Forbes: Rock Band a 'shameless knockoff' of Guitar Hero

by Chris Greenhough { Jan 20th 2009 at 7:11PM }

We can only assume that Forbes lives in a world with no GuitarFreaks. In the latest issue of the business magazine, a biographical profile of Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick turns controversial when it accuses Rock Band of ripping off Guitar Hero. According to the magazine, "EA also teamed with MTV to sell Rock Band, a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero that added drums, bass and a microphone to the world of make-believe rock stars."

Leaving aside the fact that Guitar Hero hardly represents the roots of its genre, such a brash statement feels distinctly at odds with the rest of the (pretty neutral) piece. There's also the role of Harmonix to consider: after all, theirs was the name behind both franchises!

Gallery: Rock Band

[Via Joystiq]

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, bobby-kotick, business, ea, forbes, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-world-tour, harmonix, music, rock-band, rock-band-2

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

KeegdnaB @ Jan 20th 2009 7:20PM

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you....the next governor of Illinois

jceggbert5 @ Jan 27th 2009 6:49PM

Harmonix (makers of RockBand) started the Guitar Hero series, releasing Guitar Hero 1, rocks the 80s, and 2, THEN Activision bought the Guitar Hero series and released 3, world tour, aerosmith, and soon will release metallica. The type of gameplay is not able to be copyrighted (kind of like SSB), and Harmonix still owns the rights, so why not get them back?

(Guitar Hero 2 could've been released by activision, I am not sure)

linebeginstoblur @ Jan 20th 2009 7:59PM

Well, Forbes is just a shameless knockoff of Fortune magazine, so who cares?

In my heart, I see Rock Band as the successor to Guitar Hero, and the Neversoft games, such as Tony Hawk's Legends of Rock and Tony Hawk's World Tour, don't count.

Lars @ Jan 21st 2009 2:50PM

True dat. Pretty hilarious article for those in the know. Kinda scary though, thinking of all the people who don't know any better reading it and believing it.

It's hard to call something a knock off of another product that the same team invented. On the other hand... GH:WT is definitely a knock off of Rock Band.

Covarr @ Jan 20th 2009 8:06PM

Remember when FEAR 2 was going to be called something else, because the developers didn't have the rights to the name? Same kind of situation.

shadowray7 @ Jan 20th 2009 8:12PM

.....
Can I hurt Forbes?

Shiningmonk_e @ Jan 20th 2009 8:29PM

Yeah...Rock Band a shameless ripoff of Guitar which just happens be a shameless ripoff of Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania by Konami which have been around since the 90's.

timmy @ Jan 20th 2009 8:43PM

that would be like saying the mona lisa is a shameless ripoff of the last supper

EricC @ Jan 20th 2009 11:41PM

More like the Mona Lisa is a ripoff of the crayon drawing my son did in kindergarten today.

ryanpaulmcgowan @ Jan 20th 2009 9:07PM

Any chance of some Wii news? You know, one some core exclusives? Like a new Zelda or Mario? I'd even take some new Conduit stuff at this point.

influencia @ Jan 21st 2009 1:12AM

hell even more depressing Dead Rising Wii news would be better

thomeval @ Jan 21st 2009 2:30AM

LOL!

It seems somebody has their facts wrong...

hurfdurf @ Jan 21st 2009 7:29AM

I love Harmonix, but games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band is what's killing the industry. Rock Band is only good because of the drums. The guitars in both games are nothing but dick-waving and button mashing.

If people really want to wave their dicks online and try and score with chicks, they should 100% IIDX -- which should take them a good year to even get up to a solid 7 on Light7. LOL Fucking fratkids.