Newsweek this morning is reporting that Aerosmith and their music will be a Guitar Hero exclusive for an "unspecified period of time." Activision CEO Bobby Kotick first hinted that the band would be "proprietary to our format" at last month's Morgan Stanley Technology Conference.
"It's an exclusive deal for this game," Aerosmith publicist Marcee Rondon told Harris. We confirmed this with Tim Riley, Activision's vice president of music affairs, who told us through Activision PR that "I can say that we do have the band exclusively, and their catalogue should be exclusive to us beyond the one or two tracks they had licensed out to Rock Band before we made our deal." (According to MTV's Rhythm Game Track Finder, it's one song: "Train Kept a Rollin'.")
Hit the link for N'gai's take on the info he uncovered and why it was both inevitable and, likely, will not be the last time this happens in the increasingly broad genre of rhythm games.










Comments
I despise whenever Last Child comes up in GH2 or when Train Kept Rollin' comes up in Rock Band, so this is just fine with me. They can keep them.
Please.
Keep them.
Forever.
Meh, no big loss.
shit shit shit.
If this happens with other bands I really care about I'm gonna be PISSED.
Fuck it, Its totally gonna happen. I'm already pissed.
Thank God. Train Kept A-Rollin' took awesome points away from Rock Band. Neversoft, you can keep Aerosmith for all I care.
"Meh, no big loss."
this
Color me not surprised.
Here's hoping Aerosmith is one of few.
I'm betting Metallica may be one of Harmonix's exclusives, but that's anyones guess.
Thank God. Train Kept a Rollin is already sullying my Rock Band library, and I dread every time I am forced to play it in Band World Tour. Activision can keep Aerosmith exclusivity; here's hoping that I will never have to slog through an Aerosmith song again.
Exclusivity deals with bands is a bad idea. Eventually there's gonna be prizefights where most of the money will go towards capturing bands for prolonged periods.
And, yes, this will cut into the game's budget.
As I expected... not many so far care.
I know I don't.
Now it's more true than ever...
RB > GH
That's too bad. I hope this isn't going to be a trend.
No big loss in my opinion, of coarse if it were a band i liked then I'd be rightfully upset.
I've always been confused by exclusive content. Surely in the long run the developer/publisher can make more of downloads than the payoff they get from the consoles/games manufacturer.
Seriously? Train Kept a Rollin' is a dang good song, them old Aerosmith songs are pretty rad. Or maybe I am just old.
anyways, this probably wont happen because as we have seen, RB sells way more DLC then GH ever will. Unless they add in like, a keyboard and some Children of Bodom or something. Oh or a Guitar-Synth so we can be all 80's new wave!
Just a few comments and already we see some people who refuse to look at the big picture. You may or may not like Aerosmith, but this is setting a trend. Today it's Aerosmith, but tomorrow? Guns 'N Roses? Led Zeppelin?
Meh. Not bothered.
I hope bands realize how well Rock Band's DLC is doing. This better not be the reason why I've only seen one Red Hot Chili Pepper song on RB and about 4(?) on the GH series.
RHCP, please kindly ignore Guitar Hero from now on. My dream of playing Californication on drums better fuckin' come true.
Love, your good fan, Chu Boi.
Dude looks like a lady. Seriously.
Agreed that this will likely become a trend. My hunch is that Activision will be very aggressive in setting up exclusive deals like this one. They've already referred to a few artists as being exclusive, haven't they?
I'm discouraged. I would like to sing some Aerosmith. I know Activision has hinted at vocals, but I'll believe it when I see it. This doesn't serve a customer as long as the two products are so different. If Activision steps up with a Rock Band style experience, I wouldn't mind as much. But so long as the games offer different play styles, exclusives will fundamentally deprive the consumer and that's not cool.
@Guild_Navigator: THat's the problem. This WILL become a trend.
Exclusivity with songs is BS. I don't want to have to buy 2 or 3 different products just to get the songs I want to play.
Stay competitive by making your hardware great - not by limiting others. This is crap, Activision.
As a result of this, I am proud to announce that I am now exclusive to Rock Band. Soon you to will be able to play my one and only hit, "Ramblings of a Kotaku Reader".
Seriously though this seems like it could be heading in a bad direction. We will have to start choosing our rock games based on who they have deals with as opposed to whether they are awesome or just milking the franchise *cough*guitarherorocksthe80s*cough*
Man...How many gamers really care about Aerosmith on Guitar Hero?
Srsly.
Yay on me calling this a week or so back on this web site.
And yes, it WILL happen with other bands and yes eventually those of you who are saying "meh" WILL care about it.
Like megaStryke said, you people need to look at the big picture.
@Spoony Bard: Is it just me or is this sounding a lot like something EA would do when they were still number one (maybe even now)?
Well Rock Band is clearly the better choice when it comes to music games. There's no doubt about it. Guitar Hero 3 was the worst of the Guitar Heroes. Hell, even Rocks the 80's was better than this. And now they get a band that no one really cares about, well I guess it's the only way for Activision to compete is to try to lock down some bands. I really hope that Aerosmith was like 10th on the list and all the others just said no because they prefer Rock Band. I just hope that this is the case.
