As you can see here, the best selling versions of Guitar Hero games are usually on Wii and PS2.

Why is it then, that the Wii/PS2 versions of Guitar Hero: Metallica will launch more than a month later than the 360/PS3 versions? It was exactly the same thing with EA's Rock Band, for which the Wii/PS2 versions launched in the ridiculous date of December 18.

I would assume that the Wii and PS2 teams are much smaller, and thus it takes longer. Launching later has never stopped a Rock Band game from selling on the Wii, so I don't think Activision is too worried. A few gamers that were closely watching the release dates may get annoyed and not buy it or buy it on another console, but most consumers will just pick it up whenever they know it's out. The Wii version of Rock Band came out months later than the other versions, but it had constant commercials, and well...the sales speak for themselves.

With over 10m copies sold for the last 2 CoD's they are not that short of money...

Anyway, it doesn't seem to make much sense. I know with Rock Band 2 we had some of M$'s meddling, but with the PS360 versions..... I really don't know, maybe the development takes longer for some reason

I'm sure they have their reasons however crappy there are.

Activision Boss : When will GH:M be released for Wii/PS2 ?.
Activision employee : Same day as the PS3/360.
Activision Boss: You F*CKING idiot , DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY WE'LL MAKE FROM THAT....LOADS!!!!...FOR F*CK SAKE.
Activision employee : Hmm Wah ?
Activision Boss : I F*cking hope we haven't priced this thing higher than $30.
Activision Employee : About that...

Development teams could be an explanation, but the engine for these games is already done for all platforms so it doesn't seem like a great explanation.

One would think that they would try to maximize the shelf time of the best selling versions and please their biggest audiences...

It's also possible that they're releasing their games at different times as to spread out their profits over the year instead of having them all at the launches of big games.

As some of you might know, I'm a hardcore Metallica fanboy(old school Metallica).

Thus, I shall buy two copies of this game, on opening day, and die of metal-gasm as I rock out to what I hope shall be Battery.

There are a lot of those like me...this could very well be the biggest guitar hero spinoff. Non-gamer metallica fans will buy this game just for schwag.

Wait for Guitar Hero: Beatles, or even Guitar Hero: Alice Cooper. Or hell, just for kicks, Guitar hero: Queen.

@ZenfoldorVGI: You might be interested in seeing the track list if you haven't already.

@MontanaHatchet: Yes that makes sense, but it doesn't explain why Wii and PS2 get later releases, it could be the other way around and still have the effect you mention. I'm just puzzled.

Well that was my best guess. I guess that the HD versions would be hurt more by releasing later (Wii version of GH is usually the leggiest but doesn't have the biggest launch) and that Activision wanted to release the HD versions earlier because of downloadable content. DLC could be spread out over the span of the year as well.