The Death of (Video Game) Rock and Roll

[Baby Shoes]

From Yahoo! News:

Did you hear that? It's the fat lady, singing her heart out.

Activision released a bombshell today during their latest earnings report by announcing that the once-vaunted Guitar Hero franchise will be unceremoniously put to rest for the forseeable future.

"Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," the company said in a statement.

It's just the latest bad news to hit the ailing music game genre. The most recent Guitar Hero game, Warriors of Rock, failed to ignite the sales charts, and in December of 2010, media giant Viacom sold off Rock Band developer Harmonix. Just last week, longtime Rock Band publisher MTV Games was officially shut down.

In addition to Guitar Hero, Activision has halted development on its True Crime: Hong Kong action game.

"These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences," they explained.

In a conference call, Activision said about 500 employees -- roughly 7% of its work force -- will be laid off by the cancellations.

It's not all doom and gloom, however, as Activision also revealed plans to support its Call of Duty franchise by forming a new internal studio. Dubbed "Beachhead," the team is tasked with creating a "best-in-class online community, exclusive content, and a suite of services" for the best-selling shooter series. The company will also be investing in a new online multiplayer game from World of WarCraft makers Blizzard.

First released on 2005 for the Playstation 2, Guitar Hero ushered in a lucrative era of music gaming. According to Activision, its 2007 iteration, Guitar Hero III, set an industry record by being the first video game to earn over $1 billion in retail sales. It's all been downhill from there, however, as the one-two punch of an economic downturn and an oversaturated music game market resulted in stagnant sales and dwindling consumer interest in the franchise

 

[Mattdotcom]

*derisively snorts* Take THAT, casual gamers!

 

[vivisectvi]

That shit got boring after the second one - on PS2 - anyway.

 

[KingPK]

Releasing 6 games in a two year spam will do that. Since World Tour in late '08, we saw the following:

Guitar Hero: Metallica
Guitar Hero Smash Hits
Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Band Hero
Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock
Plus three DS ports

The only Rock Band game you can say was a mistake (and didn't sell) was Green Day.

 

[Haws Bah Gawd]

GH Van Halen can go straight to Hell. Say what you will about the lineup, but not including any of the Sammy Haggar material was inexcusable.

 

[Mattdotcom]

The Green Day game was worth it for the thread it birthed here.

 

[Youth N Asia]

After 3 or so they should have just made them downloadable by the song only. Pawn shops here are littered with various Guitar Hero games

 

[bps21]

Green Day's music is so shitty it killed a video game franchise.

 

[BUTT]

Just not the one that is the subject of this thread!

 

[NoCalMike]

I just found it the type of game that no matter how many songs you buy/own, you still get tired of playing them after awhile, so it feels like you are never quite done with sinking money into it.

Also, once the drums peripheral came out I lost any interest in the guitar, because while not quite a replica of a real drum set, the feeling of the drums was 200% more authentic then pressing buttons on the guitar. I literally never cared to pick up the guitar again, unless I was needed to complete a band on rock band night or whatever.

 

[Red Baron]

Guitar hero was awful once Rock band came out.

 

[bps21]

Green Day's music is so shitty it killed a video game franchise not even associated with it.

 

[CBright7831]

Oh well.

 

[pochorenella]

Wonder what this will mean for Downloadable content for GH. Will they still release some or not?

 

[AnonymousBroccoli]

No more Guitar Hero DLC. Also no more DJ Hero.

I think Tony Hawk may be done for the time being as well. When Shred was released, it was barely a blip on the radar. You wouldn't even know it existed if the boxes didn't take up so much room on store shelves.

 

[LPM]

"Due to us flooding the market, we have decided to discontinue a popular franchise. Instead, we will pour money into some other popular franchises and probably put out 12 Call of Duty games or something. In 3 years we hope to discontinue that franchise as well."

 

[KingPK]

I'm already kind of sick of the CoD franchise. I'm a casual player at best on multiplayer and it just isn't fun when you constantly go up against people who are WAY above your level since the matchmaking sucks in those games.

 

[vivisectvi]

I rarely play competitive multiplayer in COD anymore. I'm all about co-op zombies, though.

 

[Scroby]

Guitar hero was awful once Rock band came out.

This. Once Rock Band started knocking the DLC stuff way out of the park and let you add/play your Rock band 1 tracks with Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero was dead in the water.

Activision will probably bring Guitar Hero back eventually and title it, "Call of Guitar Hero's Duty".