Interviews// EIF 07: Interview With RedOctane's Zach Fountain

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“I can feel the earth begin to move…”[/b]

SPOnG managed an off-the-cuff interview with RedOctane Europe's general manager, Zach Fountain, at the Edinburgh Games Festival early this week, after which I was altogether more excited about and more in tune with what’s in store for us when Guitar Hero III launches later this year.

It seems it's NOT all about EA/Harmonix/MTV's 'band-in-a-box' style offering Rock Band, after all! (Particularly following news since Edinburgh earlier this week that we won't be seeing that particular title in Europe till well into 2008).

Read on to find out about SPOnG's high-definition, floppy-fringed, Manc-tinged guitar dreams, RedOctane’s plans for Guitar Hero on handhelds and much more about the latest outing of one of our favourite videogame series of recent years.


SPOnG: When’s Guitar Hero III coming out then? (Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now plays in the background of the movie theatre where the interview is being held). Is Tiffany in the game?

Zach Fountain: [laughs] No. She’s not. It’s out in November, we’ve not announced the exact date yet.


SPOnG: And you just announced a rather special new tune earlier today?

Zach Fountain: Yes, the Stone Roses’ awesome classic She Bangs The Drum.


SPOnG: That's by far the best news from Edinburgh this year, for me! What’s the process of securing the rights to a song?

Zach Fountain: Well, the music process overall, it’s kind of a long string. It starts with working with publishers to try to identify content that works both with the game and also that these are songs that we’re interested in putting forward. There are then several filters to make sure that it actually plays well in the game - these are done by the RedOctane crew and the development guys over at Neversoft. We have to make sure we try to secure all the rights and we try to get as many rights to the masters of songs as we can – there are the ‘master’ rights and also the ‘sync’ rights – and we try to get both so we can offer the best game experience.


SPOnG: Obvious question, but EA/Harmonix's Rock Band is also out in November (in the US at least), which means you have some hefty competition this Christmas for the first time. A couple of things that Rock Band seems to have that Guitar Hero doesn’t are that you can play the drums and sing the vocals of songs; there's also a strong online element. What new stuff are you going to bring to the party?

Zach Fountain: Well, we definitely have online with Guitar Hero III and we’ve obviously worked with Harmonix before and we’ve got a lot of respect for them. We actually feel like this Rock Band will push the category forward and grow the overall market for social rhythm and music based games.


SPOnG: Can you say a little bit more about the online element in Guitar Hero III?

Zach Fountain: Sure, it will work with two out of the three new-gen platforms [PS3 and 360] and basically you can play all of the different modes that are available offline, online as well, playing either lead or bass guitar.


SPOnG: So, no plans for drums or vocals?

Zach Fountain: Well, there are several concepts under consideration, but its unlikely that we’ll be announcing them for Guitar Hero III.


SPOnG: Beyond Guitar Hero III then, what are your plans for 2008?

Zach Fountain: Really, at this point it’s use your imagination! There are so many ways in which this franchise can go. I think that we will consider adding different instruments and different experiences. But we really believe in the guitar experience and that’s why it’s remained Guitar Hero. And we actually think that this is the most accessible experience for the consumer as well.

And really this has become such a mass market game and, with GH III, is set to become the best selling game franchise ever – as it is currently number two or three in the world in terms of best-selling franchise ever. A lot of that is based on the popularity of the guitar as an instrument, so we’ll continue to focus on that as an instrument, but if there are others we feel we can add in to add to the game then we’ll do that.


SPOnG: What does (guitar manufacturer) Gibson bring to the table?

Zach Fountain: They bring a lot to the table, in addition to their involvement in the actual software, in the development side, we partner with them across Europe at festivals – to have access and promo opportunities with the artists and various venues… They’ve been a fantastic partner for us so far.


SPOnG: Encouraging fans by getting them playing Guitar Hero on stage at major festivals has proven popular, any more interesting marketing and PR initiatives planned with GH III?

Zach Fountain: Yeh, what’s nice about GH III is that the game is releasing at the same time globally, so it is both a concerted marketing push worldwide plus there are lots of specific plans locally so we have some ideas about European and UK events and sponsorship.


SPOnG: It’s the first Guitar Hero game to be developed by Neversoft. Is it the same team that makes the Tony Hawk games.

Zach Fountain: No, it’s a different team, there’s very little crossover between teams.