Today Activision announced Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the newest console installment of their music mega-franchise. It is being developed by Vicarious Visions for Wii.

While retaining all of the Party Play and Competitive modes from Guitar Hero 5 (as well as the instrument selection of guitar, bass, drum, and vocals), Warriors of Rock adds several new wrinkles to the Guitar Hero formula. There is now a Quest mode, in which you embark from the stage of New York's CBGBs club to help the Demi-God (voiced by Gene Simmons, naturally) defeat The Beast in order to save rock'n'roll. Each of the game's trademark characters has their own "Warrior Power" that they can use to gain an advantage in the battle against evil.

Another addition is Quickplay+, which adds 13 different challenges for every track on the disc, as well as most songs imported/downloaded from Guitar Hero: World Tour and later. Challenges include Power Challenge (which allows the use of Warrior Powers for extra-high scores), Band Streak, and High Score. Quickplay+ leaderboards have also been added for each challenge, so players can see how they stack up with the best of the best.

Warriors of Rock will include 90 tracks, one of which is "Sudden Death", written and performed by Dave Mustaine of Megadeth specifically for the game. The tracks revealed so far are:

• AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”
• Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
• Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”
• Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”
• Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace... Prepare For War”
• The Cure – “Fascination Street”
• Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”
• Dethklok – “Bloodlines”
• DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”
• Drowning Pool – “Bodies”
• Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”
• Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”
• Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”
• KISS – “Love Gun”
• Megadeth – “Sudden Death”
• Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”
• Muse – “Uprising”
• My Chemical Romance – “I'm Not Okay (I Promise)”
• Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”
• The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”
• Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”
• Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”
• ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is set to launch on Wii this fall.

ACTIVISION UNVEILS GUITAR HERO®: WARRIORS OF ROCK – THE ULTIMATE ROCK & ROLL MUSIC VIDEOGAMING EXPERIENCE

All-New Story-Based Quest Mode Voiced By KISS Front Man, Gene Simmons

Biggest On-Disc Selection of Rock Music Ever In A Guitar Hero® Game

New Challenges to Every Song in the 500+ Track Guitar Hero Music Library

Finger-Fretting, Rock-Inspired Wireless Guitar Controller

Reveal Trailer to Debut on Gametrailers.com at 10:00 AM PST on June 4, 2010

Santa Monica, CA – June 4, 2010 – This fall, living room legends and their friends will join together and embark on an epic rock journey to save rock n’ roll with Activision Publishing, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Guitar Hero®: Warriors of Rock. The latest installment in the world’s most popular music game series, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, will once again redefine music gaming with an all-new, story-driven Quest Mode, a completely redesigned rock-inspired guitar controller, the biggest on-disc selection of rock music ever in a Guitar Hero® game and Quickplay+, which invites challenge-starved fanatics to test their rock skills in any of the on-disc or over 500 songs in the Guitar Hero Music Library.

Running on the powerful Guitar Hero engine that has been expanded and refined, coupled with the return of the critically-acclaimed and fan favorite features like Party Play’s jump in/jump out gameplay, a host of Competitive modes and the ability to play any combination of guitar, bass, drums and vocals, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock offers the complete interactive and connected experience bringing friends and foes to the stage in the ultimate rock music adventure.

“Guitar Hero has set the standard for music based gaming and with Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s all-new Quest Mode, robust and authentic set list, over-the-top challenges and rock-inspired new hardware, we are once again bringing the soul and energy of rock n’ roll to fans around the world,” said David Haddad, Chief Operating Officer, Guitar Hero.

In Quest Mode, using any combination of instruments, players will embark on a larger-than-life, epic rock journey from the stage of CBGBs, the infamous punk-rock club in New York City, to the molten lava fields of rock treachery as eight Guitar Hero characters transform into rock warriors that must join together to use their unique, game-changing powers to help the Demi-God of Rock take down “The Beast” and save rock n’ roll.

"The world is a boring place. Come with me, and enter a world populated of Demi-Gods and Beasts. Transform from an everyday person and become the savior of rock and roll,” said Gene Simmons of KISS. “It was an honor and privilege to narrate Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, even more so, to voice the Demi God. From the God of Thunder to the Demi-God, how cool is that..."

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock breathes new life into gamers’ current Guitar Hero music libraries providing literally hundreds of hours of replayability with the introduction of Quickplay+, which features 13 totally unique gameplay challenges for every on-disc track as well as most downloadable and importable songs from Guitar Hero® World Tour forward. Gamers will complete challenges such as Band Streak, High Score and Power Challenge, which allows players to choose any two warrior powers they have unlocked to try and earn ridiculously high scores, to rank up and unlock more rewards and content than ever before. All-new Challenge Leaderboards have been created in order to capture the outrageous scores that are capable with Quickplay+.

Delivering the largest on-disc rock music set list to-date, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock features more than 90 tracks that include guitar shredding hits from bands such as Black Sabbath, Megadeth and Slipknot and larger than life anthems from Queen, Muse and KISS. Additionally, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth wrote and recorded “Sudden Death,” an original track for the game, which was inspired by Quest Mode’s storyline. Along with original songs, the set list also includes special re-records by famous artists and tracks from bands that are making their music video game debut. The first songs off of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock’s set list to be revealed are:

· AFI – “Dancing Through Sunday”

· Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”

· Black Sabbath – “Children Of The Grave”

· Buzzcocks – “What Do I Get?”

· Children Of Bodom – “If You Want Peace... Prepare For War”

· The Cure – “Fascination Street”

· Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me (Live)”

· Dethklok – “Bloodlines”

· DragonForce – “Fury of the Storm”

· Drowning Pool – “Bodies”

· Foo Fighters – “No Way Back”

· Foreigner – “Feels Like The First Time”

· Jane’s Addiction – “Been Caught Stealing”

· KISS – “Love Gun”

· Megadeth – “Sudden Death”

· Metallica & Ozzy Osbourne – “Paranoid (Live)”

· Muse – “Uprising”

· My Chemical Romance – “I'm Not Okay (I Promise)”

· Queen – “Bohemian Rhapsody”

· Rammstein – “Waidmanns Heil”

· The Rolling Stones – “Stray Cat Blues”

· Silversun Pickups – “There’s No Secrets This Year”

· Slayer – “Chemical Warfare”

· ZZ Top – “Sharp Dressed Man (Live)”

To maximize players’ shredability, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock delivers the next evolution in finger-fretting with an all-new, show-stopping guitar controller that was inspired and born from the game’s unique art style and specifically made for shredding.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and by Vicarious Visions for the Wii™ system from Nintendo. The game is rated “T” (Teen – Lyrics, Mild Fantasy Violence and Mild Suggestive Themes) for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The Wii version is not yet rated by the ESRB. For more information about Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, please visit GuitarHero.com.