Forbes Calls Rock Band A "Shameless Knockoff" Of Guitar Hero
Rock Band 2As soon as we heard about the premise for Rock Band, we figured the accusation of plagiarism would pop up eventually. And now, thanks to Forbes, it has.
A recent article talks about Activision/Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, the outrageously successful Guitar Hero franchise, and the idea that EA's Rock Band is just a "shameless knockoff." The quote in question that has ignited quite the online debate is as follows:
"EA also teamed with MTV to sell Rock Band, a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero that added drums, bass and a microphone to the world of make-believe rock stars. EA says it is returning to an 'auteur model' of designing games, taking bigger chances on fewer ideas."
Now, the Videogaming247 blog has tried to get EA to respond to the insinuation, but the publisher isn't about to get involved in the mud-slinging. All they said in reply was, "Unfortunately we can't comment on this," and that's where the subject ends. Well, that's where it ends for them, but what about you? Do you feel as if RB is a big ol' knockoff of GH? Are we looking at electronic theft of some kind? From our point of view, Rock Band simply built on an established and successful foundation, as most all developers have done at some point. It was just more visible because instead of the foundation existing on screen, it came in the form of physical instruments, so it seems more obvious. Of course, one could make an argument for the opposition as well, but we're just tossing out our 2 cents.
Oh, and let's not forget that GH followed RB's lead, after the latter introduced instruments other than a guitar. We could go back and forth on this all day.
Related Game(s): Rock Band 2
1/20/2009 Ben Dutka
Put this on your webpage or blog:
Email this to a friend
Follow PSX Extreme on Twitter
Comments (34 posts)
Orvisman
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:08:18 PM
2 up, 0 down
Troy Powers
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 2:31:13 PM
0 up, 0 down
tramp
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 10:57:50 AM
Reply
1 up, 1 down
JofaMang
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:01:36 AM
Reply
Regardless if they added other instruments (although props to the vocal portion) they are still just improving on a design that wasn't theirs.
Just because Henry ford invented affordable production of vehicles, doesn't mean that all other auto manufacturers are shameless rip offs. But if Kia built a midsize car by reverse engineering and completely remaking a ford focus, then rebadging it a Kia Stocus with more headlights than a focus, well, the analogy gets a little more accurate.
EDIT NOTE: Was not aware that RB was made by the creators of GH1&2. That kind of changes things, although the GH IP doesn't belong to them (obviously) so they expanded upon an idea that they themselves built from the ground up.
Calling them shameless rip offs seems a little ignorant and harsh with that tidbit of info.
Last edited by JofaMang on 1/20/2009 11:04:42 AM
0 up, 0 down
Arvis
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:17:20 AM
Reply
-Arvis
0 up, 1 down
Reccaman18
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 4:16:14 PM
0 up, 1 down
whooka
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:21:23 AM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
ThePoetRazel
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:18:24 PM
0 up, 0 down
Phoelix
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 1:31:29 PM
Bottom line, Forbes should NOT talk about video games. That'd be like Ben and the others trying to cover business and economy news.
Isn't it hilarious when old people make asses/idiots of themselves?
1 up, 0 down
pavlovic
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:22:22 AM
Reply
Harmonix just freshed up their gameplay and ideas and make them a great game and now a great franchise.
Actually, RB and RB2, IMO are much much fun to play than GH3 or GHWT...
1 up, 0 down
N a S a H
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:33:03 AM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Troy Powers
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:35:26 AM
Reply
Way to make an ass of yourself, dude.
0 up, 1 down
coverton341
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:50:18 AM
Reply
2 up, 1 down
Zorigo
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:56:32 AM
1 up, 2 down
coverton341
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:03:24 PM
1 up, 0 down
Zorigo
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 11:56:01 AM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
ThePoetRazel
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:03:04 PM
Reply
These facts aren't that difficult to understand are they? So why is it that Forbes can't see that the situation isn't as straight cut as " RB is a rip-ff of GH"? Sure, it was a lazy move to only alter RB by adding some more instruments and a new paint job. But that doesn't make it plagiarism. It's simply a split in the evolution of a game into 2 games.
0 up, 0 down
coverton341
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:04:29 PM
1 up, 0 down
Troy Powers
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:27:10 PM
As opposed to GH3, which added...???
2 up, 0 down
Naga
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 1:17:40 PM
0 up, 0 down
Joema
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 12:43:09 PM
Reply
4 up, 0 down
somethingrandom
Wednesday, January 21, 2009 @ 12:19:00 AM
Last edited by somethingrandom on 1/21/2009 12:20:33 AM
1 up, 0 down
fundando
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 1:03:48 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Geobaldi
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 1:13:20 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
Naga
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 1:14:18 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
packersfan66
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 2:56:32 PM
Reply
1 up, 0 down
MetalHead09
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 6:15:31 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
shadowpal2
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 6:54:20 PM
Reply
God...it's just video games. Business leaders are honestly now turning into kids complaining.
0 up, 0 down
ceedot
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 8:31:56 PM
Reply
0 up, 0 down
LightShow
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 10:49:29 PM
Reply
Second, my allegiances lie with Harmonix, the studio that made GH a household name, and not Activision, who took that name and gave it to a studio that specialized in Tony Hawk games.
Harmonix is where the creativity and the genius is at, at this point all Neversoft is doing is tweaking and adding songs.
IMO, this is a bull**** article. Obvious lack of industry knowledge by the guy they quoted, and shame on the article writer who didn't clarify the situation.
0 up, 0 down
PS3addict
Reply
Tuesday, January 20, 2009 @ 10:51:50 AM
First off the creators of rockband were.... the creators of Guitar hero 1 & 2!!
Ok, so the basis is the same, you play guitar on a plastic guitar in a "simon says" kinda way. That is about where the similarities start and where they end as well.
I own RB 1 & 2 all of the GH games including world tour and I play RB2 more than any other.
I can play with my friends and kids at home, login and play with my online friends, jam and compete with random players online, none of these were abailable before rockband! GHWT grabbed these ideas and used them so they are more of a knock off of RB that RB is a knockoff of GH. Of course Rock Revolution is the real knock off of this genre.
It is different, the graghics are better, the sound is better, the interface is better, the songs.. well that is debatable. The guitars are way bigger and more comfortable to play. the notes and strum bar on screen are different from GH as well.
The ability to download the first game to your hard drive and add the tracks to the second one is genius, the DLC is pretty well spread out among all genre's even country and kiddie pop.
I think that the original developers of GH took their knowledge, added more ingenuity and thought to the concept and made a new game based on those ideas and the experience of knowing what worked and what did not.
Last edited by PS3addict on 1/20/2009 10:56:56 AM