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Pre-Order Guitar Hero 5, Get Van Halen For Free

You're going to want to JUMP on this offer!


OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY!
OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY!
Man, the competition between Guitar Hero and Rock Band is getting pretty cutthroat. Activision announced today that if you pre-order Guitar Hero 5, or if you pick up a specially marked copy of Guitar Hero 5 during the month of September, not only will you get a copy of Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free, you'll get it "long before it takes the stage in stores." That's pretty vague, though with a current US release date of December 22, you could potentially be playing "Running With the Devil" and hurting yourself trying to do kick-splits in your living room a solid month or two before its street date, at the incredibly attractive price of free.

There's a certain As-Seen-On-TV, too-good-to-be-true vibe to this whole offer, like I'm being conned here, though that might just be my recent overexposure to QVC. Either way, I'm having a hard time getting a read on Activision's motivation here. Is this just a sign of the publisher's willingness to lose a potential sale to really reinforce loyalty to the Guitar Hero platform, or is the publisher uncertain about the sales potential for a Van Halen game? I know both the Aerosmith and Metallica games sold reasonably well, though the luster on the Van Halen legacy has, sadly, been tarnished by the past decade of weird in-fighting and constant personnel changes. With Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony both excluded entirely from Guitar Hero: Van Halen, it's apparent that has bled into the game as well. But hey, that's their problem--all you need to know is FREE GAME! FREE GAME!

Here's the fine print of the full press release.
 

Guitar Hero® is offering fans across the US an unheard of limited time bonus offer.  With every purchase of specially marked copies of Guitar Hero® 5 during the month of September, living room legends will be able to rock out with an advance copy of the unreleased Guitar Hero® Van Halen® (up to a $60 MSRP value), long before it takes the stage in stores.
 
Rock out to over 130 on-disc tracks in two games on September 1 by pre-ordering Guitar Hero 5 now at your local retailer or at http://gh5.guitarhero.com/preorder.php and picking up your copy in September, or by buying specially marked copies of the game at any retailer anytime during the month of September, and take advantage of this limited time offer.
 
Please visit www.guitarhero.com/vanhalengameoffer for full offer and redemption details.

80 Comments

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GameFreak315

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Edited By GameFreak315

This deal is perfect for me...seeing as I was getting Guitar Hero 5 anyway, and on the fence about Van Halen.  I'm stoked.  :D
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rawrz

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Edited By rawrz

 Well seeing that the only major additions in GH5 are things that have already been done in the past with Rock Band, I guess this is Activisions cheap attemp at selling there game. I guess they kinda have to resort to such tactics since the game comes out in a month and theres very little hype or buzz for it. All the buzz and excitement is going to Beatles Rock Band.

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JoshLarson

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Edited By JoshLarson

What's the catch? Do you have to pre-order the $250 whole kit-and-kaboodle version to qualify or what? Probably.
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Mourne

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Edited By Mourne

Ohhh, so -that's- how they're waiting everyone to overlook The Beatles. I guess even Activision, after taking a look at the Van Halen package, realized just how weak it really is.
 
First, they schedule GH5 for a week before The Beatles, and now they're trying to make sure someone still buys GH5... Yeaaaah, no thanks, folks. Make one console game in the franchise a year (at most two) and put everything into that--not whoring out the brand with as many spinoffs as possible. Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero 5, and Guitar Hero: Van Halen in one year?
 
Quantity over quality doesn't seem to say it all.

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natetodamax

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Edited By natetodamax

Guitar Hero was awesome up until World Tour where they decided to throw the Guitar Hero name out of the window and steal Rock Band's concept of a full band.

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yakov456

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Edited By yakov456

Thats a pretty good deal, going to think about it even though I wasn't thinking about GH5.

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Spectre91

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Edited By Spectre91

I guess they are trying to give you the "Best of Both Worlds"!  
OR 
You would have to be "5150" to pass this one up. 
OR 
Now you can play these songs on your "Little Guitars" . 
OR 
This is the deal of your "Dreams". 
OR 
Activision must have decided to "hit the ground running changed". 
OR 
This deal is just "Good Enough" to get me excited about GH again! 
OR 
"I'll Wait" a while before I pick either of these up. 
 
Hopefully some of you guys find all of these Van Halen puns funny. 
Too many Hagar ones, and not enough Roth ones though.

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C2C

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Edited By C2C
@DragoonKain1687 said:
" Wow, still not going to buy GH 5 though "
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clubsandwich

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Edited By clubsandwich

get 2 crappy games for the price of one!
 
no thanks, I like Van Halen but it's guitar hero, we all know it's going to suck.
 
