Guitar Hero and Rock Band not competing

PALGN News | Harmonix man thinks the games are targeting different audiences.

Harmonix, developers of the first two Guitar Hero games and the highly anticipated Rock Band - which is finally hitting Australian shores this week - have said that they are not competing with the latest entry into the Guitar Hero series, dubbed World Tour.

"I don't think we're competing with Guitar Hero," designer Dan Teasdale told Eurogamer. How silly of us to even make the connection. It's not like either game involves singing, playing guitars, bass and drums to create a virtual band at all. Thankfully, Teasdale elaborated.

"At least from a design perspective, we're going after two completely different audiences. Rock Band is about an authentic band gameplay experience. We want people to have fun at parties, and we want to reach a wide audience.

"We developed the original Guitar Hero as a more technical experience. There's nothing wrong with that, it's a valid experience; it's just not what we're going for. I don't sit around going, 'How do we beat Guitar Hero?' I don't need to. My team's got more than enough great ideas."

Fellow Harmonix bloke, John Drake, chimed in, suggesting that Harmonix's game has a rather different focus than World Tour, and that liking both franchises was the best way to go.

"We're not thinking about one-upping, we're trying to make the best game we can... Their game focuses on totally different stuff to our game in certain respects. We're spreading a very large music catalogue with a ton of songs, they have a music creator in their game, and it's very cool and very different. People can play both. Call of Duty and Halo are both great franchises you can enjoy. It's the same with Guitar Hero and Rock Band."

Rock Band will be officially released in Australia this Friday.

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15 Comments

G3ck0

3 years ago

highly anticipated Rock Band 2 - which is finally hitting Australian shores this week

I think you mean Rock Band, not Rock Band 2. Is Rock Band 2 coming to Australia? Probably in a year. And Rock band seems more of a "co-op" type game, a party game, whereas GH games are more competitive.

Sin Ogaris

3 years ago

Wow, that's the biggest load of tripe I've ever read.

I would have thought that an "authentic band experience" would hold at least some of the technicality of actually playing in a band otherwise it's not overly authentic. Oh and it's all well and good to say "people buy CoD and Halo, so buy WT and RB2" but CoD and Halo don't cost an extra 200 bucks to get the peripherals thus making you a poor panda.

Oh, and he does mean Rock Band 2, it's an american interview so they're talking about the upcoming RB2 over there, not our year late abomination.

rufati

3 years ago

Yeah I'd have to agree that what he's said is a load of crap. It sounds what a losing side would say to try and save face.

GH and RB are now almost the same product, it's pretty naive of him to be saying that they're not competing. They're both band games centered around rock music. The only way they wouldn't be competing was if they were the same game.

Sepultallica9

3 years ago

Harmonix make quality products (GH, GH2, RB). Neversoft don't (GH3, GH:A). So he's right, they're not competing.

hellerphant

3 years ago

Well actually imo they are two totally different games. I currently have both, and while they are both great fun, they are completely different.

Rock Band has a more diverse musical track listing, and feels like playing in a band (I actually play in a real band). The drumming is more technical and feels a lot like the real thing.

World Tour seems like more fun, with a newer track list than the first Rock Band, but it just doesn't feel as authentic. Plus it is littered with ads from KFC and AT&T which I hate. Drumming is much like the guitar component, doesn't feel like really playing the song, rather they just threw in a mix of notes to see if you can actually pull it off

Swanny

3 years ago

from what i have heard... people i know who have played both.... GH:WT feels the more authentic in the way of instruments.... but rockband does have the better menu system and HUD.....

hellerphant wrote

Drumming is much like the guitar component, doesn't feel like really playing the song, rather they just threw in a mix of notes to see if you can actually pull it off

you will find as you increase the difficulty the notes will be more in sync with the actual songs drum beats.....
Both rockband and guitar hero are made to be played at higher difficulties..... well at least in my opinion (and other people i have talked to)....
GH:WT FTW!

jomonjin

3 years ago

IMO, as someone who has played guitar for 21 years... (ouch)... I always thought GH3 had a better feel to the tracking than GH2.

There probably were tunes where there were more notes than necessary - but it still felt better to me overall. The flow of notes, use of hammer-ons and pull-offs etc - all matched the how I expected the songs to feel better than in GH2. (A shame really - the GH2 tracklist is absolutely killer!)

All, that is, except for the very end of Mastodon's Sleeping Giant on expert - that's a friggin' mess. No idea what they were thinking there.

What's this got to do with the current debate? Erm, I don't really know... DLC was a joke with GH, so the downloadable tracks in RB2 could be the deciding factor.

stick_theory

3 years ago

Fool.

While, yes, you may notice differences when youve played the games. The targeted market havent played them so they wont know these differences. Get a PR department already.

Slipvayne21

3 years ago

Meh, i want both RB 2 and GH4, but living in this 3rd world country, where we are soooo depraved that we ride kangaroos to work..
We have to wait.

WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!

Kidos to GH4 though, only 2 week delay.

As for this article... Say whatever you want, this game appeals to THE SAME audiences in the end, so therefore they going to be competing for the cash from the potential buyers.. we get long enough here in AUS to hear ALL the reviews / pros / cons etc.
Make up your own mind though.

x7h3CUREx

3 years ago

Sepultallica9 wrote

Harmonix make quality products (GH, GH2, RB). Neversoft don't (GH3, GH:A). So he's right, they're not competing.

exactly right. GH3 is a mess, theres notes thrown in at the wrong places and it just feels slightly off whereas GH and GH2 played better. i like the look of GH:WT but i wouldn't buy it at launch based on their previous attempts.

but as far as the article goes. i think he's kidding himself if he thinks they're not in competition.

Lord Haart

3 years ago

PALGN wrote

Guitar Hero and Rock Band not competing
Harmonix man thinks the games are targeting different audiences.

ROFL.

Apparently the difference is that Harmonix are so out of touch with reality that they think that there is one. If there's any difference between the products, that's one thing, but without a doubt the audience is the same. Say what you like about RB having other instruments, if people bought RB for singing they'd just by singstar or lips.

I guess the PR department has taken the quote "if you tell it often enough, people will believe it" too seriously...

Jaws

3 years ago

Sepultallica9 wrote

Harmonix make quality products (GH, GH2, RB)..

Sadly, the above image does not agree with your generalisation..

I think it's not a well thought out thing to say from them, seeing as they are essentially marketing the same package in (slightly) different clothing.

Buttmouth

3 years ago

^ Nicely stomped* that misconception, but mind cropping the photo?

*Wow, didn't even mean to write that. Puns are awesome.

Bunnie

3 years ago

Lord Haart wrote

PALGN wrote

Guitar Hero and Rock Band not competing
Harmonix man thinks the games are targeting different audiences.

I think it comes down to this: many people will only be able to afford one or the other (if either). With the current financial constraints, competition is high, especially in such products that don't seem that different to an outside observer/casual gamer.

Lord Haart

3 years ago

^Exactly my point - they are the same game, more or less, and people will never buy both - that means they are in direct competition, just about as much as is possible.

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