Summary
- Controversial AI-generated ads were market research for Activision games.
- One of these ads was for a Guitar Hero mobile game.
- Unfortunately, the game doesn’t actually exist at this time.
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.
As it turns out, the new Guitar Hero game this divisive ad is meant to promote doesn’t even exist, according to a report from Eurogamer. Instead, the fake advertisement is part of a market research campaign Activision has set up to see if fans would like to see a new Guitar Hero game someday. Activision has also released similar fake advertisements for two new Call of Duty games, as well as a new Crash Bandicoot spin-off titled Crash Bandicoot: Brawl.
These fake ads also drew criticism for their AI-generated artwork, and clicking on some of them will take users to a mock mobile store page as noted by Reddit user gaber_rego on the Guitar Hero subreddit. What comes next is a message saying that the game in question isn’t real yet but could be someday, followed by a quick questionnaire asking what players would like to see in a new Guitar Hero game.
The idea of Guitar Hero Mobile already divided fans who would rather the series return to consoles, and the fake ad’s use of generative AI at a time when video game voice actors and artists are concerned about being replaced by such technology sparked further controversy when it was first posted. While this ad turned out to be nothing more than market research for a hypothetical Guitar Hero game, the franchise could still return in an official capacity someday.
