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.

Comments

Activision Axed Guitar Hero Slowly Over Five Years

[mrspecialhead]

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?

Re:Weird

[Xest]

Yes, just like Call of Duty now, another Activision owned franchise.

I bet in a few years time CoD goes the same way, because since CoD4: Modern Warfare it's just been declining. CoD5: World at War was okay, CoD6: MW2 wasn't terrible but was a far cry from the last two, and then the latest, Black Ops, was just terrible.

Sales have still been on the up for the franchise, but I bet it wont last, people will only take a few crappy games in a row before they give up.

Activision seems exceptionally good at destroying franchises. At least EA, for all the monotony of many of it's yearly franchises, still manages to keep them going and keep them selling way in the long run for those that do like them.

Re:Weird

[Anonymous Coward]

The song selection is simply garbage.

That may have been the result of the usual media corporations' greed. Those who manage the rights want to squeeze as much out of their licensees as they can, even if it ruins them in the long run. The more popular those music games got, the more the MAFIA demanded. Which in turn caused the game producers to go with cheaper, lesser-known, 3rd rate songs.

Another modern revenue stream killed by the music industry's greed, I guess. At least they're sticking to what they're best at ;)

Re:Obligatory... you know the rest.

[Tukz]

+1

I hear so many people do exactly what they show in XKCD.
They bitch and moan about how it's "not really playing an instrument".

Well, playing GT5 isn't really "driving a car", but it's still fun and entertaining.

I still break out my plastic guitar now and then, to look like a retard while trying to play Through the Fire and Flames, by Dragonforce.
I usually end up smashing something, but it's fun none the less.

I dunno...

[Moraelin]

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.

Re:I dunno...

[mr_gorkajuice]

It's still not quite the kind of interaction in Guitar Hero. If it were, the enemy would get shot in the head even if you aim at something else, you just wouldn't get the points.

That part right there makes it kinda obvious that you don't know what you're talking about. I guess you're just one of those angry old men, who wish young lads would pick up a real instrument instead.
GH is not, and was never meant to be, an alternative to real instruments. It's just entertainment. Exactly like GT5. If it doesn't entertain you, don't play it. So far though, *everyone* I've actually seen playing the game has had fun with it. This includes people with actual instrumental skills.
I know people who don't like the game. None of them tried playing. They looked at the controller, said "Yeah ok, that's retarded, I'm not touching that", and decided that they were apparently surrounded by retards.
Your loss.

All this, and never the music we really wanted

[damn_registrars]

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.

Re:Finally, some sanity!

[elrous0]

No one ever thought air guitar was cool. Saying "the days where 'air guitar' was cool" is kind of like saying "the days when MC Hammer was hardcore" or "the days when Bret Michaels was respected by headbangers."