Guitar Hero takes stage on MTV

Every rock star remembers their first major label signing. It's the turn of events that sees musicians go from playing dive bars with chicken wire and sleeping in vans to performing in massive arenas and trashing hotel rooms with groupies. Red Octane can officially begin working on its couch defenestration, as the publisher has struck a deal with MTV Games to bring Guitar Hero into prime time.

Under the deal, the rock-and-roll rhythm game and any future Guitar Hero games will be featured on several of MTV's cable television properties, including MTV, MTV2, and mtvU, as well as Web properties such as MTV.com. The coverage will include original programming, creative promotions, and various competitions.

"The partnership between MTV Games and RedOctane was motivated by the strong integration of music and gameplay in Guitar Hero," said Kai Huang, CEO of RedOctane. "For the first time rock music is not in the background but instead it IS the game!"

The duet between Guitar Hero and MTV seems to go together like lead guitarists and supermodels. Guitar Hero's gameplay sees gamers assuming the role of a rock-star-in-the-making as they tear up covers of classic rock songs with a guitar-shaped controller. The PlayStation 2 game was released on November 8, and is rated T for Teen. MTV has recently made lengthy strides to tie in gaming with its programming by signing partnerships with Midway Games (the publishers' majority shareholder just happens to be Sumner Redstone, chairman and CEO of MTV parent corporation Viacom) and hosting a Game0RZ week, which is currently airing.

MTV also signed another up-and-coming game-based property today, absorbing GameTrailers LLC, and its Web site GameTrailers.com, into its entertainment-rich suite. GameTrailers.com specializes in Web-based video content, including trailers, reviews, and previews.