Slashdot Mirror
Activision Axes Guitar Hero
jtillots writes "Activision Blizzard has canceled the Guitar Hero franchise, citing 'declining revenue of the music game genre.' Also on the chopping block was DJ Hero and True Crime. Fat_bot put it best — it's the new Day the Music Died."
This comes only a few months after Viacom dropped Rock Band developer Harmonix for similar reasons, and less than a week after they closed MTV Games altogether.
until Jimmy Page dies and they can finally get the rights to what everyone always wanted out of this genre.
"Dammit, no matter how hard I squeeze, no more milk is coming out!! Chop up the cow."
And nothing of value was lost.
Kid-proof tablet..
I recall a time when Guitar Hero was one of the best selling games around
I think future generations will look back on the days where everyone thought 'Guitar Hero' was 'cool' much in the same way as my generation looks back at the days where 'air guitar' was cool: with a shudder of embarrassment.
No, no sig. Really.
ThePromenader
I see what you did there.
Rock Band is the real reason they declined. Already on their 3rd installment, new instruments, an actual Guitar that works for the game.. Keytar too? Guitar Hero just cannot keep up with that.. even with World Tour. Late in the Game, First to Fall.
Maybe its just that when you have played guitar hero to one song, you have played'em all.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
On the bright side, this will officially bring an end to the people who enter each and every Guitar Hero thread to inform everyone that playing a plastic guitar is not the same thing as playing a real guitar.
Now I just need to wait for chess to die so I can stop hearing from the "chess is good, but it's nowhere near as subtle and complex as go" posses that get drummed up every time there's a chess story posted anywhere in the world.
http://www.theonion.com/articles/activision-reports-sluggish-sales-for-sousaphone-h,2246/
Activision Reports Sluggish Sales For Sousaphone Hero August 1, 2007 | ISSUE 4331
08.06.09 SANTA MONICA, CA—Despite a catchy 1890s soundtrack and realistic-feeling game play, Sousaphone Hero, the third installment of Activision's massively popular Guitar Hero video game franchise, sold a mere 52 copies in the United States in its opening week, the company reported Monday.
Enlarge Image"In the wake of Guitar Hero's success, we thought the public was more than ready for additional popular American musical genres in a simulated-performance format, but people don't seem to be responding to marches as well as we had hoped," said Activision spokeswoman Melissa Hendleman, whose company spent an estimated $25 million developing the game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii consoles.
Sousaphone Hero offers two dozen public-domain marches, including 1893's "The Liberty Bell," 1896's "Stars and Stripes Forever," and 1897's "Entry of the Gladiators." The bulky sousaphone-shaped controller coils around the body, and players wear white spat-like foot coverings fitted with sensors that monitor synchronized marching steps. As with the fret buttons on Guitar Hero's guitar peripheral, the sousaphone controller's three valves are color-coded to match on-screen notes the player must hit.
Players may also choose from 27 different fat-guy characters who can be customized with Alpine hats, epaulets, and a mustache editor with a wide array of options.
A gamer plays with a special wireless version of the sousaphone controller, meant to increase ease of play.Hendleman admitted that the $345 retail price might be a bit steep for many consumers. She also conceded that Activision may have erred by not releasing the game between Memorial Day and July 4, the prime parade season in the United States. Even so, she added, Sousaphone Hero contains "more than enough" features to keep gamers absorbed.
"In the career mode, you can rise from playing in park gazebos for church picnics to performing in the halftime show of the Harvard-Yale game," Hendleman said. "If you score enough points, you can unlock the ultimate level: playing in the John Philip Sousa–led Marine Band at Grover Cleveland's inauguration."
"And if you like multiplayer gaming, you're in luck," Hendleman continued. "In Sousaphone Hero's cooperative marching-band mode, as many as 135 of your friends can play simultaneously."
Hendleman also emphasized the "fun" rewards players receive as they become more proficient. If they hit enough correct notes in a row, the on-screen crowd yells "huzzah" and "bully," and the sousaphone controller's spit valve will "drain." Flubbing notes, however, makes the controller "fill" with spit, preventing further play and causing the crowd to throw rotten eggs at the hapless on-screen sousaphonist. If characters earn enough bonus points in career mode, they can spend their Liberty-head nickels on a red, green, or blue "sock" for their sousaphone's bell, or an invigorating chunk of peanut brittle.
