It may be embarrassing to some, but there’s no denying it: Guitar Hero was hugely influential for metal. The game, in which players used a plastic guitar to hit “chords” and play along to famous rock songs, helped introduce everyday households around the world to bands like Pantera, Dragonforce, and King Diamond. Now, it looks like after acquiring the property, Microsoft’s CEO is considering bringing the Guitar Hero series back.
As reported by Metal Injection, Microsoft recently bought gaming company Activision Blizzard, who also produce game series like Diablo and World of Warcraft, for a whopping $68.7 billion. And in a new interview, Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer railed off the properties he’d like to work with, including Guitar Hero.
“I was looking at the IP list, I mean, let’s go!” Spencer said. “King’s Quest, Guitar Hero…I should know this but I think they got HeXen.”
“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to work with them when the deal closes to make sure we have resources to work on franchises that I love from my childhood, and that the teams really want to get,” he continued. “I’m looking forward to these conversations. I really think it’s about adding resources and increasing capability.”
Keep your eyes peeled for a new Guitar Hero game in the future.
That said, Activision Blizzard isn’t exactly every metalhead’s favorite company these days. Back in October, the brand stripped one of World of Warcraft‘s characters of the name given to him in homage to Cannibal Corpse’s George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher due to some homophobic language the vocalist used in an interview from over a decade ago. However, further examination into the removal of Corpsegrinder’s name clearly show that the move was sparked by an ongoing lawsuit which claimed Blizzard has one of the more toxic ‘boys’ club’ working environments around.
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Words by Chris Krovatin
