The year was 2005, and the world was about to be taken by storm by a video game like no other. We are talking, of course, about the only Guitar Hero for PS2. This amazing game was the first to take full advantage of a modular controller developed to mimic a musical instrument and people loved it. Since 2005, the company that was once Harmonix was bought by MTV Networks and would ultimately be responsible for launching the Rock Band platform after ceding the Guitar Hero label to Activision.
Between the two platforms, the viability of premium music downloads for video game platforms has become a reality. Since the launch of online support services on major platforms, more than 20 million tracks have been downloaded. Combine that with the increase in sales artists themselves have seen as a result of having their tracks in-game and the impact on the music business has been unparalleled by any other musical innovation to date (even the kick pedal!) distortion!) It should also be noted that artists earn more per track selling their downloads through Guitar Hero than through iTunes.
As a whole, the series has released a total of 13 games and as of October 9, 2008, the series has sold 23 million units and earned US$1.6 billion at retail. Guitar Hero 3’s North American release grossed more than $115 million in sales for Activision, making it the biggest-selling week in the company’s history and paralleling big-screen movie releases. like Iron Man, Spider Man 2 and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Unfortunately, as one might imagine, those who aren’t cashing in on the deal are quick to hire lawyers and point fingers. None have been as active in their litigation as legendary guitar maker Gibson. They have filed multiple lawsuits in 2008 not only against Activision for using imitation Gibson guitars, but also against the world’s largest retailers (Wal-Mart, Amazon.com and a few others) for selling and distributing the games. They have also gone a step further by going after MTV Networks claiming that Rock Band is infringing on them. In the last year, they have had little success with any of their suits and they will likely be long and drawn out.
As gamers, we’ve been very fortunate that these types of suits haven’t been more prevalent among recording artists, record labels, managers, and others in the music industry. Instead, we get to enjoy our favorite Guitar Hero games, and hopefully we’ll have many more years of gaming to come.
