Telling the UK’s NME magazine, Love characteristically spewed filth-flarn-flarn-filth when passing along this update.

What pisses me off the most about it is I think Kurt would be fine with having five Kurt Cobains singing the (Spice Girls) song Wannabe, like, ‘Tell me what you want, what you really really want.’ … I think he’d find that really funny.

But at the same time it’s gross what they did. Gwen [Stefani, suing Activsion for how No Doubt appears in Band Hero] started the lawsuit. I have really good lawyers now and will join that lawsuit. There was this grey area and they fucked the lot of us. They didn’t fuck Jack White, but they fucked Gwen, fucked Johnny Cash and fucked Kurt … It’s just gross. This is the rock ‘n’ roll business, this is what people do. They are sleazy; they do sleazy things.

I’m not sure this kind of comment harms her case but it probably doesn’t buy her sympathy points. Her lawyer probably should tell her to just STFU about Guitar Hero for the time being, but I doubt that advice would be followed.

Love: Cobain Would Have Enjoyed Guitar Hero [Contact Music, thanks mr_raccoon]

Sure, videos get taken down all the time. But search for “Guitar Hero” on YouTube and you get more than 300,000 results. While not all are video directly from the game, it’s undeniable that there are many out there showing gameplay, except in a positive light. Most recently there’s a guy hundred-percenting eruption in Guitar Hero: Van Halen and using the video to pimp Gamer Grub. Maybe not as embarrassing as the Cobain foofaraw, but I’m sure some lawyer-mans could reason that it’s an unauthorised endorsement.

For his part, the video’s poster – corporalgregg3 – says:

Yeah, my last account was permanently disabled due to (I think) Activision. Right before my account was shut down, the Kurt Cobain vid was removed due to copyright claim by Activision Games Inc. I will be continuing with this account so whatever f—k it all.

The three videos on his new account are all of Rock Band.

Rock Band 2 The Metal Expert Guitar Bass Drums Gold [720p] [YouTube, thanks Jonathan S.]

Nowhere is this more evident than in music-themed video games. Titles like Guitar Hero 5, The Beatles: Rock Band and soon-to-be released DJ Hero all use real musicians, living and dead, to help create a stronger sense of realism.

But is that a good thing?

For the surviving members of The Beatles and their fans it seems to be.

The self-titled Rock Band game released to phenomenal reviews and delivered an experience that was solely devoted the band. The game, it seems, was an effort to not only give people a chance to play through their favourite Beatles hits, but to get a better sense of how The Beatles grew both us musicians and a band.

The same week that fans of the fab four were rejoicing in the singular experience of The Beatles: Rock Band, the widow, fans and band mates of late grunge icon Kurt Cobain were up in arms over his inclusion in Guitar Hero 5.

Prior to the game’s release, publisher Activision told Rolling Stone magazine that Courtney Love wasn’t just integral in bringing Cobain to life in the game, she was great to work with.

But in a frenzy of late-night Twitter updates a week after the game’s release, Love denied that she was happily involved in the project, posting 214 Tweets over a six-hour period decrying the game, Cobain’s inclusion in it and most hotly the ability to have the grunge singer perform other songs.

It’s this single feature, which allows gamers to unlock Cobain and have him sing everything from Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire to Bon Jovi’s You Give Love a Bad Name, that seems to be the most upsetting to friends, fans and family.

Some critics too, were unhappy with it. Kotaku’s own review described the ability to reanimate the virtual corpses of Cobain and Johnny Cash and control them as marionettes in other people’s songs, as tacky and crude.

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, the two surviving members of Nirvana, released a joint statement asking Activision to alter the game to prevent the virtual Cobain from performing songs that are not his own.

“Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”

Activision, which had initially agreed to participate in this story, declined to respond to questions about the decision to include real-world musicians in games and to say whether they would change Cobain’s inclusion in Guitar Hero 5.

They did send along a prepared statement saying that the game had the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a “written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5,”

While Love didn’t respond to our requests for an interview, her attorney did, saying that while there was an agreement in place, it didn’t allow the sort of treatment Cobain is getting in the game.

“Ms. Cobain is extremely upset about Activision’s use of Mr. Cobain’s likeness to sing the songs of others in its Guitar Hero game,” Keith A. Fink, Love’s attorney, told Kotaku. “Activision was granted permission by Kurt’s trust solely to use his name and likeness. Activision was not given an unbridled right to use Mr. Cobain’s name and likeness. ”

“The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn’t allow them to use his likeness in ways that denigrate his image.”

Love’s response to Guitar Hero 5 is a far cry from the response The Beatles: Rock Band is getting from the family and surviving members of The Beatles.

Perhaps that’s because in the Rock Band game players can only perform as The Beatles in songs by The Beatles. The game comes with 45 tracks, and more are on the way, but they’re only going to be Beatles songs. And none of those Beatles songs work on Rock Band 2.

It’s a clear distinction that could explain Love’s emotional and slightly delayed reaction to Cobain’s use in Guitar Hero 5.

Had she seen The Beatles: Rock Band I’m sure she couldn’t help but ponder over what could have been: A video game that celebrates Kurt Cobain rather than using him. A title that expands Cobain’s audience, reminds people of his importance in the world of music and gives fans and neophytes an equal opportunity to try and understand the godfather of grunge.

In the future, game developers attracted to the allure of reality should perhaps keep in mind that what makes reality so intriguing is that it’s real, not that it’s a jumping off point for a distasteful fiction.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

“Ms. Cobain is extremely upset about Activision’s use of Mr. Cobain’s likeness to sing the songs of others in its Guitar Hero game,” Keith A. Fink, Love’s attorney, told Kotaku. “Activision was granted permission by Kurt’s trust solely to use his name and likeness. Activision was not given an unbridled right to use Mr. Cobain’s name and likeness. Kurt’s songs have a special and unique meaning to his fans and his image and legacy are very important to Ms. Cobain. The agreement Activision has with the trust doesn’t allow them to use his likeness in ways that denigrate his image. We would hope Activision would do the right thing on its own and prohibit game users from using Kurt’s image to sing others songs and if they don’t we expect the trust to take appropriate action to protect Mr. Cobain’s image.”

Activision told Kotaku earlier this week that Love signed the agreement allowing the use of Cobain in the game. But what appears to be driving most of the controversy is the ability for gamers to use Cobain’s likeness to perform in and sing other songs.

Love posted on her Twitter account that she was going to sue Activision and that they way Cobain appears in the game is a breach of contract. She also said she was sickened by how he is used in the game.

Krist Novoselic nor Dave Grohl, the two surviving members of Nirvana, released a joint statement saying they too are upset over the way Cobain can be used to pantomime other artists’ music “alongside cartoon characters.”

“Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”

The are asking Activision to “re-lock” Cobain’s character so he can only perform his own songs in the game.

“Guitar Hero secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Courtney Love to use Kurt Cobain’s likeness as a fully playable character in Guitar Hero 5,” Activision told Kotaku today.

Last night Love posted on her Twitter account that she and Cobain’s Estate were going to sue “the shit out of Activision”. She went on to write: “For the record this Guitar Hero shit is breach of contract on a Bullys part and there will be a proper addressing of this and retraction.”

Later that night Love added that while she had looked at an avatar for Cobain, she had asked the developers to “show her a better avatar to drag my heels,” adding that she never intended to allow Cobain to appear in the game.

We’ve contacted Love’s personal manager and the agency who handles her interviews, but have not yet heard back.