Activision and EA on Guitar Hero versus Rock Band
In the red corner, there’s Activision’s Guitar Hero III. The latest in a very successful franchise, this latest instalment will feature boss battles, as well as the signature Guitar Hero gameplay. In the blue corner is EA’s Rock Band, a game which lets you play with guitars, drums and a microphone. Needless to say, EA and Activision have differing opinions on which title will rule the Rock ‘em up market. Speaking to website Gamedaily, President of the EA games label Frank Gibeau unsurprisingly thought that Guitar Hero’s flexibility would work to its advantage:
“…when you think about that rock and roll fantasy, some guys fantasize about being drummers, some girls fantasize about being the singer, and now you can have it all; and from a party standpoint, the fact that you can have a band playing in dorm rooms, garages or families playing together, that's where we like our chances”
Activision’s Senior VP of global brand management Will Kassoy who thinks that Guitar Hero’s established brand power and accessibility will prove a winning formula “I think some of the early signs we've seen might make [Rock Band] a little more complex than some of the things that make Guitar Hero so great, which is its accessibility and ease of play for everyone. It's got something for enthusiast gamers in terms of its complexity, but it's really built on 'easy-to-use, difficult to master.' And that ease of use is so, so important for mainstream audiences.”
He went on to say that "We've done that successfully so far and we think Guitar Hero III builds on that even more with adding online, adding co-op, adding boss battles and things that make this franchise so much fun. In a way, I feel like it's [EA's] challenge to come in and make some inroads against this franchise that's become such a pop culture phenomenon. If you go beyond the game industry to just really mass market consumers, people haven't heard about Rock Band yet and the fact that it's only on next-generation platforms is going to be a little bit limiting. I mean, the origins of this franchise are on the PS2, and this year we're finally taking it across all platforms."
Ultimately, I think one of the big deciding factors will be the online modes, especially for Rock Band. If the game makes it easy to form rock bands and compete online, allowing people who specialise in different instruments to play together, then in the long run Rock Band's prospects look good. A well-implemented online mode could also go some way towards avoiding the punishing cost of buying all the accessories. If you can specialise in an instrument and play in a band online, then it'll reduce the need to buy the whole set of extras.
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