A controversial, AI-generated Guitar Hero ad was actually market research for a fake video game. Activision’s once pioneering music game franchise has been dormant for several years. Microsoft head Phil Spencer even recently addressed the lack of new Guitar Hero games by saying that passing up on the series was one of the “worst game choice decisions” of his career.
Microsoft does own the rights to Guitar Hero following its buyout of Activision Blizzard back in 2023, and Activision recently hinted that the series could be making a comeback on mobile devices. However, this month’s Guitar Hero Mobile announcement quickly drew controversy for featuring AI-generated art - itself a touchy subject for both gamers and people within the gaming industry. The artwork was also greatly inaccurate to the Guitar Hero series, with notes and guitar buttons being the wrong colors and certain notes not even matching up with their designated button.
Years after the discontinuation of the game series and the Wii console, Guitar Hero is getting a brand new controller for the Wii ports of the games.
As it turns out, the new Guitar Hero game this divisive ad is meant to promote doesn't even exist, according...
