Activision has said it's true, thousands of people are complaining about it elsewhere, I don't think there's any reason to doubt the validity of this story.

So you're going to spend approximately $130 on a Guitar Hero game with mono sound, without waiting for this problem to be fixed?

I know many Wii owners say graphics don't matter; does sound also not matter?

When I had it hooked up through my Bose Lifestyle system (5.1), I thought it sounded great. I wasn't paying real close attention to where the sound was coming from, but it still sounded awesome.

Sound does matter in regards to mono vs stereo on virtually any game. This just bad on Activision. Especially since its a music genre game.

I wouldn't buy it until it is true stereo and not dual mono sound. There are actually graphs out now that show the dual mono coming out of the game. Pretty f'ed up I think.

http://news.filefront.com/proof-that-guitar-hero-iii-for-wii-is-mono-only/

 For me it actually does not. Then again I can never really tell the difference between stereo and mono. The only way I can tell is if I am sitting next to the speaker, or one of the speakers is out and the sound is supposed to come from it.

 That said, it is absolutely unacceptable that this happened. I can't believe that the game was released like this. It is huge points off the game for the general populace (but not so much for me). 

The game was $79.99 plus tax. It sounds fine to me. Some people also say that some of the PS3 and especially 360 guitars are having a problem where they don't control correctly. Apparently, you push a couple buttons and other button is registered. According to these people, this is a much bigger problem. One person even had to tape his 360 guitar together but it still have problems.

I am glad I have the Wii version because so far it works perfect and I know it has the best guitar. Anyway, it seems fine to me so I am ok with the game.

So - is this all Wii GHIII's that have this defect?

This is also a problem because straigt mono will likely end up on the center channel when decoded by a Dolby Prologic receiver. And that just sucks, really. Sure, your receiver can be told not to do that, but that's a serious issue. You don't buy 5 or 6 speakers to have sound coming out of just one.

Anyway, given that the box says surround is supported, this is apparently a bug and not lazy Wii support. Which means there's still hope for a fix in the future. Whether a patch, a recall, or something. It'll probably take a while though.

Just let's not forget one thing: bugs will happen. Being a programer, I can easily see them making the last round of tests in a pretty LCD with no receiver and just not noticing this. It's no excuse, since this will for sure lose them some sales, and on top of that maybe cause a very costly recall. But still, sh!t happens - a lot.

Didn't notice it till this came up. Why should I care now?

I guess I'll have to get the PS3 version of they don't release a patch for it. *sigh*

i was going to get this game on release until i heard about the sound problem.

a friend of mine picked one up anyway cause they were selling them cheap and his copy is definitely dual mono.
i'm torn. the game is great fun to play and i would like to own it but i want it in Stereo.
normally i dont get too fussed over things like graphics and sound but this is a god damn music game .