That's right, a MIDI sequencer. While a far cry from our keytar-brandishing dreams, the addition will allow those savvy enough to wrap their heads around the process to compose music on the PC and then import their creations into Guitar Hero World Tour. The feature, however, doesn't sound like it's suited for the faint of heart, as Neversoft's Brian Bright tells Shacknews that "it's going to take an FAQ on the Guitar Hero site--it's not something that your average user is gonna do."

However, MIDI aficionados planning to compose their digital masterpieces on the Xbox 360 will likely find the experience lacking. While the PS3 sequencer will reportedly support a variety of instruments, including rhythm and lead guitars, bass, keyboards and drum tracks, the Xbox 360 alternative will be limited to drums alone due to "hardware issues." Then again, for those planning on channeling their inner John Bonham, what more do you need?

Activision has announced that several bands will re-record their classic recordings for Guitar Hero World Tour. First up is MC5's lead guitarist Wayne Kramer who will re-record and "modernize" the track "Kick Out the Jams" with the help of Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Gilby Clarke who spent three years with Guns N' Roses (the recording will retain the vocals originally recorded by lead Rob Tyner). The Sex Pistols will contribute another track, "Pretty Vacant," which was re-recorded at the same time as "Anarchy in the UK," which was featured in Guitar Hero III. Finally, Motörhead will re-record the title track from its album Overkill.

Guitar Hero World Tour releases later this year.

Update: Added Rob Tyner details.

We hope you weren't excited by the supposed Guitar Hero World Tour set list that was 'leaked' yesterday. Activision and Red Octane have made it known that the list, which included artists like Tool and The Doors, is a fake. A representative informed Game Informer (see what we did there?) that while some of the songs on the list will make it into the game, namely Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher," the majority of the list is "wishful thinking and pure speculation."

But hey, we know it will have "Hot for Teacher," right? That counts for something. Now all we have to do is get Activision to confirm the rest of the set list ... one song at a time.

[Via Joystiq]

During E3 we spoke with third-party peripheral manufacturer Nyko about its line of FrontMan guitars and which games the different versions were compatible with. We did a quick and dirty post on what we were told during the E3 madness, but Nyko just sent over the chart above, which, admittedly, is much easier to understand.

For first-party guitar compatibility, check out our Guitar Hero / Rock Band guitar compatibility matrix v2. We're sure to have v3 available as soon as we confirm Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution guitar compatibility.

Within hours of Rock Band hitting the Wii, Red Octane has begun the ultimate rock battle by releasing full images of instruments for the Wii version of Guitar Hero: World Tour. We've seen a few sneak peeks around the place, but now they are in their full gallery glory for you to enjoy.

Rock Band one-upped the Guitar Hero franchise by adding drums and a microphone, so what's next? Add a burger and beer to the package to simulate the roadie experience? Stuff a few groupies in the box to cheer you on as you rock out in front of the TV? If you consider yourself a rock star with the new World Tour instruments, we don't blame you -- they look pretty hot.


[Via press release]

Joystiq recently got to check out everyone's new favorite Wii game, Guitar Hero: World Tour. While they didn't actually get to play the game (they were forced to watch RedOctane jam, for some reason), they did get some juicy details for those of you looking for more on the game. So, head on over and check out their write-up.

Holy Guitar Hero: World Tour information blowout! Those lucky monkeys over at IGN somehow convinced Activision to show them everything World Tour and boy oh boy is there a lot of information.

Seeing that we can't talk about all the World Tour details (if we did, this blog could be considered a feature article) we'll touch on the highlights. First and foremost IGN posted pictures and details about every instrument including confirmation that the World Tour guitar will feature the rumored touch pad. We also learn that World Tour takes customization to the next level, adding the ability to create your own band member AND customize your instruments as you see fit. We also learn about specifics regarding the game's recording functionality (sorry, no vocal recordings) and the fact that the career mode will modeled after Rock Band's progression. There's just too much info ... go read ... get learned and be surprised. Surprised that Activision may have actually come through with World Tour, pushing the genre to a whole new level.

IGN has an incredibly detailed and lengthy first look at upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. First of all, the rumor of touch-sensitive guitars turned out to be true. The new Guitar Hero axe looks really sweet.

Outside of the guitar, there is also a close-up look at the drum kit. As previously noted, it looks more like the real deal, is wireless, makes a lot less noise when playing, and should feel more natural to those real drummers out there who want to get their play on. As nice as it is, though, it comes nowhere near the ambitious gameplay features that will be included in every version of Guitar Hero: World Tour, even the Wii installment.

