Activision Wants To Bring Guitar Hero To Arcades 75
dlapikin writes "Activision is preparing a deal with Konami and Raw Thrills to bring Guitar Hero to arcades worldwide as soon as 2009. It looks to be a great fusion of their current Guitar Hero III axe and World Tour. 'Some features have been streamlined, however, like character customization. Raw Thrills doesn't want people obsessing over the hair color of their on-screen rock star. But one important feature that has remained is downloadable content. Raw Thrills has the ability to push new songs to "Guitar Hero Arcade" through the Internet. Owners of the machines can pick and choose which of the new songs to add to the cabinet.'"
What took 'em so long? (Score:5, Interesting)
The game Guitar Hero was based on, GuitarFreaks [wikipedia.org] has been in arcades for 10 years now.
It is pretty hard to find in American arcades, though. The only place I've seen it was in a Golf Land in San Jose -- but then again I haven't spent much time in arcades since childhood.
At any rate, it is a bit surprising it took 'em so long to come around to building an arcade unit, given the success GuitarFreaks has had in Japan.
Re:Already there (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, I've seen Guitar Hero in one arcade I've been to not too long ago. It wasn't a real arcade version, (Just a 360 rigged with some timers hooked up to reset buttons and coin mechs) but it's still there. I've always wanted to try Guitar Freaks though. I saw it a really long time ago but the arcade I found that in has long since closed.
Honestly, I'm not quite sure why they are bothering with an arcade version. Nowadays arcades are almost dead unless you're working over in Asia, and as you've said Guitar Freaks already has that covered. ...I'd rather Rockband over Activision's Guitar Hero any day though. :P
Re:Already there (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Goddamn Orange button doesn't work! (Score:4, Interesting)
Maintaining a DDR dance pad is a time-consuming (but thankfully infrequent) thing. As dirt works its way into the mechanism, the dancer's actions pulverize it into a super fine dust that coats every surface of the device. It takes about 2 hours with a screwdriver and a shop vac to maintain the thing, but if it's done regularly problems almost never arise. I admit that I'm impressed with the robustness of the whole thing.
Re:Already there (Score:3, Interesting)
Just a 360 rigged with some timers hooked up to reset buttons and coin mechs
It it a reputable establishment? That kind of thing sounds pretty illegal to me, unless they got Activision's permission.