Activision explodes with four music game announcements

Activision should consider changing its company name to something like Guitar Hero Incorporated, because that seems to be the company’s main focus lately. Don’t believe me? Consider the latest announcement. Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, DJ Hero and Band Hero are all coming to a console near you. Guitar Hero: Van Halen is tentatively scheduled for a release in the second half of 2009, but the rest of the games should be in stores this fall.

See that controller in the picture on the right? That’s what you’ll be using to play DJ Hero. The game lets players make remixes of popular songs and will feature music from a number of diverse genres, among them R&B and dance. While Guitar Hero fans will probably enjoy the gameplay, the music could help lure in a whole new legion of fans.

Guitar Hero 5 is the next installment of Guitar Hero. Like Guitar Hero: World Tour, it will be compatible with all of the instruments. Apparently the fifth edition will make it easier to change players and difficulty levels while you’re playing the game. This could be a handy feature for every person who ever thought they were advanced enough to attempt the Hard version of a song, then realized a few bars in that they weren’t ready.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen was just confirmed by Joystiq as the next entry in the Guitar Hero spin-offs where the game focuses mainly on a single band and its influences. Like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero: Metallica, it will feature some of Van Halen’s hits along with music from bands that helped inspire or influence Van Halen’s music.

The last game is Band Hero. To be honest, it sounds like a family-friendly version of Guitar Hero: World Tour. The game features top 40 hits instead of the rock songs we’ve come to expect in an Activision music game, will be rated “Everyone 10+” and be easier for beginners to play.

Okay, I’m going to level with you. If you’re a Guitar Hero fan and you can’t see a game you want in this news announcement, then something’s wrong. Activision is seriously going above and beyond, offering every kind of music game you could possibly want. It’s staggering, really. Activision hasn’t announced what consoles everything will be appearing on, but I’m sure it’ll be similar to Guitar Hero: World Tour and be on the big three (PS3, Wii, Xbox 360) and maybe the PS2 as well.

Then again, maybe Music Heroes Limited would be a better, and more appropriate company name. Activision is branching out after all.

Read [A+E Interactive] Also Read [Joystiq]