Guitar Hero game saturation

*Originally published on 7/2/09



Even someone who doesn't play video games can't help but notice all the "band" games that have been released recently. It seems like every month, another one pops up. We've already had 2 Rock Band games released by Electronic Arts and Activision has released 3 Guitar Hero games, another GH game that added drums and a mic, and 2 guitar hero games based on bands (Aerosmith and Metallica). That doesn't even include all the expansion and track packs that have been released like Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Rock Band Country Track pack, an AC/DC disc and a slew of others. The game producers aren't quite done yet, over the next few months expect to see the following games released.

Guitar Hero 5 (sep 1)

The Beatles: Rock Band (sep 9)

DJ Hero (Oct 27)

Lego Rock Band (nov 8)

Band Hero (nov 17)

I know these franchises are cash cows, but come on. This is starting to get ridiculous With new tracks offered through each system's respective online service, all these discs are unnecessary. Didn't the video game crash back in the early 80's teach you guys not to flood the market?

I really don't see the point of DJ Hero. The Rock Band and Guitar Hero games are fun, especially with groups of people, but who came up with the idea to have a music based game based solely on a turntable? Maybe they released it so that they could release tracks from bands like Beck or Limp Bizkit on the GH games? Band Hero makes no flippin sense given the fact that World Tour already gave us the drum and mic attachments needed to form a "band".

Like the Zelda games, I think one new game a year is plenty. You can keep releasing new tracks online, I encourage you to do so in fact, but this is really unnecessary. A lot of these games just end up recycling tracks anyway so it saves a lot of time and hassle for programmers and players alike. Not only that, but the release of a new Rock Band or Guitar Hero game would be more worthwhile if you spread it out. As it is, we're just starting to shrug and move on. We should look forward to the release of a new game. As it is now, it's becoming ho-hum and it's only a matter of time before people get tired of buying a Band or Hero game every week.