Bobby Kotick call for "Guitar Hero: Any Old Music" edition

The videogame industry and the music biz are in a very, shall we say, tendentious place. On the one hand there are a huge number of music games on the way (Multiple "Guitar Hero's," "Rock Band 2" and more spin-offs/sequels without a doubt, "Ultimate Band," "Rock Revolution," "Wii Music," etc.), all of which generate royalties for music labels and publishers, not to mention exposure to a huge new audience. (For a good summary, see this Variety article.)

But methinks Activision Blizzard CEO goes a bit far in this statement to the Wall Street Journal (subscription only, excerpted by GameDaily):

We have lots of music to choose from, lots of artists to choose from. A 12-year-old kid has no idea who Steven Tyler is or who Aerosmith is. The bulk of our consumers will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are include. They're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them.

Any intelligent person can see that Kotick is taking an aggressive public stance in essentially letting the music companies know that he's not bending to their demands -- or more specifically the demands of Warner Music Group topper Edgar Bronfman -- to pay more money to use their music. (Sources have made clear to me that the dispute between Bronfman and "music video games" is really just about "Guitar Hero.")

But this assertion is pretty clearly belied by the evidence. If including major bands isn't important for "Guitar Hero," then why is Activision shelling out to get them? Kotick is famously a hard nosed businessman who only spends money when he needs to. Why pay "Aerosmith" millions, and the bands included in "Guitar Hero" tens of thousands each, to get their music if that's not an important factor for consumers buying the game?

Here's a simple test: If Kotick is right, then Activision should release a new game called "Guitar Hero: Unsigned indie bands you've never heard of." There are thousands of decent independent bands that would kill to be on "Guitar Hero" without any payment just for the promotional exposure. So make that game, charge the same price as other versions of "Guitar Hero," and let's see how it sells. Anyone want to take bets on whether it'll beat the "Aerosmith" version?

Kotick also said that the impact of inclusion in "Guitar Hero" on catalog sales can be so dramatic that "you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse."

Again, I'd be interested to see that plan put into action. Who out there is looking forward to the "Guitar Hero: Bands that were willing to pay us to be included" edition?