Response to Sousaphone Hero on video-gaming message boards has been tepid at best.
That controller is like 100 pounds even though its [sic] only plastic," wrote mastagamer457, a moderator on one Sousaphone Hero message thread. "I think I screwed up my shoulder pretty bad."
"I played the career mode for three hours and kept feeling like I was playing the same annoying circus tune over and over," kiLLlah_steVe of Columbus, OH wrote. "On one song, you're forced to play the same two notes back and forth for 96 measures."
Others have complained that the third valve is used only at the expert level, that even proficient players only score a maximum of 60 points per song, and that the "oompah" meter stays the same shade of gray even if every note is hit. Some also reported that, if not cleaned regularly, the plastic mouthpiece gets crusty.
Professional sousaphone player Eric Winkler
Exec #1: We're not administering one of our projects properly Exec #2: BLAST IT WITH PISS AND KILL IT WITH FIRE
they locked my save game file, so I couldn't back it up.
I'd bought GH 1, 2, 3, then World Tour. When my PS3 WT save couldn't be backed up I was so annoyed I hardly played it, and totally lost interest in it. As far as I'm concerned they shot themselves in the foot with that one, and I'm always wary if buying Activision games now.
Obligatory XKCD. It's OK that you don't get it, but those of us who like music games will keep having fun even if you don't think it's "cool".
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
I have friends who work for FreeStyleGames. They found out last night via the Internet that they were probably going to be made redundant today. In my humble opinion, that kind of treatment from Activision is pretty disgraceful.
That's what happens when you rapid-fire iterate on new content in the same template with no significant innovations for extended periods of time.
Sad thing is, from a business perspective, they did a great job and probably wouldn't change a thing if they could go back and do it over. At least not besides somehow managing to get those significant innovations magically and without significant investment to impact their bottom line in the short term.
Okay Harmonix, that one's done. What's the next cool design epiphany?
When I got a Wii, the first thing I ran out to buy for it was Guitar Hero. I'd seen the Youtube movies, and I knew I wanted it. And boy, did I enjoy playing it!
Compared to learning to play a real guitar, Guitar Hero is way easier, gives faster feedback, and much better results. Of course it's nowhere close to the real thing, but for people who have no time, patience or talent to play an instrument (that's the majority of us, right?) it's just a brilliant game that gives one the feeling of playing a real instrument in a band.
Lack of innovation killed it off. A deserved end. But I look forward to what the next thing is an innovative developer can come up with. If you can make us lazy, talentless bums get a glimpse of what it is to be a superhero (like CoD gives you the impression of being a supersoldier without the unpleasantries of getting your legs blown off by a mine), I'll gladly put down hard cash to buy your game. And maybe, *one* of the sequels, too :)
I remember playing GH in a PS3, dont remember which version. Its was insanely fun for the first hour. It was fun during the second hour. And I was bored at the beggining of the third hour. And the only reason it was fun at first was because I was not playing alone.
I dunno, there's a whole industry of force-feedback steering wheels and pedals and whatnot to make it at least the same kind of thing. You know, you turn a wheel, the car turns.
And let me stress that part again: the car turns when _you_ turn the wheel. In other words, wake me up when such a game at least plays the tune _you_ play, instead of just making you press buttons on cue to a tune that keeps playing the same no matter what you do.
If you want a GT5 equivalent, let's call it Race Car Hero, it would involve watching a pre-recorded race that happens the same no matter what you do, and you just have to press the buttons you're told to press while watching it. But otherwise if you press right instead of left when told, you lose some points but the car on the screen still does the pre-recorded left turn.I think pretty much everyone would agree that such a game would be frakking retarded.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
When they started doing Guitar Hero (this band) and Rock Band (that other band), I had hopes that they would pick up some of the talented bands that I really wanted - in particular Dire Straits. Instead we got Green Day and Metallica. If they had done an all Dire Straits release I would have been the first in line at the store to buy it; I want to use a plastic toy instrument to emulate real musicians, not lame sell-outs.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
It is a sad day, guitar hero singlehandedly made the concept of being in a band cool. Before that game professional and talented amateurs alike were resigned to a sad lonely existence where they would be constantly scorned by women and derided by their peers.
