Slashdot Mirror
Activision Trying To 'Reinvent' Guitar Hero
In an interview with Forbes, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick spoke about the rise and fall of the Guitar Hero franchise, saying "it became unsuccessful because it didn't have any nourishment and care." He then revealed that after effectively canceling the franchise last year, the company is looking for ways to resurrect it. "We said you know what, we need to regain our audience interest, and we really need to deliver inspired innovation. So we're going to take the products out of the market, and we're not going to tell anybody what we're doing for awhile, but we're going to stop selling Guitar Hero altogether. And then we're going to go back to the studios and we're going to use new studios and reinvent Guitar Hero. And so that's what we're doing with it now." Kotick also addressed Activision's lack of foresight regarding DJ Hero: "...in hindsight, if you step back – and it really would have been a simple thing to do – we should have said, 'Well, how many people really want to unleash their inner DJ?'"
This article is stupid and so is all of Slashdot for even reading the summary.
Bit of a shame Activision couldn't be arsed to promote it properly. Too busy farting around with some first-person-shooter franchise.
time to move on
I'm pretty sure most people were saying that DJ hero was an uninspired idea in forsight.
Dear Kotick,
people actually do get tired of cash-ins. I know that's literally everything that you've ever produced at EA, but there is more potential to a series than functionally-identical sequels with marginally different content.
The game's off the market Already and I never got a chance to play it. Oh well.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Based on past experience, I'm pretty sure that Activision really doesn't get it. I'm sure that the "reinvention" will include a whole line of expensive new instruments that you will have to buy, with a game that lasts for exactly one Christmas season before fading into obscurity. The kind of attention to detail that kept gamers interested in Street Fighter for almost two decades is something that I doubt Activision values as a publisher.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
I know what they should do.
Instead of the buttons and the thingy, they should have a system of 6 or 12 'strings' , whenever you press at the top in a particular combination a new sound comes out, and .. here's the kicker, you can play whichever song you like on it, without even needing a screen.
We could call it uh.. Electric Guitar (Hero)
I'm picturing "Devil Went Down To Georgia". Good vs evil violins. Epic.
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
1) Make it respond to motion controllers like the Kinect and Move. You can have cues to let the user know when to "pass out" on stage because you're strung out on heroin and Jack Daniels.
2) Make it exclusively for the iPad. Because the kids today love those damned iPad things, right?
3) Add 3D to the game. Put on your glasses to see sad concert sluts throwing their underwear at you...in 3 D !!!!
4) Make it cheaper to buy.....No, fuck that, charge EVEN MORE.
5) Release a retro version for the Commodore 64.
6) Donate 1% of all profits to some fucking charity for whatever fucking disaster happens to be going on at the moment.
7) Do something to sell it to people who can actually remember when there was stuff on the radio besides hip hop, pop, and R&B.
8) Hire some tired, old band who are just sad shadows of their former greatness to promote it. This could be any rock band, really.
9) Do what EA does and just release a new version every year with an updated NFL roster.
10) Just slap some new packaging on it that calls it "Digitally Remastered."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Getting tired of you younguns spoiling our franchises! So what's the dark gritty reboot of GH going to be like? Are they going to completely mess with the origin story? Instead of sequels are they just going to release prequel after prequel?
Guitar Hero - 2005
Guitar Hero 2 - 2006
Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock - 2007
Guitar Hero World Tour - 2008
Guitar Hero 5 - 2009
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock - 2010
Not to mention the expansions:
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s - 2007
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - 2008
Guitar Hero: Metallica - 2009
Guitar Hero Smash Hits - 2009
Guitar Hero: Van Halen - 2009
Band Hero - 2009
Apparently unlike with CoD you can't sustainably sell people a new guitar game annually. Van Halen and Warriors of Rock both sold less than 100k units in their opening weeks.
100 instruments. Woodwind, brass, percussion, piano and strings.
DO IT!
how about we get a mode where we can make our own music. mario paint had a mode where you could make your own music AND IT WASN'T EVEN A MUSIC BASED GAME
The problem was market saturation. There was a point where multiple Guitar Hero (not to mention Rock Band) games were coming out a year. With the level of marketing and production that was going on it didn't take long until everyone who wanted Guitar Hero owned it. And as it was mostly a party game you only really sell a few copies to every group of friends instead of most of the group buying it like online multiplayer games.
