All those rumors about a VAN HALEN Guitar Hero game coming in 2009 have proven to be true! Today, Activision announced that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is scheduled to arrive this year!
This game will be a new and unique interactive way for literally millions of people to connect with Van Halen and their awesome body of music. This partnership will give Van Halen a powerful platform to reach their hardcore fans, as well as a whole new, younger audience. Just imagine the thousands of teenagers who’ll be exposed to Van Halen for the first time and be inspired to pick up a real guitar and start a band!
Van Halen Store will be taking pre-orders for the game in the near future.
From Rolling Stone:
“Guitar Hero: Van Halen” Confirmed, Game Due in 2009
Gaming blog Joystiq is reporting that Activision Blizzard has confirmed that Guitar Hero: Van Halen is currently in development, and scheduled for release at some point in the second half of this year. The band joins Metallica and Aerosmith as groups that have received pixilated treatment from GH. So far the Beatles are the only group to get their own branded Rock Band title, though that game continues to release full playable albums, like Guns n’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy.
The report says the game will include “greatest hits,” as well as tracks from guest bands Queen, Weezer, Blink-182, Queens of the Stone Age and the Offspring. Which band members will appear as avatars in the game has been cause for concern among hardcore fans online, and Activision’s Senior Vice President of Global Brand Management told Joystiq, “Oh this is definitely Van Halen, not Van Hagar,” meaning David Lee Roth will indeed appear in the game.
When Joystiq published GH: VH rumors in March, VH fans also began to wonder whether they would see original bassist Michael Anthony, who was notably excluded from Van Halen’s most recent reunion tour (Anthony’s exclusion made our list of The Top 10 Passive-Aggressive Moments in Rock, though he probably minds less now that he’s busy with supergroup Chickenfoot). Or would you be able to play the game as Sammy Hagar or even Gary Cherone?
Guitar Hero: Van Halen is one of four music-based games the developer is working on for this year, with DJ Hero, Band Hero and Guitar Hero 5 also on the release schedule for later this year. While no specific track titles were offered, it’s expected the firm will release more information on Guitar Hero: Van Halen in the coming weeks and months.
From Gamespot:
Guitar Hero: Van Halen officially official
Activision’s Will Kassoy confirms long-rumored next band-centric installment of series will arrive in second half of year; Queen, Weezer, Blink 182, The Offspring, and Queens of the Stone Age also on setlist.
Activision has finally made official what has been widely rumored ever since March 2005. The next band-based Guitar Hero game will focus on Van Halen, the legendary hard rock quartet anchored by guitarist Eddie Van Halen and his drummer brother Alex. From the 1970s to 1990s, the group topped the charts under two different lead singers, David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar. (Sorry, Gary Cherone.)
“You’ve heard about this, maybe some rumors, but I am here to officially announce the title, which is coming out in the second half of this year,” senior vice president of Guitar Hero publishing Will Kassoy told a press event in Los Angeles this week. No platforms were mentioned, but prior band-centric Guitar Hero games have been released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and Wii.
Though he did not name any specific songs, Kassoy promised Guitar Hero: Van Halen would feature “many of the band’s greatest hits.” Such multiplatinum tracks as “Jump,” “Panama,” “Hot for Teacher,” and “Why Can’t This Be Love?” helped the group sell over 56 million albums in the US, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen will feature a plethora of other acts who inspired the quartet, including 1970s-80s British supergroup Queen. Kassoy said it will also feature artists inspired by Van Halen–many of which have members who weren’t even born when the band was formed in 1972. These include Weezer, Blink 182, The Offspring, and Queens of the Stone Age, “amongst many, many others,” said Kassoy.
The executive went on to explain Activision’s big-picture approach to band-focused Guitar Hero games. “Our previous two artist [focused] titles, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica, have done really well in the marketplace,” said Kassoy. “But it’s our desire to go beyond just individual band games, and to compliment that with artists the bands are really inspired by and that they themselves select to be in this game. The same is true of Van Halen.”
From G4:
Guitar Hero: Van Halen Finally Confirmed, World Sighs With Relief
The latest band-centric Guitar Hero from Activision Blizzard has been one of the worst kept secrets in gaming. Guitar Hero: Van Halen has been one of the hot music game rumors, but it’s hard to keep thinking it’s a rumor when the game’s achievements manage to leak before Activision Blizzard can announce it.
But now it’s official. At a pre-E3 event in Los Angeles, Activision Blizzard confirmed Guitar Hero: Van Halen is coming sometime during the second half of this year, featuring a “greatest hits” lineup of songs from the iconic rock group. The spin-off will also include music from Queen, Weezer, Blink-182, The Offspring, Queens of the Stone Age.
Weezer? Okay, I’m listening. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica didn’t really grab my attention, but that’s on account of my own music tastes.
Is Van Halen more to your liking?