That is the very antithesis of user-generated content. It's a bad move PR-wise, at the very least.

Activision doesn't actually seem to care about PR. It's weird to say, but they'd made so many arrogant and bad moves over the past year and haven't gone the standard route of trying to calm the fire. It seems like they're just ignoring it.

Very arrogant company, from my perspective. I'll be glad to see them sink in a sea of washed-out and over-used IPs if consumers actually go that route.

well playin devil's advocate you are making songs on THERE software so technically its there property isn't? this goes back to my pick up a guitar and learn how to play then no one can take your shit comment on earlier guitar loser posts.

they are letting u store your songs on there servers or whatever they use to let you keep your songs for others to play why shouldn't they require subscriptions.. yes its a ballsy move but hey u wanna play fake guitars this is the price you pay

I think that from a strictly legal perspective, they have some ground to stand on, but I don't think we are talking about that part of things here.

I think that many companies have seen how much they benefit from traffic and brand-recognition when they go to user-generated content. There's YouTube, digg, fark, etc. for websites and benefit from ad revenue. LittleBigPlanet has been getting a HUGE amount of press due to the sheer creativity of the user-generated content and makes me want to get a PS3 and that game, based on that alone.

People share their Miis for the Wii and everyone gets a kick out of them. It's one of the features that makes the Wii neat to non-hardcore gamers.

So the makers/publishers of Guitar Hero have a huge chance to ride the current hype and the hype that will come with better and better user-generated content. That is one of the big competitive edges they may/could have with the music creation, if the user-gen content is great.

Unless the creators get a cut of the money, as the iPhone Apps store is set up, it seems like both the people who will make content and people who want to get new content will be pissed off.

If I had heard that the content was awesome and I'd get the ability to download them or trade them, I'd even consider getting GH:WT for myself. But if I need to pay to risk downloading what is just a pile of crub, then I wouldn't even think to buy the core game itself.

So mean! I still love playing Rock Band. Hehehe.

I have to agree with Beaste...once more. If they do make this product payable, do the songs that are put on this program (such as Megadeth's songs or something), does said band get any money from this? Or is it all going to the game company? Officially, its the bands music they're playing in the first place (unless its user made, then that's an entire issue).

But usually its just kids (or teenagers) that are just going along with the music and trying to imitate it on a fake guitar. I highly doubt many parents (or teenagers) will want to go through with this. I think the kids should just get a real guitar, even if said guitar costs more than the console and game. He/she will get more experience from it.

What are you talking about, did you even read the article? The whole thing is about user generated songs, not pre-existing copy-written songs. The program is too limited to allow you to reproduce real songs anyway, so about the best you can manage with it is something that sounds like a midi-file.

I can't even figure out what your second paragraph is trying to say. Kids and parents will not want to go through with what, exactly? Making songs...? I will say that your outlook on music games is flawed and that the target demographic is not skewed as highly towards kids and teenagers as you think. The song selection is fair proof of it, which isn't targeted at a teenage market. I'd say music games are a more popular genre among adults than kids.

There is a big difference between playing Guitar Hero and learning an actual guitar. I don't think anyone is suggesting that the former replace the latter. Nobody has any delusions that Guitar Hero is anything more than a game and merely and excuse to have fun. Pretty much all of my musician friends play Guitar Hero or Rock Band and love them.

That being said, the point here is that the company essentially gets free content from user input. It creates a wealth of content for the game, and ultimately provides a higher incentive for people to go out and purchase the game in the first place. Conversely, there is no quality control on user generated content, so you never know what you're going to get. Considering those two things, how does it make any sense at all to charge for user generated content?