been given to games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band for bolstering interest in classic rock, particularly among the current generation of young people — credit that is most likely well-deserved.

Given the enormous popularity and publicity that this genre of video games has received in recent years, perhaps it should come as no surprise that sales of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith has raked in more revenue for the group than any other individual album they have produced.

In a roundabout way, I suppose this benefits all classic rock fans, since one might presume that the kind of success attained by Aerosmith could inspire other classic acts to consider hopping on the video game band wagon. I think it might be safe to assume that titles with names such as "Guitar Hero: Led Zeppelin" or "Guitar Hero: Rolling Stones" would be met with impressive commercial success for game makers and recording artists alike.

In fact, Activision has announced plans to triple the number of its total released Guitar Hero games and content by 2010, so it looks like we may indeed see game versions like those fictional titles I just mentioned.

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Getting back to my reasoning regarding how all classic rock fans may benefit from this phenomenon, more new games means more young people being exposed to more classic rock acts, which provides those groups with additional monetary incentive to keep on creating new music, and touring in front of a new generation of fans. I’m sure some of us from earlier generations will also be there to help pack the venues, but probably be less likely to be seen standing in front of our televisions with a plastic guitar replica slung across our shoulder.

With word from the music industry about the illegal downloading of music, and how they say it is hurting recording artists, this relatively new genre of video games may help some artists recoup those reported losses. It sounds like  a win-win situation, with the possible exception of some parents who may be tiring of the endless renditions of "Dream On" emanating from the living room TV.

For more on this story, see Gamasutra.com.

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Tags: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero, Revenue

More Rockers on Television Today

Update: Apparently, “breaking news” caused Joe Perry and son Roman to be bumped from the broadcast that they were scheduled to appear on and the segment is reportedly scheduled to air during the week of September 15.

This time there should be no need to lose any sleep or fiddle with your DVR or Tivo to catch Aerosmith guitar man Joe Perry and his son Roman, who will appear on The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric later today.

According to Blabbermouth, Perry and his son will appear on the news broadcast to talk about “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.” With the extraordinary popularity of these kinds of video games lately, I’m not surprised to see a major media outlet setting aside some time on their evening news to cover it.

Not too long ago, the popular and quite controversial Comedy Central animated series South Park devoted and entire episode to this genre of video games, so it is certainly something that a lot of people are paying attention to.

The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric airs at 6:30 PM Eastern Time, and according to the TV Guide website, 6:30 Pacific Time, but check your local listings to be sure, if you don’t want to miss this.

Tags: Aerosmith, CBS News, Guitar Hero, Joe Perry, Katie Couric, Roman

New Aerosmith Material May Be Heard First on Guitar Hero

Aerosmith is currently recording their new album, and in addition to the new material they are working on, they may be working on some new ideas regarding the distribution of that material as well.

Guitarist Joe Perry is saying that the group may decide to release some of the new tracks online before the official release date for the album, so that gamers can play along with them on Guitar Hero.

"We’ll probably release some of the music from our new record as a download so kids can plug it in and play some new tunes on the game," Perry was quoted as saying.

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In other Aerosmith news, a trial date has been set for the legal showdown between angry Aerosmith fans and the Boston-based rockers over a canceled a show in Hawaii back in September.

At the time, Aerosmith said that they were unable to transport their equipment from Chicago to Maui in time for the show, but did show up a few days later to put on a private show for employees of Toyota, who some say the group was paid $1 million for. The canceled show on Maui was never rescheduled.

May 11, 2009 is the date scheduled for the start of the trial. Anyone who purchased a ticket for the canceled show is automatically included in this class action suit unless they take action to exclude themselves. According to lawyers working for the fans, the lawsuit currently includes about 8,700 people, although perhaps not all of them consider themselves Aerosmith fans any longer.

Tags: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero, Hawaii, lawsuit, New Album

Led Zeppelin Not Comfortable With Game Fame

Unlike Aerosmith, who was recently featured in a version of Guitar Hero, the remaining band members of Led Zeppelin don’t seem to have much interest in allowing their music to  accompany hoards of rock star wannabe’s wielding plastic guitars in front of their television screens.

So far, Led Zeppelin has resisted overtures from both Activision and MTV who would no doubt like to capitalize on the resurgent popularity of the British super group that recently staged a wildly successful reunion show at London’s O2 arena. Rumors of a full-blown tour or new album have been surfacing with regularity ever since.

According to a Led Zeppelin spokesman, the bands reluctance to involve themselves with the game scene stems not from the issue of money, but from their reluctance to lend out their master tapes that would be required to add the the groups legendary music to the games.

A Guitar Hero game featuring the music of Led Zeppelin would likely be hugely successful and bring in boatloads of cash for both the games creators as well as the members of the band, which seems to lend some credibility to the groups’s claim that it’s not about the money.

Whether they decide to capitulate and play along with the game companies remains to be seen, but I suspect the boys from the band have not heard the last from the likes of Activision and MTV.

Read more on this story at the Wall Street Journal.

Tags: Activision, Guitar Hero, Led Zeppelin, Master Tapes, MTV

Guitar Hero Aerosmith Hits Store Shelves

It’s the first version of the wildly popular rock star wannabe video game that features a single band. “Guitar Hero Aerosmith” has generated a lot of buzz and will likely generate a lot of cash as fans of the game, and perhaps fans of the band, snap up their copies. Guitar Hero games have generated over $1 billion in sales since their introduction.

As for the reasons behind Aerosmith being honored with the first version of the game dedicated to a single group, one the game’s creators put it this way: “They’ve sold over 150 million albums in their career, and they’ve just got a ton of music that works great for Guitar Hero.”

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The game covers Aerosmith’s journey beginning with their very first gig at Nipmuc High School all the way to the world-wide recognition that they enjoy today.

The game’s creators actually spent two weeks with the legendary Boston-based group in a motion-capture studio, which means that a lot of the moves seen during the game will be about as close to the real thing as you can get without seeing an actual Aerosmith performance.

The game was released yesterday, two days after Steven Tyler sang its praises (so to speak) at a press conference in New York City.

Tags: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero