Remember when Guitar Hero used to be awesome? It started its decline when Activision bought Red Octane, and it's continuing its decline thanks to that.

I mean, what happened after Activision bought Red Octane? We got...Rock the 80s, an over-priced expansion pack to Guitar Hero 2...Then we get Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. 'course Harmonix had been bought by MTV Games by then, so they weren't on board, so Neversoft steps up to the plate with its overly complex note charts and crappy art design.

Meanwhile, Harmonix is owning Guitar Hero with Rock Band. 'course, there's one thing that sucks about Rock Band in comparison to Guitar Hero 3. That would be the guitar peripheral. While it works, for the most part, and it looks REALLY cool, the functionality on the strum bar is infinitely better on the Guitar Hero controllers. Understandable, because Red Octane is a peripheral manufacturer, and they made their living off of making DDR pads and Guitar Hero controllers.

Luckily, the GH3 controllers work on Rock Band...if you're a 360-owner. Got the PS3 version of Rock Band? Tough poop. Activision doesn't like you. At least, they'd like you if Harmonix will give them money to like you.

Now, some of this is the blame of Harmonix. They should've caught the problem of the GH3 controller not working on PS3 Rock Band before they released that game. I'm not sure how they made that huge oversight, but had they fixed it before the retail release, the game wouldn't need a patch, and Activision wouldn't be able to do crap about it. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Harmonix/EA shipped the game without PS3 GH3 guitar compatibility. Luckily (at the time), Harmonix began working on a patch to enable PS3 GH3 guitar support. They finished it, and were planning to release but...UH-OH! Big bully Activision tells Sony, "Can't let you do that, Star Fox!" Even though Sony doesn't have to listen to Activision, I'm sure they don't want to piss off the "new EA."

So now Activision is out-right saying, "We expect Harmonix to pay us to let you use our guitars." They claim they need "compensation"... Uh...do they know that in order to use a GH3 guitar, you have to BUY the GH3 guitar? Which means GH3 will sell more copies if they let them use the controller in Rock Band? Of course they do. So in essence, Activision is saying, "We need you to give us money to make more money." Freakin' LAME.

This, of course, creates much outrage in gamers everywhere, and even people (like me) who don't even have a PS3 are pissed off at Activision. I'm sure somebody at Activision is getting loads of hate mail in his/her inbox right now. But I doubt that'll do anything. Unfortunately, the majority of other people are still buying the crap out of Guitar Hero 3 due to the name. They don't see or care about what's really going on, as long as they get their silly notecharts and muppet-mouthed vocalists. Rock Band is simply doing "not bad", most likely due to the high entry fee and the fact that people are basing their opinions on Rock Band from ****ed up broken Walmart demo stations. I'm saying EA should slap a big old "BY THE PEOPLE WHO MADE GUITAR HERO" on the box, but Activision might want money for that, too.

I'm not gonna say something stupid about boycotting Activision or anything like that...but seriously, what games do you need from them right now? :P Call of Duty 5 is gonna suck (4 is good, though). Tony Hawk is old news thanks to Skate. I've already talked about how much Guitar Hero 3 fails in comparison to Rock Band.

Activision doesn't need more money anyway! They've merged with Vivendi, and I'm sure all World of Warcraft subscription fees are feeding them enough lobster dinners for the rest of eternity. :P