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The ''Guitar Hero'' series (sometimes referred to as the ''Hero'' series) is a series of music rhythm games first published in 2005 by RedOctane and Harmonix, and distributed by Activision, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous rock music songs. Players match notes that scroll on-screen to colored fret buttons on the controller, strumming the controller in time to the music in order to score points, and keep the virtual audience excited. The games attempt to mimic many features of playing a real guitar, including the use of fast-fingering hammer-ons and pull-offs and the use of the whammy bar to alter the pitch of notes. Most games support single player modes, typically a Career mode to play through all the songs in the game, and both competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes. With the introduction of ''Guitar Hero World Tour'' in 2008, the game includes support for a four-player band including vocals and drums. The series initially used mostly cover versions of songs created by WaveGroup Sound, but most recent titles feature soundtracks that are fully master recordings, and in some cases, special re-recordings, of the songs. Later titles in the series feature support for downloadable content in the form of new songs. In 2005, RedOctane, a company specializing in the manufacture of unique game controllers, was inspired to create ''Guitar Hero'' based on RedOctane's experience creating hardware for Konami's ''Guitar Freaks'' arcade game. They enlisted Harmonix, who previously developed several music video games, for development assistance. The first game in the series was made on a budget of $1 million. The series became extremely successful, leading to the acquisition of RedOctane by Activision in 2007. Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games and went on to create the ''Rock Band'' series of music games in the same vein as ''Guitar Hero''. Activision brought Neversoft (primarily known for their ''Tony Hawk'' series of skateboarding games) on board for future development duties. Additional companies, such as Budcat Creations and Vicarious Visions have assisted in the adaptation of the games for other systems. The series currently has eight major releases (six ''Guitar Hero'' games, two ''DJ Hero'' games and ''Band Hero'') and five expansions on gaming consoles. There are spin-offs for Windows and Macintosh systems, mobile phones, the Nintendo DS (the ''Guitar Hero: On Tour'' series), and an arcade game. The ''Guitar Hero'' franchise was a primary brand during the emergence of the popularity of rhythm games as a cultural phenomenon in North America. Such games have been utilized as a learning and development tool for medical purposes. The first game in the series was considered by several journalists to be one of the most influential video games of the first decade of the 21st century. The series has sold more than 25 million units worldwide, earning US$2 billion at retail, claimed by Activision to be the 3rd largest game franchise after the ''Mario'' and ''Madden NFL'' franchises; the third main title of the series, ''Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock'' is also claimed by Activision to be the first single video game title to exceed $1 billion in sales. Despite early success, the series, along with the overall rhythm game genre, suffered from poor sales starting in 2009. Activision had stated in early 2011 that the series was on hiatus for 2011, while a seventh main title in the series was under development; this title was later cancelled due to the poor quality of the emerging product. Activision later shut down sales of the series' downloadable content, although users who purchased material from it previously may still play what they bought. In 2015, Activision announced the first new title to the series in 5 years, ''Guitar Hero Live'', released in October 2015. The title is considered a reboot of the series, with development being performed by FreeStyleGames, who had developed the ''DJ Hero'' games previously. ==History== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Guitar Hero」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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