The latest version of popular game series “Guitar Hero” was expected to break sales records with its release this weekend. The popularity of the franchise is undeniable, a fact backed up by forum users, sale statistics, revenues and its quick induction in popular culture.

The excitement which met the launch was even bigger than initially expected. The new game, “Guitar Hero World Tour”, enables the users to record and share personal musical compositions. Also, the game’s package includes the famous guitar, but also a drum set and a microphone. Gamers were simply ecstatic by the prospect of enlarging the instrument variety and the possibility to create their own music.

The good news ends here, unfortunately, for the makers of “Guitar Hero”. After a highly advertised launch, the Guitar Hero message boards were filled to the brim with complaints regarding the newly introduced instruments. Most of the complaints were centered on the drum set, which seemed to give users a handful of problems, since the first time they used it.

The game’s publisher, Activision, tried to solve the issue and avoid bad publicity by making a sticky topic on the message boards for the disgruntled customers. The advice, however, was not nearly as professional as the damage control initiative. People were complaining, for instance, that the drums had very low or very high sensitivity and they were unable to read beats – the problem is obviously vital in a game focusing on music. The advice was along the lines of “hit the drums harder” or “hit the drums softer” and of course, the classic “is your drum set plugged in?” The topic also gives the users the option to address the customer service department and even redirected them to Red Octane’s warranty department.

Red Octane said that the problematic drum sets were limited in number and believes they were among the first produced. Activision even offered to give users a tuning kit to fix their drums. The amount of complaints certainly do not bode well for sales.