Most people weren't interested in the new game mechanics, they would buy new copies to get new songs. What they should have done was release a base game every 1 - 2 years and sold extra tracks (fully transferable between versions) from an online store.
That way they would have nursed the brand instead of dressing it in a short skirt and pimping it out on a shady corner. Of course Kotick doesn't know how to do anything but rape franchises.
========
CINC, 4th Penguin Legion
We didn't need guitar hero 1,2,3,Aerosmith, Metallica, band hero, world tour, 5, etc that were not all compatible with one another. Harmonix had it right supporting the same platform through multiple versions. I think most people just got tired of the genre. My family has hundreds of DLC tracks for Rock Band, used to play it a ton. We just burned out on it.
I really don't know what could be done about Guitar Hero to make the experience fresh and engaging. It looks to me like they're risking turning it into a convoluted and disappointing experience.
As for DJ Hero, I don't think the problem was that the audience wasn't there, the problem was that the music selection was bad. I mean, who hasn't gone to a dance club? The problem is that the music was heavily pop-oriented with a lean towards hip hop. They completely missed a huge core demographic for the game. It's like the whole game was based around a single DJ who evidently had a thing for a mish-mash of contrasting styles. The persistent theme seemed to be something new and old. They should have offered selections based around a range of popular genres; trance, house, drum n bass, dubstep, hip hop etc. Hell, they could have even included pop mixes. And keep the mixes within those particular genres.
Ideally the game would have let you choose any two tracks, but that would have been a daunting challenge to pull off automatic mixing. The thing is that the game was fun, albeit too easy. The music selection was the big letdown.
You're kidding me.
Bobby fucking Kotick said "It didn't have nourishment and care?"
Seriously Bobby, we know you don't give .0004 craps about care. Just look at the Infinity Ward ordeal. They canceled the series (Guitar Hero), and now they're going to "reinvent" it by adding probably one or two features and get all of the people to buy it over again.
Nice try Activision.
Remove the bottom part of the guitar and put a hole on the end of the fretboard. About as creative as it gets 8)
For those who've moved on from Guitar Hero to a real guitar, it's worth checking out JamOrigin and keeping an eye on Rocksmith.
What happened was the day Harmonix left, so did all the innovation. Apart from the setlist of Guitar Hero 3, nothing good came from the Guitar Hero camp after that.
Rock Band, on the other hand, has gone from strength to strength - RB3 is a truly excellent game, full of features and with a really good business model. If you want an example of DLC being done right, look here.
Personally, I'd rather not see Guitar Hero come back. As much as competition is good, Harmonix have done more without competition than GH ever did. I've spent a lot of money on Rock Band, and I feel every penny was worth it. The pro modes are amazing (I'm one of around 1500 Squier owners outside the USA), the game is, in general, very good - and they are doing the exact opposite of what Guitar Hero did. They made a polished, well made game with lots of features, and are not releasing a sequel any time soon - RB3 is here to stay for some time, and they are continuing to support it with DLC. They are one of the few studios, alongside Valve and a few others, who I truly feel are doing what they believe is good for the games, not just their wallets (fortunately the two seem to go hand in hand).
Harmonix have done really well with Dance Central too - which I hear is also a great game, although not really my kind of thing.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Your idea lacks one thing that brings people to music games in the first place: automatic grading. That's why Rock Band has the Pro Guitar.
Bobby Kotick is the devil.
No other explanation is needed.
I like you, Stuart. You're not like everyone else, here, at Slashdot.
Release a retro version for the Commodore 64.
Or better yet, D+Pad Hero for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
They were releasing like 3 games a year for fuck's sake, with concurrent releases of Rock Band, which was pretty much the same thing. People burned out. I'm sure it'll come back but they need to give it time and let it become novel again.
Remember guys, this is Bobby Kotick, the guy who when he took over Activision famously said, "I want to take all the fun out of making video games." That line was meant to convey that he wanted to trim the fat at Activision, but in reality he just doesn't understand what it means to make good games. If no fun goes into a game, no fun is had playing one.
