inquisity

One of 2007’s hottest games has been Guitar Hero, which practically everyone I know has either played themselves or seen a friend play. One of my roommates bought it for the Nintendo Wii, and so I ended up trying it a few times (ok, way more than I’ll admit). The game is great because it mixes the right amount of musicality for the masses (very little) with the fast-paced feeling of a video game.

My friend commented that while Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has great songs, there were some great ones on the previous versions. Since the developer does not seem to be planning a release of the older versions on the Wii, my friend is out of luck. In addition, there are other songs that, in his opinion, belong in the new “Legends of Rock” title which are inexplicably absent.

The natural step, then, is for the developer to make songs available for purchase via the internet. This makes particular sense for the Wii, which gives access to online gameplay for free (in contrast to XBOX).

Let’s call this new game “Guitar Hero Ultimate.” I see two possibilities for this new title. First, a World of Warcraft approach where the user would buy a copy of “Ultimate” for much cheaper than the normal price of $50-$60, and then be forced to buy games online. This approach is basically giving users the “right” to buy songs, much like buying a copy of World of Warcraft allows you to pay for online gameplay. Second, “Ultimate” could simply have a new theme like previous Guitar Hero titles (i.e. the 90s, oldies) and have the ability to download new songs. The latter seems much smarter because current Guitar Hero players would probably be miffed about being forced to change.

Promoting the new Guitar Hero Ultimate as “the new Guitar Hero game with the ability for as many songs as you want” seems like a great way to make users happy that already have copies of all previous games as well as those who have a Wii or simply want their content ala a carte.