So this happened over the weekend. As both Activision and Blizzard/Sierra have been corporate conglomerates for a long time, this move is unlikely to change much for the developers under the new umbrella company. However, one interesting side note here is that the Guitar Hero franchise is now owned by the world’s largest music publisher. I guess we won’t be seeing any U2, Prince, Guns N’ Roses, or (yeah, probably just dreaming here…) Velvet Underground masters on Rock Band anytime soon.
DESIGNER NOTES
Soren Johnson's Game Design Journal
Well… not legally 😉
I know some people have already modded Guitar Hero 2 to play different songs. Since the Rock Band peripherals are USB, I would think that a Rock Band-like freeware computer program (like Stepmania vs. DDR) is on its way.
I would hope that Universal Music would do what’s best for them and not best for the large corporate conglomerate. If I’m not mistaken, Singstar (developed by Sony) for the PS2 featured music from many other labels other than Sony Music.
Which is the one being done by Jon Schafer and Jack Black?
Heh… I think you mean Tim Schafer. And that game is called Brutal Legend, which is now being put out by Guitar Hero-publisher Activision.
Hehehe. Yeah, woops. 🙂