Guitar Hero II Coming to Next-Gen Consoles

GamesIndustry.biz reports on comments by CEO and chairman of Activision Robert Kotick at a conference this week. According to Mr. Kotick, Red Octane's next game (coming to the PS2 in November) will see release on next-gen consoles early next year. From the article: "Kotick confirmed that Guitar Hero would appear 'on every significant new format', while discussing intentions for yearly updates and building franchises across a number of key Activision titles."

Xbox360?

Where's the link? Does this include XBox360?

You know...

If they'd just open all the consoles, we could port Frets On Fire [kempele.fi] to them all, and get it that way too. I'm sure someone will eventually get homebrew code running on everything, much like stepmaniax running on xbox, but the hardware developers sure aren't making life easy for the rest of us.

Wii controller

This implies there will be a Wii version, and if so, will it use the Wii controller? That would be interesting, and save consumers money. Or will it use a guitar controller like the first one? It would be cool if, since all 3 systems support wireless controllers anyway, they made universal wireless guitars, so I could take the guitar from my Wii version to my friend's house and play on his X360.

Re:Wii controller

I would imagine you'd be able to use the Wiimote and Ninchuck for some of it, but for full Awesome effect they'd do what the Wii was set up to do- create something that attaches to the Wii.

I'm imagining a guitar that has a little inset portion that the Wiimote snaps snuggly into. This "Wiitar" would still be cheaper than the PS2/3/XBox360 version, because the motion censors and connection to the system wouldn't have to be put into it. It would basically be a custom-shaped shell with added buttons (and the little handle thing).

As an added bonus, each note you make (good or bad) can come out of the Wiimote itself, as well as (or as opposed to) the TV.

I'm not sure if Activision considers the Wii a "significant new format" (I certainly hope so), but I would definately pick up the game if it came out for the Wii.

Wiimote not appropriate

I don't think the Wiimote and nunchuck would do much good. You could use the nunchuck as a strummer by moving it up and down, and the wiimote as a neck, but pressing the buttons wouldn't really word. And even if it had the buttons, it wouldn't feel as cool as having a "real" guitar. Either way, it's hopefully good news for the Wii. It needs this high profile, typically PSX titles.

Re:Wiimote not appropriate

Maybe this could be one of those theoretical remote "shells" that slip over the Wii remote.

Or, more likely, you get a WiFi guitar controller like all the other versions... but the Wii version comes with the exclusive feature option of a second player on drums, using the Wii remotes, natch.

Jeez, Zonk

At least remember to put the link in...

http://gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=1983 6 [gamesindustry.biz]

Demo in Cambridge last night

There was a demo last night of GH2 at the postmortem usergroup's "Harmonix party" (in Central Square, Cambridge) close to where Harmonix is based). I didn't know it was happening until about an hour before I went, or I'd probably taken a camera and a bottle of water (the minibar was selling them for $2 [but the pizza was free!]).

The line was pretty long, even with people going up two at a time (the multiplayer co-op mode was pretty interesting). Unfortunately, there was only one venue to play in the demo. One of the speakers from Harmonix said that they finally got to do with GH2 what they originally wanted to do with GH1. He said "not a lot" has changed in the gameplay, though, although he sounded really happy with the "revolutionary" additions such as pull-offs.

I'd say more, but I don't know how much of what I learned from the developers is public. It didn't sound, though, like they've started development on PS3 hardware yet.

Apparently, postmortem has these meetings once a month. Ask around if you're in the Boston area.

Why never the PC?

I'm not into first person shooters or driving games or single person "rpgs". I play MMORPGs, real time and turn based strategy games and some puzzle games. I have no driving need to buy any kind of console.

But for games like this or, say, DDR, you HAVE to get a console. Why not a PC version? Is it that difficult to make a version of the controller for one?

Is it that they make more money on a console version? It does seem like prices drop slower on console games, though I could be wrong in that thought.

Re:Wow. What a scoop.

At least this time an actual game was referred to, unlike the Bioware "news" from earlier this week.

Mods, if this article wasn't about Guitar Hero, you wouldn't have modded the parent flamebait. You can say that that's because GH is more newsworthy, or you can use your mod points to reward the best posts instead of voting true and neutral posts down.

Re:wow

Um, how the hell was that a troll? Sure, sometimes I write posts that could be taken as trolling, but that wasn't one of them.