You don't think that EA and MTV Games won't be pulling this stuff too? Didn't Metallica say their newest single would debut on Rock Band? You don't think money was exchanged there?
@NitrousO: Unfortunately, it's the trend everywhere now. EA gets people to buy Madden by taking the NFL license from others - and yet we as customers still buy the game in droves.
The worst part is that consumers will buy this Aerosmith game in droves, thus justifying the whole business practice. It's really quite sad.
If this does become a trend, I will put my faith behind Rock Band... EA & MTV > Activision.
While one's opinion of Aerosmith is one thing...it should be noted that this is the first move in what could potentilaly turn into a war that ruins both franchises.
How many songs in GH could make great full band experiences in RB? And what songs in RB would translate well the guitar-centric GH tracks?
@KaneRobot: agreed!!
Oh good. Since I don't like either, having them both contained into one game will mean that I won't have to listen to their horrendous music in my precious Rock Band. My day is getting better and better!
@megaStryke: I only really care about GnR in your list hehehe
jk man. I see the big picture but I don't know how much I care yet. And I think for the most part, if the game doesn't sell well I doubt you'll see it happen again.
To those that say train kept a rolling suck...
please go learn what good music is.
@BStu: I will not buy an Activision Rock Band rip unless it's compatible with the existing RB equipement, or if the new equipment is compatible with RB.
Because I'm already making room for a drum kit, mic, and two guitar's that I really would rather not have a second set of instruments (bringing the total up to 4 guitars).
@NitrousO: I thought that too. It's scary when we find ourselves rooting for EA on this one...
@megaStryke: yea they did, I believe they pledged their entire catalog to RB as well (but not exclusive no doubt... like Lars is gunna pass up more dolla bills).
Well, thats one less sale for Aerosmith (and Activision). I am no longer investing any more money in the Guitar Hero Franchise until they get a passing grade in "plays well with other controllers".
I wonder when they will figure out that if they let any guitar controller on their games they would sell even more copies than they already do.
Sucks for Aerosmith fans. It doesn't bother me that they won't be in Rock Band. I just hope this doesn't become a war to one up one another.
Meh. No big deal. I'd rather wait and buy the tracks I want than to pay $90 for a bunch of crap I don't care about. Screw you Guitar Hero and your now never-ending incarnations.
This is one example of where micro-transactions are a benefit to gamers.
I actually really liked GH3. I've played a lot of rhythm games since the 90s and the first two were a bit too easy.
...but GH Aerosmith has absolutely no pull on me at all. I think I'll just catch up on IIDX 13-15...
Awesome! I fucking hate Aerosmith and I love Rockband. It's nice to know their shitty music won't be infecting one of my favorite games.
And Activision says they are not like EA.
No big loss, but just sayin' is all!
So long as both games regularly release DLC, I actually prefer exclusivity. It means more variety in the tracklists. I don't want to see the same tracks showing up again and again on both games. Unfortunately, Guitar Hero's DLC schedule has been rubbish.
Aerosmith or Rock Band's 90+ song DLC library... That's a tough call. I think Guitar Hero might have won this round.
@Vistrix: I loved it when they released Dream On for free download. Now im waiting for pink Dueces are wild and Living on the edge. Only thing i wish one of the two games would release is "Blaze of Glory" by Jon BOn Jovi.
man, this sux. i like alot of aerosmith's stuff, especially the older stuff, but then again, i'm old.
rock band needs to counter with megadeth exclusivity. that would be a knockout blow!
Oh No!! /sarcasm
Sorry to those of you who are fans but, this is no big loss to me. Some songs are good, but I was never really a big fan.
Sucks for Rock Band + Aerosmith fans. I'll be getting all the Aerosmith I need when I get GH:Aerosmith.
Still hard to get excited about RB Wii what with the absent DLC...
Its like the new exclusivity battle for end users. No longer (really) will titles be used to bring in more console users such as FF7 did for PS1, Halo for Xbox and MGS4 for 360 but the creation of content for those titles
Look at Singstar, Rock Band and GH and tell me that soon youre not goin to see exclusivity rights being bought up for all the big bands.
@shaunomacx: "Its like the new exclusivity battle for end users. No longer (really) will titles be used to bring in more console users such as FF7 did for PS1, Halo for Xbox and MGS4 for 360..."
Ahhhhhh... look what you slipped in there! Sneaky, sneaky! Know something we don't?
I really hope this doesn't devolve into half the bands I like being on one game and the other half on the other.
Wouldn't bands be better served by remaining game-neutral? Then they could get royalties from both EA and Activision, not to mention reach players of both games as opposed to just the one.
Another possibility is that this is just an Activision smoke screen to divert attention away from the failings of GH3 in comparison to Rock Band.
Good. Train Kept A Rollin makes me want to fuck my eyes and ears with knives.
I hate this world.