THIS.... this is the "new day music died"? I felt pretty sick watching the superbowl half time show (i didn't have control of the remote, damn inlaws) or even some pop singer barfing her way through the national anthem at the same event. Every time i turn on our local radio stations i realize that music is dead, but some game not selling well, that's your sign huh?
So, the past five years, Activision literally flooded the market with a new fully priced GH game every six months, made loads of money selling overpriced plastic toys alongside. The only novelty they got into the series was copying Rock Band's 4 player mode (and open bass notes, WOW). And now they pretend to be surprised because people have had enough of this. I loved Guitar Hero, feared right from the third one that the franchise would be milked to death, but witnessing how they turned a fun gaming concept into this commercial waste is really saddening.
That's a bit just, yet a bit unfair at the same time. There's was a major change half way through where the music stopped being .... crap and started being recorded from the original tapes making it sound genuine. It was a leap forward for Guitar Hero In some cases like Metallica Guitar Hero actually had the best mastered version of a Metallica song around. Much better than the raped CD release which was compressed to the point of distortion and just gave people listening brain damage. That said after their move to real music they milked it to death. I mean an entire Guitar Hero dedicated just to Metallica, and entire one dedicated just to Van Halen, and one for the Beatles too? I prefer some variety when I play.
As for the next cool design epiphany. I'm eagerly waiting for the Guitar Pro from Harmonix. Your choice of either a 102 button Fender Mustang replica controller, or an actual Fender Stratocaster that plugs into the console and allows you to play properly.
Gee, in most race car games I've seen, you can sideswipe the walls, crash into other drivers, spin out, etc, and you aren't immediately disabled, dead or permanently out of the race. The game is forgiving -on purpose-. And by they way, in GH and RB, if you don't push the buttons, the tune does NOT keep on playing. Your errors screw up the music you hear, until eventually the performer 'fails' and the band is booed off the stage. Of course it's artificial - doesn't mean it's not fun.
Your Race Car Hero game sounds a lot like Dragon's Lair, which boiled down to nothing more than 'push the correct button at the beep'. Yet that game did pretty well for it's time.
RETURN without GOSUB in line 1050
...but if they cancel heroin hero I will FREAK OUT!
Just too many "Hero" games in too short a time period. IMO, Activision did it to themselves.
Perhaps the choice to eliminate PS2 from the newer releases hurt as much if not more than the declining interest. Let's face it, you don't need a high-end console to follow a Guitar Hero/Rock band game. ...and, yes i know the PS2 is a dead system, but some of us simply can't buy a new console every few years.
these games were Maddon grade shovelware. Same graphics with minor updates & new songs. If I had to guess, the RIAA wanted too big a piece of the pie and the margins got too slim for Activision...
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
...or an actual Fender Stratocaster that plugs into the console and allows you to play properly.
The guitar is a Squire Telecaster, a lower priced version of the same guitar.
Squire is to Fender as Kia is to Hyundai..
That's a bit just, yet a bit unfair at the same time. There's was a major change half way through where the music stopped being .... crap ....
Unfortunately, at the same time took all the effort in making the game smooth and fun (like GH2) and just made it hard (GH3). I think GH2 is where they peaked for quality music games (including both GH and Rock Band lines). I could care less if the songs were covers or not because the note charting and game response/physics made all the difference.
They went from "all go, no show" to "all show, no go" IMHO. Harmonix stayed closer to where they needed to be, since Rock Band 2 was definitely better than Rock Band 1 ... but still not as fun as GH2.
Also, let's not forget about the "redesign" of the controllers (which were crap after GH2 - and that includes all the Rock Band one's)
its probably due to the fact the music has been a walking zombie for some time. they have gone threw all the good bands and songs aruldy and have nothing left to release in a game. yes they could still do a game with lesser bands and songs but as they see it and they see it correctly they would be little to no profit in it.
I've got a bent fender on my Kia, does that count?
Interesting. My daughter isn't particularly interested in video games. Bust she's asking for the RB Beatles. Maybe there is a market for add-ons for individual groups inside the application.
Sort of like an in-app purchase to buy albums within RB or GH?
As a caveat, she's only seven.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
Everyone going on about how great Guitar Hero and Rockband are, but when was the last time you played it or wanted to buy an upgrade.
