The Guitar Hero division at Activision has made some changes to its executive tier. Former CEO Dan Rosensweig left the company to hook up with Chegg.com, a site that allows users to rent textbooks. The site recently broke $160 million in investor funding.

Activision’s former COO David Haddad will be taking up the mantle on the struggling franchise. There had been some speculation as to whether or not Rosensweig was fired due to the franchises suffering sales. Activision denies those rumors, claiming that the move was completely voluntary for all parties.

Whatever the case, we can hopefully expect some changes from a genre of games that has been reluctant to innovate.

No Doubt is suing Activision over unauthorized use of the band’s image in the new Band Hero. Originally the two parties had a contract that allowed Activision to use likenesses of the band members for its own songs. The new game allows players to use No Doubt members as avatars playing other songs, which the band alleges turns them into a virtual karaoke act.

You might remember Courtney Love raising the same stink about use of Cobain’s image for other artists’ work. In this case, though, it seems Activision has put the avatars into situations that could have some legal ramifications. As the lawsuit states, Band Hero stages Gwen Stefani, No Doubt’s sassy frontlady, singing The Stones song “Honky Tonk Woman.” The problem is that the feature “results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes.” I’ve certainly heard celebrities cry foul over less.

As expected, Activision claims to be within its rights. No Doubt is looking for damages, an injunction, and a recall of existing copies of the game. Good luck with that one.

Source: Reuters

When I first heard Band Hero I thought it was a joke. Shouldn’t that be “Band Heroes?” In any case, isn’t it the most terrible name for a video game ever? I just didn’t think it was real. Well, it is. As it turns out you can actually get the demo on Xbox Live.

Here’s the blurb from Major Nelson:

Band Hero features an all-star lineup of pop music featuring the best variety of classic chart-topping hits and current hot artists. This demo features Finger Eleven “Paralyzer”, Katrina & The Waves “Walking on Sunshine” and Taylor Swift “Picture to Burn”. Includes Party Play and the all-new Sing-Along mode.

I’m willing to admit that the music games usually illicit at least a tepid interest for me, but this is an exception (right along with DJ Hero). Not my kind of music, and even if it was, I might boycott in protest. Alas, it seems nothing can stop Bob Kotick and his relentless quest to swindle the masses out of every last penny we’ve got.