Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades (Nintendo DS)

Talk about a name dropping, E3 is all about hyping upcoming titles to get people stoked and talking about the games.  Nintendo had very little to say but to let the name slip Guitar Hero On Tour: Decades with a few minor tidbits about what we can expect.

First, we can expect massive carpel tunnel syndrome. Second, you can expect something similar to what we’ve seen in Guiter Hero On Tour with a few minor tweaks:

“They did reveal that the game will feature song sharing between Nintendo DS handelds, which would mean one copy of the game has the potential to have a song the other doesn’t? Could there be DS downloadable tracks in the near future?” (kotaku)

It seems a bit quick to be pushing towards yet another release, although no dates have been set besides “coming soon.” Had it been Sony, we could expect soon to be a few years, but Nintendo is usually pretty prompt when it comes to release schedules. Of course, they’ll wait for the On Tour sales to die down before we see the Decades release.

Unfortunately no songs have been talked about yet, it was really more of a name dropping than a detailed announcement. Perhaps they didn’t have a large enough E3 press release time slot, or they were much more jazzed to talk about the Wii Motion Plus product and Wii Sports Resort.

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“Having worked at Sony as a Creative Designer two years ago, it doesn’t surprise me that they have still yet to release Home. While there, I was working on their Station Launcher application which was supposed to be released in late 2006. However, the Launcher app is still only in Beta to this day.” (2old2play.com)

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Rhythm Games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero will go without original masters of Led Zeppelin because the remaining band members don’t want to see their most valuable possessions in the wrong hands.

For Activision and MTV, original master tracks are the most valuable asset they can get their hands on. Cover bands work well and many do great justice (sometimes better) to the original artist but masters are where it’s at! What if those tracks are ever “lost” while mastering them for a video game?

Page and the crew aren’t looking to take that risk, no matter what Activision and/or MTV is ready to pay for those original tracks. Led Zeppelin is a classic rock band, perhaps stuck in old ways, but they’re lively hood is in those master tracks; it’s the heart of the Led Zeppelin sound.

To Led Zeppelin it’s not worth the risk in losing those masters just go get their songs in a video game.

The band isn’t comfortable with the prospect of granting outsiders access to its master tapes, a necessary step in creating the games. “It ain’t about the money,” Mr. Mensch says. (WSJ)

Can you fault them for the mistrust? Risking everything you’ve worked on since 1968 just to get your product in a video game isn’t an easy decision. Many folks, Aerosmith included, probably see this as a great opportunity to get their songs into the youth, market themselves on a new medium and make a few bucks while doing it. There is definitely going to be some ego involved with being able to see your songs grow on a brand new rock medium, but not everyone thinks the same.

To some artists, music isn’t all about marketing and popularity. To each his own, but it’s upsetting to know we won’t be rocking out to any classic Led Zeppelin with a wailing Robert Plant and beating the drums like one of the most respected drummers in the industry: John Bonham.