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Activision Cancels Guitar Hero Franchise

News | February 13, 2011 7:14 pm

"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."

http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/374-activision-axes-guitar-hero-franchise/





I didn't write this, but I found it pretty news worthy. It's pretty insane. I didn't see it coming. I knew the music genre was dying I just didn't think it was gonna die so soon. Hopefully Rock Band will continue now with no competition.
(Source: http://blog.games.yahoo.com/blog/374-activision-axes-guitar-hero-franchise/)
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Re: Activision Cancels Guitar Hero Franchise
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Sorry Misterman08, Aardvark beat you to submitting this. :(

I have really enjoyed the Guitar Hero games, as I felt they were... "game-y-er" than Rock Band, but they were seriously going from bad to worse ever since World Tour. Legends of Rock had some awesome features and was great for people that really liked GH3 but underwhelming for everybody else. The series needed to die.

I do hope Rock Band is able to continue putting out amazing stuff on RBN even with Harmonix still being homeless and MTV Games officially shut down...
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beat me to so the submission...ive been waiting for almost a week to get it approved
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So was she.


Mini and I are usually the ones that edit and approve articles and we've both been really busy lately, bear with us.
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ahh... well that explains it then...yeah i caught wind of it 20 minutes after it broke
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Not really going to miss it anymore. It got boring quick.
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No competition? Don't forget about Power Gig!
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Quote by Circus:





LMAO
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The article isn't saying it's dead just that they wont be doing any THIS year

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might as well be dead as they have discontinued DLC for the game after last weeks mega-pack

wonder if harmonix will try and get the rights to it as they were the originals with red octane when guitar hero first started then they would have the market cornered with both rock band and guitar hero franchises...and with harmonix losing partnership with MTV might make sense to rekindle their partnership with red octane
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I think the franchise needs to take a long break and re-think their strategy.
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For those who wonder what harmonix would say to this, here ya go. And for those who might not know harmonix's current condition, enlighten yourselves.
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I never played the games myself as I had no interest in them, but I have heard on more than one occasion players saying that they were bored of the same thing over + over just repacked. If you were going to suggest something, what would it be?
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