Activision Confirms DJ Hero For 2009

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has confirmed the existence of the oft-rumored DJ Hero, a Guitar Hero spinoff with a turntable peripheral.

Though the existence of a Guitar Hero spinoff called DJ Hero has basically been assumed since Activision trademarked the name last year (and since it just makes so much sense), Activision has been coy about making the game official. Now, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has made something of an inadvertent official announcement of the game’s existence, even pegging it with a release window of later this year.

Speaking on the success of peripheral-driven games during an interview with CNBC, Kotick pointed out the massive success of Guitar Hero and then mentioned another game that will presumably come in a gigantic box: DJ Hero. “We have this product called DJ Hero coming out later this year, which is a turntable that you actually can play competitively and spin discs and mix songs,” Kotick said.

DJ Hero won’t be the only videogame record-scratcher in town this year, though. This spring will see the release of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ, another Guitar Hero-With-Turntables that has the creative backing of hip-hop producer Quincy Jones III and a turntable peripheral being designed by Numark, the world’s most ubiquitous DJ equipment manufacturer. Sounds like Scratch certainly has its stuff together, so we might see a battle for the throne of top DJ game before year’s end.

As for DJ Hero, rumors point to B-Boy developer FreeStyle Games as the developer of the title, as they were acquired by Activision last year to work on “unspecified music games.” Aside from that and the information blabbed about by Kotick just now, the exact nature of DJ Hero remains in the dark. How big will the fake turntable be? Will you be able to play it in your lap, will you have to buy a coffee table to rest it on, or maybe it’ll come with fold-out legs so you can just set it up wherever you want? Also, I wonder if Grandmaster Flash or Funkmaster Flex will get as angry over this game as certain guitarists have over Guitar Hero. Somehow, I doubt it.