Metallica and Beatles "Guitar Hero" games not quite confirmed

The creators of the Guitar Hero video game franchise have told Billboard.com that new editions of the hugely successful game featuring Metallica and the Beatles are not coming any time soon. Addressing rumors that a Metallica-centered version was coming in 2009, Kai Huang, who co-founded game publisher Red Octane with his brother Charles in 1999, said, "We're not ready to comment about Metallica yet, but what I will say is that we'd love to work with all of the top rock bands of all time, whether it's Aerosmith or Metallica or AC/DC or Led Zeppelin. If we get an opportunity to work with those bands, we would love to do that."

Huang said that reports about a Beatles game were "rumors right now and we don't have any comments yet."

The first version of Guitar Hero to focus on one artist, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, came out last week. Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry said at a press conference in New York that the game pointed a way forward for the troubled music industry: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "Kids are getting exposed to all this great music that they normally wouldn't be hearing. This is a way for kids to hear some of that stuff, you know, unadorned, without anybody putting a slant on it, saying, like, 'This is cool' or 'This isn't.' And it's a great way to hear a lot of bands that might never get heard. In the bigger sense, this is pointing the way for artists and musicians to get their music out there to the fans."

An article published in the Wall Street Journal last week suggested that talks were underway with Van Halen about a version of Guitar Hero based on the band's music.

The same article said that Led Zeppelin was not interested in participating in the franchise, not because of money issues but because the band was wary of letting an outside party tinker with their master recordings.

Next on tap is Guitar Hero: World Tour, which will arrive this fall. The game will introduce drums and vocals into the mix, plus allow players to write and record their own songs to share online.

Red Octane became a wholly owned subsidiary of gaming behemoth Activision in 2006.