Marking two decades since the legendary game hit the market across the Atlantic, providing everyday gamers the means to become rock legends. Figuratively speaking, but try telling that someone who has nailed Free Bird’s four-minute guitar solo in front of an enthusiastic crowd of friends.
Created by the developers, the game gave players a plastic guitar peripheral to match on-screen cues scrolling down the screen synchronized to a song. Each riff mimicked particular chords, creating the feel of a genuine performance.
The studio previously tried its hand with rhythm games prior to teaming up with the publisher, later acquired by the gaming giant during the mid-2000s. Collaboratively, they established the groundwork for a surprising billion-dollar series that had a significant impact for many musicians included, showcasing classic groups to a new generation of younger players.
A former executive, ex-chief operating officer of Harmonix, recalls the early financial challenges of licensing the recordings – despite the fact initial releases primarily featured rerecorded tracks.
“We reproduced all the music because the cost was so high,” he explains. “Even with the publishing rights alone, it proved extremely difficult. We couldn’t get acts such as legendary groups – the publisher was operating on a shoestring budget, and we were pretty convinced it would fail. But once the game became a hit, album purchases and radio play were going up, all artists desired to be in.”
He adds: “One of the amazing things was how many mothers and fathers reached out and thanked us for exposing their children to the songs they loved. It became a multigenerational thing.”
Classic Rock Gains a New Audience
Irish group the Answer included their track on the 2008 game the popular installment. Lead musician Paul Mahon recalls how the series brought older hits to the forefront: “Guitar Hero offered a bigger, new demographic. Typically such music was considered music that was past it, but then once it got included in the title and teenagers were finding it, abruptly it was cool. That legitimised the genre, eliminating the outdated label. It gave our catalog a new life.”
In 2008, the Answer’s first record was still not available stateside, so Guitar Hero was a key medium for exposure for the band as they went on a North American tour supporting the rock giants. “Their crew were playing Never Too Late during travel, and some of them recognized us from Guitar Hero,” Mahon says.
Rock’s Heavyweight Spin-offs and Lasting Influence
Rock’s biggest acts soon capitalised on the game's success, with Aerosmith, Metallica and others starring in specialized game editions that focused on each band’s catalogue and related lore, visuals and rock’n’roll mythology. For example, the Aerosmith edition, it was said to have made the group more money than any of their records. It sold well over 500,000 copies upon release, while demand for Aerosmith’s music saw an increase of up to 40% during an era as the industry faced decline.
The series continues to inspire quick-handed fanaticism among its fans. Earlier this year, an online personality completed a remarkable feat featuring the challenging track – a notoriously difficult anthem popularized through Guitar Hero – using a fan-made version, a freeware game with almost identical mechanics but an array of customisation options. The song is challenging enough on expert mode, not to mention played at double speed and without missing a single one of the thousands of cues. They claimed it took months of practice to accomplish.
“The game offers a, fantasy thing. If you play other games, that doesn’t mean you should pick up actual weapons and go to war,” says DragonForce guitarist Herman Li.
The band had already wrapped up a profitable run before their hit was featured in the third game, yet he explains it made them a household name. “I remember our distributors calling to tell me that our selling albums rapidly,” he shares. “It exploded when we next toured, and we performed right ahead of top acts on the Mayhem festival.”
Indeed, DragonForce’s exposure from Guitar Hero proved so vast that it risked overshadow everything else the band has done. Last year, the song featured in promotional material for a major film. “In the past I thought differently, but I’ve made peace with it,” Li says. “Should you just listen to one DragonForce song, that's fine – each person has their own musical journey and I’m glad we’ve been part of people’s lives”.
Enduring Legacy from the Iconic Controller
Top-tier marketing, whether it’s for automobiles, clothes or video games, goes further than selling something – it evokes a longing. Did Guitar Hero tap into that? “That’s exactly what our team aiming to achieve,” Dornbrook says. “That thrill of performing as a rock star in the spotlight. Since the beginning, the co-founders believed there’s an instinctive urge to create songs, and they wanted to use technology to enable everyone to do it”.
The majority of Guitar Hero games came out over a mere five-year period from 2005 to 2010, featuring spin-offs such as the DJ version, including a spinning deck, and Band Hero. After that, the publisher’s interest on peripherals died down, aside from a short-lived revival in 2015.
Games such as the fan project and newer releases have maintained the scene alive, and there’s expectations of something from the original publisher on the way. Recently formed developers has entered production on their first rhythm-based title. Original co-founders are participating in advisory roles. Are gamers ready to embrace another game in the spirit of the classic?
“Our team believed those games might become like Madden where you can update every year,” Dornbrook says. “There’s so much new music that it could be evergreen, so I’ve always been hopeful. There’s no reason for it to persist for future fans.”