His quote that Guitar Hero failed because it didn't "receive nourishment and care" is probably the most honest thing he's said. But from everything I know about how that company operates (and I know a bit more than the average public), Kotick is a total micromanager, down to the tinest details. That's an alright quality if you're Steve Jobs, but Kotick comes from running packaged goods companies. He has no fracking clue about what makes a good game, or what makes something fun.
Look at the Rock Band guys by contrast. These were the developers who invented the original Guitar Hero gameplay. They have a passion for the game and wanted to see how far they could push it (and were given the freedom to do so). Would Kotick have imagined or approved turning the fake instruments into MIDI controllers, offering a Pro mode to teach people the fundamentals of playing a real instrument? No, because Activision doesn't innovate. They buy an established IP and run it into the ground. The original studio's best developers usually leave because they know what awaits them at the Activision grindhouse.
Kotick is risk-adverse. His philosophy is the same as a typical packaged goods CEO -- test market the shit out of a tiny variation on an existing product to make it palatable to the widest possible audience. But that doesn't work with artistic mediums like films and games. It just turns creativity, fun and vision into gruel. Unfortunately, I think this is becoming the standard in the industry now, as other game corps have seen Activision's financial success. Look at the number of innovative games from the PS2 era versus the PS3/360 era. Part of this is Japan wanting to emulate western studios (to their folly), as well as hiring incompetent western CEOs, but I think it's more due to game companies just not wanting to take big risks anymore.
It's a game where you click buttons on a guitar shaped controller at the right time. Beyond adding new music, there isn't much you can do. Let it die and take it's place next to other fads like the pet rock.
You've got musical content, but you've made it a game - it doesn't need to be a 'game'. There can be game-like aspects of it, but if you're going to produce a 'turntable' interface, don't make it a flimsy piece of garbage, bring the cost up another $50 (or heck, even $100), and you're still $50-100 cheaper than the cheaper DJ 'real' turntable interfaces. Make it something you could actually DJ a party with and not look like a complete nerd.
As someone who has spent many, many hours, days, and months per suing musical instrument hacking (google for synthesizerpatel & ammobox), see my other videos.. I can say this - 'DJ Hero' had a lot of potential but was a flat out failure trying to make it a silly game when it could have been a real music interface for kids without the means to buy a real setup ($600 for the low-end, $1500-2000 for the high end). If they've already got an xbox you've got 90% of the problem solved - give them a GOOD interface that provides an enjoyable tactile experience and that can produce REAL mixes and you've got a product that will sell, no question. About 5 years ago, turntables outsold guitars in Japan - probably not the case now but there are LOTS of people who have inner DJs to let out, you just didn't provide the right tools.
And you'll have to re-buy the songs all over again! How does that sound, kids?
Greed. Everyone wanted a slice of the pie, but no one wanted to listen to what people wanted.
I want to be able to play songs from my favorite bands. I should be able to do so without paying $15 for a bundle of a few songs. It shouldn't cost a fortune for Activision to convert a song to the format, and it should be cheaper to release it on the PSN than on a physical media.
I don't need "new" to be engaging. If that were the case, you'd never go back and listen to old music. I just want to be able to play what I want without paying a fortune for it.
It would go perfect with the wii controller.
Gamers got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!
Well, how many people really want to unleash their inner DJ?
Super Greg!
A turntable is a home appliance, not a musical instrument.
. .
Frequency and Amplitude were WAY more fun than any Guitar Hero game, granted they had a smaller fan-base and probably didn't make nearly as much money. They featured techno/electronic music and you could shift tracks to play different instruments using a basic controller. None of this tap on a fake drum bs. I want to play vocals, guitar and drums all at once! You could play and create more complex songs because of that, and the music was better. Guitar Hero was always a gimmick, especially when they tried to move it to hand-held system.
OR let people make their own tracks like Excitebike from nineteen eighty five (26 years ago) User created content would drive guitar hero forever). I have been in more than one indie band and would love to be able to rock out to my own tracks on there.
The sequencing they use for the game, being that there's only five buttons, is kind of simple compared to any piano roll like Fruity Loops.
Activision.... reinvent....
This wont compile.
