As part of its spiel about a guitar give-away with the launch of Guitar Hero World Tour, Activision has said that it won't ship enough copies of the game at launch.

Speaking to MCV, Activision’s marketing director for the UK and Ireland, David Tyler, said, “With demand likely to far outstrip supply, pre-ordering is the only way to assure a copy at launch.” Hooray for marketing BS! Maybe you ought to ship a few more copies then, eh?

Anyway, onto the give-away. In Tyler's words, “Consumers who pre-order the Guitar Hero World Tour ‘super bundle’ from any retailer – either online, or in-store – will bag a bonus bass guitar.”

Why? “This is a significant investment to reward our loyal fans, ensuring the full band experience is available from the off.” Not because Activision's a-feared of competition from Rock Band, then?

Well, if Activision Blizzard's CEO, Bobby Kotick, is to be believed – certainly not. He's been bragging about Guitar Hero's performance at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference. “We’re outselling (Rock Band) 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the world’s music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there.

“I would also say when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software, and so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category.”

Speaking of the competition, Harmonix and MTV Games have announced the line-up of equipment manufacturers appearing in Rock Band 2. It goes as follows:

Guitars, Basses and Amplifiers:
Fender (Including Charvel, Gretsch, Jackson, Squier, SWR)

Drums:
DW
Gretsch Drums
Ludwig/Conn-Selmer
Pearl
SJC Custom Drum
Zildjian Cymbals

Microphones:
Selnnheiser
Shure

Accessories / Additional Instruments:
Ernie Ball
Electro-Harmonix
EMG Pickups
Fender
Ludwig Drumsticks
Pro-Mark
Roland/BOSS
Vater Drumsticks
Vic Firth
ZVEX

So, that's something to look forward to when Rock Band 2 makes it over here next decade...

Back to Guitar Hero and there's been chatter about a subscription model for DownLoadable Content in the future. Speaking at Activision's analyst day earlier in the week, Activision's publishing CEO, Mike Griffith, said, “Looking even further out, we're exploring new models, like an annual pass subscription where players can subscribe and get a certain number of songs downloadable each month.”

Between that and the full Guitar Hero World Tour bundle costing £150, it looks like Activision is after your entire disposable income...

You can find out more about Guitar Hero World Tour here and get the skinny on Rock Band 2 here.

^{Sources: MCV
Kotaku
ShackNews}