 The original Guitar Hero was released on the PlayStation 2 in November 2005 . Guitar Hero is notable because it comes packaged with a controller peripheral modeled after a black Gibson SG guitar . Rather than a typical <unk> , this guitar controller is the primary input for the game . Playing the game with the guitar controller <unk> playing an actual guitar , except it uses five colored " fret buttons " and a " strum bar " instead of frets and strings . The development of Guitar Hero was inspired by Konami 's Guitar Freaks video game , which at the time , had not seen much exposure in the North American market ; RedOctane , already selling guitar @-@ shaped controllers for imported copies of <unk> , approached Harmonix about creating a game to use an entirely new Guitar controller . The concept was to have the gameplay of Amplitude with the visuals of Karaoke Revolution , both of which had been developed by Harmonix . The game was met with critical acclaim and received numerous awards for its innovative guitar peripheral and its soundtrack , which comprised 47 playable rock songs ( most of which were cover versions of popular songs from artists and bands from the 1960s through modern rock ) . Guitar Hero has sold nearly 1 @.@ 5 million copies to date . 
