Band Hero drums up more controversy…
In an unsurprising bit of news, Activision continues its newfound legacy in aggravating artists nationwide. It seems that Band Hero, their recent expansion to their popular Guitar Hero series, features a whole slew of artists for avatar use. This is nothing new, of course. After all, several artists have sold their likeness for the game’s use (e.g. Slash, Billy Corgan, etc), but lately it’s just been in bad, bad taste. What started with Kurt Cobain, now continues with ska-punk darlings, No Doubt — and yeah, they’re upset.
The band’s manager, Jim Guerinot, tells Rolling Stone No Doubt were “mortified” to discover their likenesses could be used to sing songs by other artists. “They’re just like, ‘What? We didn’t sign up for this,’ ” he says.
-via Rolling Stone
It would seem that, much like the Cobain debacle in Guitar Hero 5, players can orchestrate various No Doubt members to perform a variety of different songs. In other words, you could possibly have Gwen Stefani rockin’ ‘n’ a’rollin’ to The Jackson 5, Roy Orbison, and… Papa Roach. We’d be pissed, too. So, what does Activision have to say? Well, it seems like they just copy and pasted the press statement they gave the Nirvana estate a month or two back:
“Activision has a written agreement to use No Doubt in Band Hero — an agreement signed by No Doubt after extensive negotiations with its representatives, who collectively have decades of experience in the entertainment industry.”
In all sincerity, it does suck for anyone who’s been heckled into this nonsense, but the reality is, you signed with Activision… for a faux rock ‘n’ roll video game… and you’re worried about your credibility or image? C’mon! Just laugh with the rest of us, because really, there’s nothing surprising here. It’s all one big joke. The bigger question here should be: Why the hell do people want to play avatars? Isn’t the whole point of these games to feel like you’re the rock star?
Food for thought, folks.
I didn’t censor it captain asshole..
Ghost and Josh, you don’t have to be pussies. You can totally fucking swear on these message boards.
yeah who gives a f*** there a bigger issues in the world to worry about. play a real instrument and artists need to stop being big p***ies and start producing real shit and not sell it to an inaccurate game.
here’s a novel idea……..Play a real f’ing instrument?
I agree with your op, Mike. If you sign up for this shit, you MUST know what you’re getting into - or at least your representatives/lawyers must know. Jeez.