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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.
I see what you did there.
And then they kept fucking the customers over, by releasing new games over and over, with nothing more but new songs in em and a small feature tweak that easily could had been sold as DLC.
Rock Band was actually on the right track, Guitar Hero was not.
But Guitar Hero ruined it for everyone else, by giving the entire thing a bad reputation.
- Don't do what I do, it's probably not healthy nor safe. -
My gf bought the latest edition of Guitar Hero, I think it's called Warriors of Rock. How can I put this mildly? The song selection is simply garbage. Maybe they used up all the good songs in the previous editions of Guitar Hero, I don't know. But I'm positive this is the reason it had such poor sales.
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
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
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?
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.
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 ;)
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 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.
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.
That's Guitar Hero's ultimate downfall. I have most of the Guitar Heros, but now that I've worked my way up to playing on expert the songs do get to the stage where they are all very similar.
Hence Rock Band! The drums were a lot of fun, the keys are a lot of fun, playing the various instruments in a band is a lot of fun. More importantly, Guitar Pro! a real Fender Stratocastor to plug into the Wii and play every single note as it is intended. That I am looking forward to. It'll move guitar hero from a game to a practical learning tool.
Most importantly though, guitar hero isn't so much a casual game, or a hardcore game as it is a boooooze game. It'll come out when the friends are over, when we're horribly drunk, heck I've even been to a guitar hero party (thought I can't remember most of it). I don't think I've ever played it by myself because it sounds like one of the most boring things around.
For some strange reason Activision seems to think that the best business practice is to take good selling, popular games and makes changes to the fundamental playstyles and goals of the games.
You add to games, not take things away.
Morons ought to look at AutoCad for examples.
The same keyboard commands from R10 are still available and working in the latest release. New stuff has been added, but the old stuff is still there.
Hmmm....
Like this?
http://www.rockband.com/songs (2,566 songs and counting)
still no sig
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
You forget: Activision are on the "beat the horse till it's dead then beat it some more" release schedule. And they don't have actual studios to innovate, they just have "me too me too let's rip someone else's idea off" studios like Neversoft who are designed to drive franchises into the ground.
With Rock Band, Harmonix hasn't been pushing out games constantly, and when they have, there's been actual innovation to go with them - RB2 was a marked improvement over RB1, RB3 brings the full-guitar and keyboard options to the table.
As for DJ Hero and "True Crime"... whoever greenlit them past the first game ought to have been fired.
who woulda thought the SUPERBOWL would sell out? I remember the days when you would watch the Superbowl to see the fine showcase of indie/underground talent.. Now its so commercial...
This is true, 100 times over. The key has always been Harmonix: Harmonix developed Guitar Hero 1 and 2, which were great. Activision then bought the franchise, ditched Harmonix, and released a barrage of crappy Guitar Hero games. Harmonix went on to create Rock Band, and Activision copied the band concept. The only reason Activision had a few sales successes after ditching Harmonix is because they were literally riding the reputation Harmonix had built for the series with the first two incarnations.
It simply can't be said enough - Harmonix knows how to make appealing music games, but Activision has nearly run the entire genre into the ground.
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."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
*shrug* Like it or hate it, from my perspective, I credit Guitar Hero et al with teaching me to understand the musicality of a lot of music I had previously been unable to listen to.
I didn't grow up listening to punk, metal, or alternative -- as a result, I found them to be overly dissonant with no clear structure or rhythm. These games taught me to appreciate what was actually going on in there, and as a result, my music tastes have expanded to encompass a lot more things (and as a result, buy a lot of CDs I'd never have considered).
From that perspective, I am quite happy for the time I spent playing Guitar Hero -- I sure as hell wouldn't have bought any Rise Against or Social Distortion before playing those games.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Why would I want to learn to play fake guitar?
Because it's fun.
I interviewed at Activision back in the 90s after working at another more innovative game company. The first thing they told me was "We don't want new ideas - we have a library of concepts like Quake, Pitfall, and Mech Warrior that we need to commoditize."
Activision has always been about taking something of worth then killing it by trying to wring every last cent from its decaying corpse. They do not understand R&D nor investment in product lines to keep them fresh and productive.
It took them less than 5 years to kill one of the most recognized game franchises. Over that time there was no investment in growth, only the crude attempt to commoditize and milk a concept they had bought of every cent of worth. I truly feel sorry for people who have to work under their "guidance".
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.