Activision fumbles Guitar Hero backwards-compatibility
Remember how cool it was when you bought Rock Band 2 and imported all the songs from the last Rock Band? Well, all but three of them. But remember how you got the sense that, yes, this isn’t just a game, but a platform unto itself? After all the content spilled across various Guitar Hero discs and iterations, remember how cool it was to know that Harmonix and Electronic Arts wanted to give you all your rock in one place? Remember that?
This week you can recreate that moment when you buy Guitar Hero 5 and import all the songs from the last Guitar Hero. Well, all but 50 of them. That’s right, 50 of the last game’s 85 songs didn’t make the transition. It seems that Activision couldn’t get their act together when it came to whatever licensing shenanigans needed to happen behind the scenes. So when you pay the token fee that goes to Activision’s legal department for clearing all the paperwork to ensure you can play fewer than half of the last game’s songs, remember that this is just a game, and not a platform.
But Activision pledges they haven’t yet given up! There could, maybe, be more on the way. Possibly. Depending on how it goes. Perhaps for a fee, perhaps for free, who knows.
And to further celebrate Activision’s obvious love of the music, above is a video of how ridiculous it looks when you have Kurt Cobain as your lead singer. Ouch.
