A press release, um, released by Activision earlier this week confirmed the existence of Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero; these announcements, coupled with the unveiling of the DJ Hero controller and the news that the Hero franchise had brought in $2bn of revenue for the all-seeing, all-knowing publisher, has ensured that the series has its standing in the gaming halls of fame.

Doubts have already been voiced over the nature of Band Hero: after all, Guitar Hero World Tour opened up the series to band gameplay, supporting bass, drums and microphone alongside lead guitar for the first time.

Sarcastic Gamer can today exclusively reveal the world’s first details on Band Hero, courtesy of our secret Activision mole, over the jump.

Band Hero, it turns out, is not a single game but in fact an umbrella for a whole new Activision franchise, comprised of the titles Microphone Hero, Keyboard Hero, Guitar Hero 5, Drum Hero and Bass Hero as well as the all-encompassing Band Hero game.

Rather than bundle all of the aspects together in a single game (as done in World Tour) Band Hero will be the first franchise to sell each of the games seperately, and with their seperate controllers:

• Microphone Hero will be bundled with a motion-sensitive microphone and will feature ONLY a single-player singing mode and multiplayer co-operative and face-off modes.
• Keyboard Hero will ship with a five-key keyboard (with 10 different sound effects including “generic 80s synth” and “funny-sounding tuba”) with a Solo Career and unlockable Classical Pianist modes of play.
• Guitar Hero 5 will remove the band element seen in World Tour and revert to basic solo guitar playing, using the entire songlist from Guitar Hero III and recycling all characters and venues without any new assets being added to the game.
• Drum Hero will feature a 20-piece drum kit and four bass pedals, as well as a freestyle mode and drum-off multiplayer challenges.
• Bass Hero is accompanied by its own licensed Kramer bass guitar and not much else; songs will be digitally modified to boost the basslines so players can actually hear them while playing the game’s 40 licensed songs.

Band Hero itself will be the only game out of the six to feature band gameplay, and requires players to purchase a five-port powered USB hub with the game to handle the five accessories. All accessories are wired devices to save on the cost of wireless technologies.

Each of the games will be sold separately with their respective controllers – microphone, keyboard, six-string guitar, drums and four-string bass – and game for approximately £90/$80 each, with the Band Hero game sold with USB hub for £80/$70. All five games and accessories – together with the Band Hero game and USB hub – can be purchased for £350/$100 in a single set. Accessories and games are not sold seperately and must be bought together.

Band Hero is also incompatible with any other Guitar Hero accessories (including those shipped with World Tour) making purchase of all five games to complete the set necessary for what PR blurb is apparently calling “the complete band experience”.

Activision boss Bobby Kotick, when quizzed by our secret mole on the nature of the pricetag, had this to say:

“If you think $2bn of revenue from the Hero series is a big number, thanks to Band Hero…you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

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