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Guitar zero
With the release of two embarrassing videos and increasing competition for space in your house where you keep a fake plastic drum kit, yesterday was not a good day for Guitar Hero.
Once I was visiting Electronic Arts and I congratulated them on Call of Duty appearing in a recent episode of The Office. "That must have been quite the coup for you guys," I said, figuring I'd get on their good side before the product demo I was about to see. After all, having one of your franchises mentioned on a highly rated TV show is the kind of advertising you just can't buy. Well, not cheaply.
"That's Activision," I was told. "We're Medal of Honor."
"It's called Rock Band, I think," she told him. Kotick is the CEO of Activision, the company with the Guitar Hero license. They're facing stiff competition and no small amount of ridicule for Guitar Hero World Tour, which is imitating EA's Rock Band by adding a drum kit and a microphone. After Swisher's gaffe, Tony Hawk came out and rooted himself to the stage during a demo song, with a look on his face that said 'don't mess with me, I'm trying to get these notes right'. Paula Abdul stood off to one side and chatted audibly with Kotick while the "band" failed to look like it was having much fun at all.
Activision also released a video yesterday demonstrating Guitar Hero: On Tour, their game for the Nintendo DS. It features a guy in eyeliner whose setting on the awkwardness meter goes to 11. He shrilly sings various promotional phrases about the game while going head to head against a smug looking kid. It's hard to decide which of them you want to punch in the face more. Or maybe you might just be embarrassed for them, in which case you're a better person than me.
By the way, Activision's stock fell half a point yesterday.
By bl8ant at 12:12 PM ON 05/29/08
Question. How are friendless losers who would play this game expected to play all the instruments by themselves? Get out of your mom's basement and get a band, you wankers.
By rrmorton at 3:47 PM ON 05/29/08
Isn't that the kid from Dexter in the Guitar Hero DS promo video?
By Dean at 4:30 PM ON 05/29/08
It doesn't look like Kara Swisher made a mistake, she's calling him on the blatant lie when he says, "It's the first time that you'll have multiple instruments-- drums, mic, bass, different guitar--"
"It's called Rock Band I think."
"We're calling it Guitar Hero: World Tour."
So she just kind of said, "Bullshit."
By Scott at 7:27 PM ON 05/29/08
This is my new favorite site.
By Tom Chick at 7:42 PM ON 05/29/08
Dean, you might be right, but is Swisher really that brash? That's kind of an a-hole-ish thing to say to Kotick, particularly since it's so true!
By Dean at 9:48 AM ON 05/30/08
Well, I've never heard of Kara Swisher before, but my google-fu says that she made an ass out of Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) in an interview after the Sara Lacey debacle, and she got Rupert Murdoch's DNA tested (to see if he's human?) as part of a stunt. She's also usually described as abrasive or feisty, so yeah, I'd say she'd call bullshit if she saw it.
She's also got a character on "The L Word" named after her, which makes me a Kara Swisher fan.
By sagedismal at 10:34 AM ON 06/04/08
That video of the band playing this game was horrible. I think I'll just stick to rock band. I lost interest in GH after RB came out anyway. I wonder if Activision is going to release any new songs on this stupid game every week like EA/Harmonix does. I highly doubt it.
sagedismal:
That video of the band playing this game was horrible. I think I'll just stick to rock band. I lost interest in GH ...More »