GUITAR HERO METALLICA SEEKS AND DESTROYS VIDEO GAME ARENA

Guitar Hero Metallica arrived in late March and versions are still rolling out, but can they compete with the video game industry big boys?

Guitar Hero: Metallica was released late last month and working to gain market share control in the competitive video game business. As reported by video game news destination Gamasutra, the game placed third in its debut for Xbox 360 and Playstation2. It finished fourth on Playstation3. Resident Evil 5 and Call of Duty: World at War were tops on the Xbox while for the Playstation2 it was beat out by Samurai Shodown Anthology and Rock Band Special Edition. Perhaps one could make the argument that it was the most successful cross-format game last week?

Guitarist/vocalist James Hetfield talked about how they got involved with Guitar Hero.

“I don’t know exactly the time and date of when it connected, who called who or what happened, but it slowly came out of our desire to be involved in a video game from way back. We’ve been trying for a while and things have risen and fallen and not worked out and I think also with their desire to take it to another level.”

Drummer Lars Ulrich is amazed at how it became part of pop culture so quickly.

“If you said five years ago…in 1999, that’s ten years ago, or 2004 whatever that we’d be doing an interview about Guitar Hero: Metallica. I mean, ‘What does that even mean?’ I mean five years ago this wasn’t even on the map as a cultural phenomenon, and now it’s part of our daily vocabulary. It’s part of who we are and what defines popular culture in 2009.”

Hetfield talked about putting together the tunes that comprise their favorites in the game.

“The main factor was we wanted to get bands that inspired us or we’ve covered in our history on cover albums or whatnot or even just goofed around with their stuff or just like the band or we’ve toured with them. A lot of the bands are either bands we’ve covered or that we just like and want to include because we think they’re good and they’ve inspired us.”

Metallica just entered into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and they have just announced a fall North American tour. After being available at other outlets first the Playstation2 game was “officially” released to retail stores on April 14.