Industry trade site gamesindustry.biz has a nice, long article with Guitar Hero CEO Dan Rosensweig that hits on a number of interesting topics. Most interesting to me is what Rosensweig says about picking songs for inclusion in the games:

[Y]ou do a scientific analysis of the popularity of that song, how you group the songs together, how many songs should be in there. And then you do the magic part which [the studios are] focused on, which is the stuff statistics can’t tell you. Some of it is factual — who’s going on tour, who’s interested in promoting, but really they blend the science and the art together. Then the last component goes to the studio, which is, is it fun to play? If it’s not fun as hell to play, it’s not going to make the game.

I find it interesting to hear that things like who’s touring affect the selection process. It makes sense when you think about it; I guess I’d just never really thought about it before. Of course that wouldn’t be the only factor, but it could explain why some songs make it onto the disc and some get planned for DLC release later.

Rosensweig also gets a little catty about Guitar Hero 5 outselling The Beatles: Rock Band in the UK:

I guess we’re the only ones not surprised… internally we always talked about the Fab Five — Guitar Hero 5 — was going to beat the Fab Four.

Of course, as Plastic Axe reader Zoso pointed out when the sales numbers first came out, Rock Band is substantially less of a big deal in the UK than here, so if I were Rosensweig I might not be gloating quite as much.

Check out the rest of the interview for lots more insights into the process.

[Read, via Blast]