50 people lost their jobs from Vicarious Visions in Mendands, NY with the death of the Guitar Hero franchise on February 9th. The cited reason in the termination paperwork was the elimination of the Guitar Hero "Business Unit". The sad fact is that Vicarious Visions was in the process of reviving the franchise - injecting it with the "creativity" and "inspired innovation" that Kotick bemoans the series lacking due to Neversoft's mis-handling, the same innovation and creativity that it will never have again now that all of the creative people who were to see the series through to its subsequent release in 2012 have been laid off, in perhaps the most hush-hush manner ever surrounding a game's utter implosion. It's easy to connect the dots as to what Activision were doing - observe Neversoft's staffing cupboard being laid bare by their corporate overlords, and the flocking of specific audio people and Neversoft staff to the Capital region. Observe the sudden uptick in hiring over the past 24 months.
Do note, please, that all of the rank-and-file employees who had been in the industry for more than a few years and hadn't yet drank the corporate Kool-Aid could see the writing on the wall years before the franchise started to flag. It was plainly obvious that Guitar Hero was never anything more than a quizzical curio of the executives, one that had materialized a billion dollars into their net worth for no good reason that any of their MBAs, marketing research, or "producers" could cite, but one that people appeared to want in record numbers. As they saw it, perhaps without realizing it, the series was one to be expanded, not honed - mass-produced, not polished. Guitar Hero, in the land of business-people, was to become as ubiquitous as the Wii, the Xbox, or Playstation - they wanted Guitar Hero to be come not a game, but a platform, and any gamer worth his or her salt can tell you that that is impossible. You reach market saturation, you polish for one iteration or perhaps two if demand does not flag, you move on. The fact, however, that (again) any gamer can tell you is that unless you have a brand that is couched in gamer culture that existed well prior to the introduction of Internet connectivity at large - compare to Mario or Madden, as even the Sonic franchise has become lackluster in light of its lack of pre-90's roots - people will not remain interested for more than a few years at best. A new fad comes along, staff turnover comes along, new hardware comes along, and with new things people want new franchises.
The sad fact is that the employees who balked at the notion of monetizing the Guitar Hero series were met with harsh reprimands - money is a cruel mistress, and it can make people do cruel things without even realizing it. Certainly, when one drives a new car into work and shuts that door for the first time in front of his coworkers, one would never admit that it could all come crashing down within six months, 12, 24 or ever. Employees that balked the loudest were laid off the soonest as the music/rhythm franchise began its inexorable decline, while those who praised every iteration, every minute variant were richly rewarded for their sycophantic loyalty.
The sad fact here is that there are no winners or losers, now, at the sad end of The Music/Rhythm Wars. Konami's interest level in polishing the Revolution and Freaks series seems to have ended long ago, Power Gig was a failure, Rock Band 3 sold worse than Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, roughly 500 people across different Activision studios lost their jobs in one go when Activision officially announced the termination of the Guitar Hero business unit, not to mention the studio closings and down-sizing occurring over the past two years - likely as an attempt to keep the Guitar Hero franchise afloat as it hemorrhaged money, Harmonix were sold off by Viacom for $50 and the assumption of their considerable debts - this after having their $150 million performance-based bonus requested to be returned as a result of their lack of meeting s
When rocksmith comes out soon, guitar zero will have nothing to offer than can't be had (likely for better) between that and rock band.
Personally, I would have tossed GH under the bus for rock band just because the strum bar click was so damn annoying.
What's worse than reinvention? Reinvention of something that was a mere reinvention to begin with.
In short, they are trying to reinvent the reinvention of Guitar Freaks. The fact it hadn't much popularity outside Japan doesn't mean it didn't exist, and doesn't make Guitar Hero any less "reinvention".
To a Walmart bargin near you GUITAR HEROINE !!!
Input lag and horrible HORRIBLE song choices. ...so yes it was a fad.
GH1,2 - Great game when played on an "older" tv. Great song choices.
GH 3+ begins the decline. The audio/video calibration simply doesn't work because signal processing lag is never ALWAYS 20ms its ~20MS. I stopped playing for that reason alone, and I used to be very very good. Played on expert and everything. go me.
The input lag and song choice killed it. Oh, and those are the things that put it firmly into the 'fad' status.
No RSI and cheap way to do some fitness exercise, great music of all kinds (although most fun with fast hardcore dance music), community optional.