That Xbox marketing survey just keeps on giving: a slide on Guitar Hero 4 presents a $180 pricetag for now-gen consoles, $170 for PS2 including all instruments. Just the software? They're asking $60 for 360 and PS3 versions, and $50 for their lower-def cousins. A handful of artists are also name-dropped – Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Muse ... "and dozens more" – but what we're really interested in is this bit about an "all new wireless guitar controller with the first-ever touch-sensitive neck slide." We snuck a peek at the brandless guitar in the game's trailer and, though touch-sensiitive reads to us like "no buttons" – a claim that's as worrisome as it is intriguing – it certainly appears to have buttons in the pic above. So maybe just something below the buttons then, y'know, for solos and whatnot?

Of course, pricing information is always subject to change (read: let's wait to see what Rock Band 2 costs) and this survey doesn't include the game's "World Tour" subtitle so we're not entirely sold on the veracity of this information. Again, all eyes towards E3 where all will be revealed (we assume).

Continuing the flow of rumors from the aforementioned survey site, there's now the rumor that Guitar Hero 4 is still searching for a final subtitle and that it's going to try to make you buy even more fake plastic instruments, with the full version (including instruments) running for $179.99. The guitar is going to be wireless and have a touch sensitive neck slide, the drums are also wireless and have raised cymbals, plus the mic is also rumored to be wireless.

As for the music itself the site lists a whole host of different artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Foo Fighters, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, System of a Down, Ozzy Osbourne, Interpol, Muse and more. Additionally, the game has tons of customizable stuff, with custom tracks, album art, characters and logos.

How about it readers? Can GH4 truly take on Rock Band now?

At Wall Street Journal's D6 All Things Digital event yesterday, Activision CEO Robert Kotick took the opprotunity to showoff Guitar Hero: World Tour. In the midst of introducing the upcoming game Kotick started to describe World Tour as, "the first time you'll have multiple instruments," before D6 co-host Kara Swisher quickly shot back "it's called Rock Band I think," which sent the crowd into a frenzy of laughter.

Whether Kotick meant it was the first time Guitar Hero would have the peripherals or if he was trying to pull a fast one on an audience he expected to have limited gaming knowledge is unknown. What we do know is the people playing the game for the demo, including skateboarder Tony Hawk, could not look more bored.

Come on people. You're rocking out! A little passion please.

At the All Things Digital 6 conference, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick took the stage for an interview with Kara Swisher. During the session, Kotick introduced and showed off to the audience Guitar Hero World Tour. "I tried to get [Yahoo and Microsoft execs] Jerry Yang, Steve Ballmer, Sue Decker and Bill Gates to play Guitar Hero, but they weren't interested."

Instead, Kotick had Paula Abdul pull four people from the audience -- one of them just happened to be legendary skateboarder (and Activision franchiser) Tony Hawk -- to play an unnamed Lenny Kravitz song (we're guessing "Are You Gonna Go My Way," since it was used in the trailer). We've embedded the video, which features some in-game footage, after the break.

"What's the best way to demonstrate how awesome the Guitar Hero World Tour drums are?" ponders the Activision Marketing department. Somehow the subsequent meeting resulted in some bright spark suggesting that they call in a few professional drummers to act completely up themselves and unrealistically compare GHIV's drums to a real set. Nice.

We're not prejudice towards Guitar Rock Hero Band World Tour. We're holding out until we can try all the aspects of the game first hand -- particularly the content creation stuff. In the meantime, however, videos like this don't really help. Did you hear the drums are wireless? We thought we'd mention it in case the video didn't push that point enough for you. That's sarcasm, by the way.

[Via Joystiq]

The above Guitar Hero World Tour (the official GHIV title) video shows off the new drum set through testimonial from a few rockers – namely, Red Hot Chili Pepper's Chad Smith, Blink 182's Travis Barker and The Police's Stewart Copeland, all of whom are featured prominently (especially Copeland) on Rock Band and a pretty good sign they'll be on World Tour, too.

One interesting detail gleaned from the video is that the drum kit is sensitive to velocity, meaning it can register how hard or soft you hit the pads. We're not shown any gameplay footage so we're not 100% sure how that'll translate to the virtual drumming. All we know is that we can't tell our friends this detail. It's taken us months to teach them not to bang on the set loud enough to wake neighbors six miles away.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Update: Thanks to X3F reader Josh, we embedded the drum'tacular World Tour video after the break. You're welcome ...

The not at all English website InsiderGamer posted a new Guitar Hero World Tour video that gives us a better look at the game's drum set, the design process behind it and a first look at Blink 182's Travis Barker in a mo-cap suit. For realz! You can view the video after the jump and take in all the World Tour drumming that it has to offer including velocity sensitive drum pads, which we admit are so very next gen. And would it be wrong for us to think that these drums may possibly be better then what Rock Band has to offer? If it is, forget we ever posed such question.

[Thanks, L1B3RATION]