Guitar Hero drum issues "isolated"

Activision has described sensitivity issues affecting Guitar Hero World Tour drum-sets in the US as "an isolated manufacturing issue" and said it would "immediately address any hardware issues" via its US support channels.

However, the publisher clearly believes it can solve at least some of the problems in software, having added that it will "soon be offering a drum tuning kit that will enable players to fully optimise their drums".

"We have learned that certain drum kit controllers manufactured for Guitar Hero World Tour have sensitivity issues. We believe that these controllers are limited to ones in the earlier manufacturing stages," the publisher said in a statement published on the support pages of peripheral manufacturer RedOctane (thanks Kotaku).

"While we believe that this was an isolated manufacturing issue, we are stepping our efforts to randomly test our drum kit controllers so customers can be assured they work properly.

"In the event any consumers do experience problems with their drum kit controllers associated with sensitivity issues, Activision will soon be offering a drum tuning kit that will enable players to fully optimise their drums."

Following the game's US release this week, forum-going fans complained that one or more drums on the five-pad set were only registering soft hits whenever they tried for hard ones, despite the kit's velocity-sensitive make-up.

Others reported that the drums were not working with Rock Band 2 on PS3, despite promises of cross-compatibility. We've contacted Sony, EA/Harmonix and Activision for comment on that one, but so far there has been no response.

We've not heard back from Activision about whether the drum problems will be a problem for European consumers when the game comes out in November, but then Activision hasn't officially confirmed specific release dates for the game in Europe either.

We have at least been able to get hold of review copies, as you may have noticed from our Guitar Hero World Tour review. With EA/Harmonix's Rock Band 2 still unavailable in Europe and no word yet on a launch date, GHWT remains the best option for prospective videogame bands.