The US bundle for the fourth game in the Guitar Hero series will set back gamers $189.99 on the PS3 and $179.99 on 360 and Wii. That means, what with exchange rates being around two dollars to the pound, UK gamers can expect to pay about £179.99. Which is double the price, if you think about it.

Monetary politics aside, the game, one guitar and a mic will cost twenty dollars more than Rock Band currently does in the US. Plus, if you have Guitar Hero 3 and two guitars, you'll have to buy another guitar. Which is a bit extortionate if you ask me. I guess then you'll have one to smash at the end of your set though. It's the rock and roll thing to do.

Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour will be fighting it out for the affections of the party game obsessed over the next coming months, and literally millions of people will be teaming up to create virtual bands.

Now, is it just me, or is the whole thing just going a bit too far now? I mean, Guitar Hero was fun, an interesting novelty, but Guitar Hero 4 is going to have a feature that allows you to create and upload your own songs. Like you could do if you learned to play a real instrument instead of just pressing buttons. Maybe I'm playing Devil's Advocate, but there's a whiff of fad here, and I suspect in a couple of years time, an awful lot of wireless drumkits will be gathering dust in lofts packed with cheap plastic guitar copies and broken microphones.

Source Joystiq