This genre got greedy and derivative and if you have one version, then there is no need to buy another. Why not make "Green Day Rockband" DLC rather then a regular price game release? Why sell individual songs for $2 instead of rolling out 20 song packs for $5 on a regular interval. Why charge $200 for a set of flimsy plastic controllers? What was the real difference between producing GH1,2,3 RB1,2,3, etc? Why Lego Rockband?
Seriously, they got their money and when the money dried up, they abandoned this genre of game like the plague. But we were all pretty much their gumps for a short period of time and will be again once the next "big fad" in gaming happens.
Maybe kids will pick up a real guitar again.
The latest incarnation was called "Heavy Rain". Sounds like you just don't like timing-based games, which is all Heavy Rain and the music-games are.
You better watch out, there may be dogs about . .
This doesn't surprise me. They have over-saturated the market in a massive way and most of the GH games came with 90% crappy songs that no-one had ever heard of or even wanted to play... but you had to play them to unlock the decent songs. I played GH2 and GH3 to death, after that I got Rock Band and it was a much more polished experience with many more songs that I had actually heard of - never bought a GH game myself again but played a few at friends' places - after GH3 they all just seemed to be "song packs" as opposed to new games.
I might have been interested if they did a classic rock version, but all of the versions they have are 90% uninteresting crap and 10% something I might want to hear. Now granted, that is the same ration that pop music uses, but that is also why I don't buy pop music. I only buy music where the whole album is interesting, which is my 95% of my collection is 70's music.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Rock Band kicked their asses. They were starting to get it with Band Hero, but too little too late.
And I suspect the crappy Rock Band 3 release without the pro hardware available and the ever-increasing demands of music publishers will finish it off too.
I might have been interested if they did a classic rock version, but all of the versions they have are 90% uninteresting crap and 10% something I might want to hear. Now granted, that is the same ration that pop music uses, but that is also why I don't buy pop music. I only buy music where the whole album is interesting, which is my 95% of my collection is 70's music.
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock was mostly Classic Rock.
It's the only way we would have ever gotten a clean copy of Death Magnetic.
Rick Rubin single-handedly ruined the best Metallica album in 20 years, but then people discovered the tracks were unaltered on Guitar Hero 3, and made them available. Although the raw GH3 tracks are not very punchy, there are many fan reproductions that sound surprisingly good without the ridiculous clipping.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
In some cases this already exists, just too few. The online Rock Band and Guitar Hero databases are HUGE, but the songs cost more than at the iTunes store. I think Metallica did something similar. Released their latest album as a CD and as a Guitar Hero download at the same time.
:-)
Kudos, your daughter has a good taste in music.
Guitar Hero was nothing like playing guitar but really fun.. though it actually was harder for me to catch up to non-guitar players because I kept trying to play guitar. But once I got the hang of it, it was rather fun. But also like everyone says, lack of innovation and over-saturation killed it.
DJ Hero on the other hand... what a piece of crap. It was also nothing like DJing, but a lot closer to it than Guitar Hero was to guitars. The major problems I had w/ DJ Hero was that all the dj-like parts worked like crap... there was this noticable delay in the controller that just made it no fun. Also, you'd think they'd put in some rudimentary scratching abilities, there are so many digital dj programs and CD players out there that do just this.
Looking at the track list on that one, you are correct that this one has many more interesting cuts than the typical release. Nearly 8 listenable songs of out of 30 something. I think I'll still give it a skip though.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Should have deployed star power. Ah well.
+1.
It happens all the time on TV, it's called.... well I don't actually know what it's called. It's when a network has a very successful format e.g. amateur cooking show, and other competing stations come up with their own amateur cooking shows - not necessarily to win the ratings battle, but to saturate the market enough that the original high-rating show becomes unpopular as people become bored.
Activision did really well here, flogging the horse until even the zombified corpse finally gave up. They probably would've done the same thing had the original developers (or their publishing overlords) not started a competing line, but somehow I think that the above practice has played a large part in the demise of this particular music genre.
I wonder how young Blake Peebles is going after he dropped out of high school (aged 16 - 2008) to focus on playing Guitar Hero professionally...
He could always learn the real guitar and play in a real band.