only exception is the song "She Bangs the Drums" by The Stone Roses, which is featured in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock). Prior to the release of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Activision worked with the iTunes Store to provide more than 1300 tracks of Guitar Hero-related music across more than 20 compilations, including most of the tracks from the games in the series, called "Guitar Hero Essentials". These compilations, such as "Killer Guitar Solos" and "Guitar Anthems of the '80s", include songs related to but not contained within the Guitar Hero series. Dusty Welch of RedOctane stated, "Where there's music, there's Guitar Hero, and with iTunes, we are able to provide fans with a central location for downloading their favorite rock anthems." Following the merger of Activision and Blizzard, the new company announced plans to create an alternative to iTunes based on the Guitar Hero brand that would allow for downloading songs and their associated note tracks for the Guitar Hero games. Reception and sales Games in the Guitar Hero series have been generally well received by critics. The initial games were highly praised by reviewers. Neversoft's first entry to the series, Guitar Hero III, was considered to be too difficult, with many difficult songs presenting players with "walls of notes"; the developers later acknowledged this. Subsequent efforts in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero World Tour were seen to have some improvements, with Guitar Hero: Metallica considered to be a well-polished title and, at that time, the best Guitar Hero title Neversoft has produced. Guitar Hero 5s improvements toward social gameplay were complemented by reviewers and considered a further improvement upon the series. Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "An addictive videogame provides the illusion of musical mastery for even the least gifted:. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Tap, tap, tap." Upon release, the first game was seen as an unexpected hit, earning over US$45 million with about 1.5 million copies sold. Guitar Hero II was significantly more financially successful, with over 1.3 million copies sold and sales over US$200 million. Guitar Hero III, according to Activision, was the first single video game to sell more than US$1 billion at retail, with nearly 3.5 million copies sold during the first seven months of 2008. World Tour continued the series' high sales records with 3.4 million units sold in the United