Axl Rose Taking Guitar Hero to Court in 2013

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock was released in 2007 to an almost unimaginable amount of success. It was Activision's Call of Duty before Call of Duty made it super-big and, looking at the Guinness World Records and sales figures associated with it, you can completely see why everybody involved in the game was very happy. Well, almost everybody involved was happy. Axl Rose, of Guns N' Roses, was not happy.

It turns out that use of the song "Welcome to the Jungle" was only allowed in the game on the strict provisory that former band mate Slash and supergroup Velvet Revolver would not be referenced in the game. According to Axl Rose, Activision said that that wouldn't be a problem and then went and stuck the guitarist on the front cover.

While a judge has ruled out fraud (one of the things Rose was suing over), the breach of contract hearing will go ahead as planned in February 2013. Some people, including Activision's lawyers I think, will be asking why it will have taken seven years for this to come to fruition, so let's hope Axl Rose has a decent explanation (outside of his "Activision were offering me my own game" defence).