Next Guitar Hero to drop playable celebrities

Looks like Activision is sick of legal wrangles with famous musicians who appear in the company’s Guitar Hero franchise, because Guitar Hero 6 will contain NO playable celebrities.

Last year, Guitar Hero 5 was released with a playable Kurt Cobain avatar. Within hours of the game being released, videos were being posted on the net of people using the miserablist’s digital likeness to perform songs by Flavor Flav, and other ill-fitting acts. Outrage from fans followed, and then Courtney Love announced plans to sue Activision for denigrating Cobain’s memory.

A few weeks after that, No Doubt decided to bring a lawsuit against Activision, over the band’s appearance in the spin-off Band Hero.

Perhaps understandably, Activision has had enough of whining musicians, so Guitar Hero 6 won’t let you play as a single famous rock star. There will be cameos – Gene Simmons of Kiss fame, for example – but little more than that. That’s according to a preview in the latest issue of the Official Xbox 360 Magazine.

Also promised is a “back to basics” approach, the return of past Guitar Hero characters (Clive Winston, pretty please?), and a much larger focus on rock ‘n’ roll music.

See also:Guitar Hero: Kurt Cobain Edition

[Via VG247]