Q&A: Activision Publishing CEO on the return of 'Guitar Hero'

When it came time to push Guitar Hero back into the video game industry limelight, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg knew that the game publisher had to hit all the right notes.

The company had turned the volume down on the franchise after 2010's Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock game as consumer interest in the music game genre waned. "The market was hot and a lot of games were published," Hirshberg said. "Hindsight being 20-20 I think that combined with perhaps the lack of innovation from game to game led to what happened before."

Hirshberg wanted the game designers at FreeStyleGames to explore the idea of making the game a more realistic first-person experience.He discussed the development of the new Guitar Hero Live game, announced Tuesday by Activision, and due this fall, with Paste BN's Mike Snider.

Q: How important is 'Guitar Hero' as a brand to Activision?

A: We strategically try to do a few things exceptionally well. We have a handful of games and try to only do things that have big creative potential and big commercial potential and something we think we can do better than anyone else. Guitar Hero fits all of those descriptions. Even today, five years out of market, this is a brand that has over 70% awareness and universal positive sentiment around it.

Q: What was happening inside Activision since the last 'Guitar Hero' game was developed?

A: We made a deal with ourselves the day that we sort of shut it down last time that we weren't going to bring this thing back unless we had a breakthrough in innovation because we all felt like that's what was missing.

So we felt like we really wanted to wait until we had something very special. We kept it a lean team innovating and iterating and we kept checking with consumers and testing gameplay.

Q: How did the idea of using live-action video and a first-person point of view come to be?

A: First it was let's turn the camera around and make it first-person and make you the rock star. Then what if we try to shoot this on real film and what it the audience could respond to you in real time and how do you do that? And that just got better and better with each round of creativity.

Q: At the same time, there was this idea of an online 'Guitar Hero'-enabled MTV-like video service, too?

A: For a while these were actually competing ideas for the rebirth of Guitar Hero, but we found they sort of created a magic combination. (Guitar Hero Live) provides that high production value, almost rock star simulation if you will where you really get your heart in the throat and you really get that stage fright when you step on stage and you really feel what it's like to have the audience with you or against you.

Then Guitar Hero TV is a very elegant solution to another thing we wanted to solve with the brand, which was a way to keep the game fresh … something new to experience every time you turn it on.

Q: How was the decision made to change the buttons on the guitar controller?

A: The reconfiguration of the buttons was not something we took lightly. There's a lot of collective muscle memory built up for the five candy-colored buttons that we had before.

I remember vividly when (FreeStyleGames studio head) Jamie (Jackson) and the FreeStyle guys came and said, "We need to lose the candy-colored buttons," and I was like 'What? Those are iconic."

They said that they said the same thing when the designers brought it (to them), but they said, "Just play it." I picked it and I felt how natural it felt, that three-on-three button design and it worked. And everyone who has played it has felt that way including consumers who have tested it with us.

Q: What do you see as the major appeal to 'Guitar Hero'?

A: Almost all video game franchises have some core universal fantasy at their core, whether that's being a superhero, a war hero or a professional athlete. The one that is at the heart of Guitar Hero is one of the most universal of all, that dream of being a rock star.

The last game fulfilled that fantasy through the guitar-shaped controller. You strapped it on, you stood up in front of the couch and you assumed the rock star stance. But what was happening on the screen wasn't doing a lot to further that fantasy.

The real surprise in the first demo we filmed (for the new game) was how powerful your bandmates' approval and disapproval was. That was as or more powerful than the audience turning on you. When they are looking at you and saying, "Dude, come on, you're blowing our set" and they are your friends … that has such comedic power.

Q: And the new 'Guitar Hero' has ways to play on mobile devices, too?

A: We've gotten it so the entire experience can run beautifully not only on consoles but also on mobile devices with the guitar and everything. Not a sort of simplified version or dumbed-down version. This was a game that really appealed to a very hard-core skilled base section of the audience but also the casual social party game portion of the audience. Those people are playing games on mobile devices now and we wanted to make sure that we made the game and the experience available to as many people as possible.