Guitar Hero 4 Will Have More Than Guitars

Update: Conde Nast Portfolio Magazine has now released the full part of the Guitar Hero portion of the Kotick Q&A, link below the article.

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, recently sat down with Kevin Maney of Conde Nast Portfolio Magazine to talk about the direction that Activision will take in the future.

When asked about the future of the Guitar Hero franchise, Kotick indicated that Guitar Hero will feature more than just guitars. Kotick said “it’s not just about guitars. We’ll include a lot of other instruments, vocals” and went on to say “it will help us expand internationally. It’s the first game we’ve had in which we can use local content and local bands.”

So Guitar Hero 4 will feature new instruments (a la Rock Band), but what exactly does he mean by “local content and local bands“? Could we be seeing, not only an increase in the DLC content available for Guitar Hero but, localized content and bands as well?

More Choices for DLC

Kotick also touched on Activision’s merger with media group Vivendi’s gaming division, noting that “one of the big benefits will be access to the Universal library” as Universal Music Group is part of Vivendi.

Could Kotick also have been hinting at opening up the game to different music genres when he said that “Guitar Hero takes an artist to a whole different place in the popular culture right now“.

Joystiq was also taken this recent news one step further by saying one of their sources within Activision has told them “that multiple instruments – including a microphone and drumkit – will be a part of the next Guitar Hero game, likely to be called Guitar Hero IVBand Hero and Rockstar Hero) despite its focus on multiple instruments (other potential names: “.

Joystiq’s source is also saying that “Activision insiders are proud enough of their drum peripheral to say that it will be “superior” to Rock Band’s”.

Related Links:

Console Hero - Full Bobby Kotick Interview
Console Hero - Red Octane: Guitar Hero 4 release date October or November
Console Hero - Guitar Hero 4 News

Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine - Game Boy
Condé Nast Portfolio Magazine - Banjo Hero! More From The Kotick Q&A
Joystiq - Guitar Hero IV adding vocals, drums, regular DLC