Many of you may have read over the weekend that in an interview with Bobby Kotick from Activision, A Forbes Magazine writer chose to slam Rockband calling it "a shameless knockoff of Guitar Hero". You can find that part of the story here

Well Peter C. Beller has addressed the criticism he has recieved from the gaming community. I give him kudos for havign the guts to reply but I still don’t agree with his opinions on Rockband.

Here is his reply:

"My terming Rock Band a "shameless knockoff" of Guitar Hero was based on the fact that it came ut after Guitar Hero and sported very obvious similarities with Guitar Hero, including color-coded prompts moving onscreen along a fret board. It even accepted the same Guitar Hero guitar controller, I believe.

If you define knockoff as "a copy or imitation of someone or something popular" the way Merriam-Webster does, then I think Rock Band fits the bill nicely.

I was aware that Harmonix designed both but Redoctane, then Activision, actually owned the game. When Harmonix sold to MTV and produced Rock Band it appears likely they took their know-how from Guitar Hero to create Rock Band along a similar vein. Which is a better game? Not for me to decide."

What do you guys think? Does that justify his malicious comments about Rockband? Or is he right to say those things based on his reasoning?