I'll stick with The Beatles Rock Band. :D

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DBZ_Fanatic

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Edited By DBZ_Fanatic

PLEASE SOMEONE REPLY CAN I DO THIS IF I'M IN CANADA

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Iceman2343

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Edited By Iceman2343

I'm gonna consider this, although I haven't played my copy of rockband 2 recently.

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Kyle

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Edited By Kyle

That's definitely tempting, but I think I'm still gonna go with DJ Hero as my only music game this year.

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Milkman

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Edited By Milkman

Dude, WHAT?! Does that mean I could pre-order Guitar Hero 5, get Guitar Hero: Van Halen for free and then cancel my pre-order of Guitar Hero 5? This makes no sense. There has to be a catch.

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DBZ_Fanatic

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Edited By DBZ_Fanatic
@Milkman: no you need to buy guitar hero 5
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killroycantkill

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Edited By killroycantkill

I was thinking of picking up GH5 because I am really liking the set list but the inclusion of the Van Halen game sounds awesome.

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Hef

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Edited By Hef

Still getting The Beatles Rock Band

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TheHT

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Edited By TheHT

can't go wrong with free. guitar gaming fans should POUNCE ON THAT SHIT son.

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NMC2008

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Edited By NMC2008
@LCad said:
" "AUGH!" regarding thisdeal for being exclusive to the United States.
 
And also nobody fucking cares if you are "done with the rhythm game genre".  You don't need to post it on every fucking news post about every rhythm game announcement.  Seriously.  Shut the hell up.  It is clearly apparent that Activision has gone overboard with sequels, but that's how the market works.
 
@NMC2008:   I believe there's just that many people who like The Beatles for the overlap to be huge (in terms of game sales) regardless of how many fans do not care about Rock Band.  Like a Wii and Rock Band are, I've found,  two things that a lot of unexpected "non-gamer" people own.  How hard is it to imagine those people already enjoying The Beatles and picking up the game if it has a strong marketing push? "
Fair enough, but I think people are over estimating what this game will sell because it's The Beatles & Rock Band, I just have this bad feeling that it will kinda tank, but then again it's coming out in a month with hardly anything in it so who knows, all I know is I don't think it will be this gigantic steamroller that some people think it will be, and going up against GH5 will be interesting to me, but don't mind me, I am not a Beatles fan and I am more a GH person than RB.
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ashogo

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Edited By ashogo

Why does everyone treat Guitar Hero like it's going to be complete shit? Just because they milk the franchise to death doesn't mean the next game will suck.

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SgtReznor

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Edited By SgtReznor
@TooWalrus said:
" @SgtReznor said:
" I'm actually surprised that they've done a GH:VH at all. 
 
Are Van Halen really that popular on a mainstream level to warrant their own game? They certainly aren't/weren't in Australia "
Maybe they aren't that popular, but they are that good. Eddies guitar will be a blast to play, and I sing Dave's lyrics even without a guitar hero game... "
that's my point though, "good" doesn't sell games. It's "popular" that sells games.
 
I mean, people might be able to argue whether or not that they think The Beatles are good, but there's no denying their popularity
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valiantgoat

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Edited By valiantgoat

I'm interested to find out if this offer is valid in countries other then the U.S.

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ShadowKiller

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Edited By ShadowKiller
@DragoonKain1687 said:
" Wow, still not going to buy GH 5 though "
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A Likely Story

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Edited By A Likely Story

Wow, this actually a great deal. Honestly, I might just go out and take up this offer now, an offer from a franchise that I thought I was done with.

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Media_Master

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Edited By Media_Master

good deal

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Mouth

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Edited By Mouth

This is Activision at its worse. I'm still with The Beatles.
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TissueShoe

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Edited By TissueShoe

Wow, I just might buy GH5 because of that now. If I sold Van Halen, the game would pay for itself! So I would get GH5 for free! That sounds too good to be true...

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jakob187

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Edited By jakob187

I'll probably enjoy a good handful of songs on Guitar Hero 5, but they can keep their dirty Van Halen game.

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Punchoutman

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Edited By Punchoutman
@NMC2008: I've actually heard people are buying PS3s,360s, or Wiis just to get this game. Whether that's only in my town or not, I don't know, but yes.
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PuppyKisses

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Edited By PuppyKisses

I think Activision spent so much time denying the existence of / refusing to talk about  this game a year ago that even THEY forgot it was coming out.