In an interview with Forbes, Activision Blizzard C.E.O. Bobby Kotick discusses the attempt to license LED ZEPPELIN's music for the Guitar Hero franchise. An excerpt from the interview follows:

Q: When you’re talking to consumers how do you tease out innovative ideas? What if they think they want more of the same, because it’s the easy answer –but then when the product comes out it flops, because the market actually wanted a different experience?

A: "Well [in the case of DJ Hero] they didn’t want what we gave them. We pushed it down their throats.

A long time ago we brought in people from traditional package goods companies, and one of the reasons is we wanted to make sure that we had a framework for listening to our customers. And they do that in a really sophisticated way. Granted, they’re very different products and it’s not entertainment, but there was a lot that we’ve been able to modify from those processes, that really provides great insight, and is very useful in this process.

The way it’s come to work best is, rather than say ‘Would you like to share your ideas for the game?’, we share different ideas - and you know we have 7,000 people, we have a lot of really great ideas. We do some of this online, we do some of this quantitatively through focus group testing or concept testing, but we’ll put ideas down, our concepts down, or even show prototypes. And then you can get dialog and discussion. You have to do it in a lot of different geographies, and you really need to be incredibly disciplined about adhering to the process.

In the case of Guitar Hero, we did the research and it was very clear people didn’t want more 80s heavy metal music. But what they wanted was very difficult for us to get from the music companies. I’ll give you an example: The number one thing that our audiences wanted in Guitar Hero was LED ZEPPELIN. But we couldn’t get Led Zeppelin to consent to give us the rights. And there were a lot of instances of that, a whole host of artists who just didn’t want to give rights to Guitar Hero, and it was hard to get around that. And then there were other things… we put things out there that were not ready for prime time and that today actually would resonate very well with audiences."

Read the complete interview at this location.

Legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page recently launched his first official website at Jimmypage.com.

Ahead of the launch, rock writer and journalist Pete Makowski interviewed Jimmy about his first ever website, the story behind its inception and his vision for On This Day.

Q: When did you start thinking about putting together a website?

A: "I’ve had the domain name for a number of years. I’ve just been sitting on it and a number of people had made approaches about setting something up and it got to a point that it felt it was the right time to put one together."

Q: Were you aware of the other Jimmy Page websites and did that add to the importance of doing your own?

A: "Well not really because they were clearly fan websites and that’s really great. When you’ve got fans and especially ones committed to doing websites, it’s OK. The only problem I have is when inaccuracies pop up and gain a life of their own. Over the years with the Internet and forums, urban musical myths start to change what actually happened at the time. And then it comes into the world of Twitter and blogging, of which I’m going to be doing neither. Another reason for doing the website is if you talked to people generally who aren’t switched on to what I’ve done they probably think ‘oh yeah, he was the guitarist in Led Zeppelin wasn’t he? And they did the 02.’ And if they said anything else about me it would probably relate to that BBC clip where I’m about thirteen. That’s all they really know about me and I’ve had a really long career, seriously active for over 50 years. Having recently done the book for Genesis, which was a chronological history, it gave me an opportunity to revisit all of the various projects I’ve ever been involved with and I thought I could do something similar on the website."

Q: How did you go about setting it up?

A: "Well, when I came to the arrival of the decision to do it I asked other people what they found frustrating with websites and they came up with two main things; navigation and the fact that they don’t change everyday. Well I had the navigation sorted out but it was the criticism that the sites don’t change that concerned me."

Q: Is that how the idea for On This Day came about?

A: "I had the idea for a long time and I proposed to use it on the Led Zeppelin website, because I thought it would be an ideal way to portray Led Zeppelin’s history. Curiously enough, there are now sites popping up doing this everywhere. So I knew I had a sound idea. It’s an interesting concept because every day you are going to have an event from my life and it will go all the way back to me being a teenager, still at school and playing in London bands while I lived in Epsom - which at the time seemed miles away. So it starts from there and the next day it could be when I played at the Olympics, because my career spans several decades. It looks random, but it isn’t. I love the idea that there will be a ‘Splash’ page everyday and nobody will be able to guess what’s coming next."

Q: Any final words on JimmyPage.com?

A: "I think this is the ideal vehicle to present my past, present and future work."

A previous site update reads:

"Today's (July 14th) launch marks a new milestone in Jimmy's extraordinary career, with JimmyPage.com chronicling his rich history in music and unlocking the vaults for the first time ever.

The all-encompassing Live, Photos and Discography sections of the website span a whole host of eras, from Jimmy's early work in the 1960's as a session musician for the likes of THE ROLLING STONES and MARIANNE FAITHFULL, through to the present day, and via: THE YARDBIRDS, LED ZEPPELIN, ARMS, WITH ROY HARPER, THE FIRM, OUTRIDER, COVERDALE/PAGE, PAGE AND PLANT, - THE BLACK CROWES

and PUFF DADDY."

According to The Morton Report, the July 14th launch of Page's website has significance. It’s nine days until a full moon in Capricorn, and as the cognoscenti know, Page was born on January 9. And on July 14, 1985, the three surviving members of LED ZEPPELIN appeared together at the Live Aid show in Philadelphia, performing for the first time since John Bonham’s death in September 25, 1980.