Activision Axes "Guitar Hero" franchise...

Ouch...not only do kids not want to steal music anymore, but now they don't want to play music-based video games either!

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.

I guess kids were starting to realize that being a master at pretend guitar doesn't make you a master of the real instrument.

It's probably more a case of just overkill of the format. How many versions of those guitar-based games are there? I'm not a gamer, but just like anything that's popular, someone scores a hit and then 50 imitators come out with their own versions and updates. They cram that stuff down the throats of the populace then can't understand why 'Guitar Hero 22: Electric Boogaloo" isn't selling like hotcakes.

Well, they super saturated the gaming market with guitar hero and related games. Burn out had to happen at some point.

I think alot of the people that played guitar hero originally, switched over to rock band and that put on the brakes for actvisions sales.


But whats with the remark about a failing video game industry? Nintendo found a way to still hook young kids but at the same time have old people buying their sh!t. Videogames are more popular than ever right now.

Rex wrote:

Well, they super saturated the gaming market with guitar hero and related games. Burn out had to happen at some point.

I agree. The novelty wore off.

exact33 wrote:

Rex wrote:

Well, they super saturated the gaming market with guitar hero and related games. Burn out had to happen at some point.

I agree. The novelty wore off.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the title of this thread.

Now what's going to collect the dust in kids' rooms across America??

Anyone remember this guy? Wonder what he's going to do now that those oh-so-lucrative "Guitar Hero" professional championships are coming to an end.

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t6695-a-kid-drops-out-of-school?highlight=School

Read on tues. that iphones, droids are out selling home PC's now. Just goes to show you that most kids now days don't care about music.

Just like music cd sales have dropped in sales over is the same thing with kids interested in fishing/hunting those numbers have also dropped.

It's funny how things go nowdays, if things don't grab you you won't be interested. But with fishing/hunting those drops in numbers are due to parents divorcing.

Not sure why PC's have dropped over the iphones could be accessability in having it with you all the time.

Wargod51

Not surprising really, and I am sure the coke sniffing record label bosses are pining all their hopes on Justin's movie doing well and the next American Idol winner

manny wrote:

Not surprising really, and I am sure the coke sniffing record label bosses are pining all their hopes on Justin's movie doing well and the next American Idol winner

The next American Idol winner will be forgotten by the time the next season starts.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Anyone remember this guy? Wonder what he's going to do now that those oh-so-lucrative "Guitar Hero" professional championships are coming to an end.

http://www.heartofmetal.net/t6695-a-kid-drops-out-of-school?highlight=School

I hear he is going into selling cds

So many kids think that being good at Guitar Hero means they can actually play guitar and are quite surprised to find out that it's not the same at all. Maybe there will be a polka revival and the next big video game hit will be Accordion Hero.

Not surprised at all. Guitar Hero got lame after the third one. Rock Band is the way to go!!

bassman wrote:

So many kids think that being good at Guitar Hero means they can actually play guitar and are quite surprised to find out that it's not the same at all. Maybe there will be a polka revival and the next big video game hit will be Accordion Hero.

Weird Al would be proud!

One of our new friends here in Montana have a full quiver of kids (5 for those who are not hip to that particular terminology) Anyways, while visiting us old foggiez decided to play the
rugrats Guitar Hero Game. We sucked BIG TIME I had fun though.

They got Rock Band for Christmas and the oldest boy (16) thinks he's a drummer. I had him over the other day and let him try to play my kit. He was actually astonished that it was way different than the Rock Band kit. I couldn't resist showing off for him.

He wants lessons but I told him he had to get his grades up and change his attitude or pay me 25 bucks a pop for 1/2 sesions.

James B. wrote:

One of our new friends here in Montana have a full quiver of kids (5 for those who are not hip to that particular terminology) Anyways, while visiting us old foggiez decided to play the
rugrats Guitar Hero Game. We sucked BIG TIME I had fun though.

They got Rock Band for Christmas and the oldest boy (16) thinks he's a drummer. I had him over the other day and let him try to play my kit. He was actually astonished that it was way different than the Rock Band kit. I couldn't resist showing off for him.

I tried to play Rockband and sucked.... I think the problem is when you have played the songs on real instruments, you want to play it how the way it is REALLY played. Not hit red then green then blue then red red red then yellow.

I love the fact that Rock Band and Guitar Hero became hits with the public, since it got many interested in hard rock/metal music, but I knew it would run its course. I think downloading songs from just about every band kind of hurt both of these series. I think it could have had more staying power if practically every song from the big bands wasn't already available.

Fat Freddy wrote:

and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," the company said in a statement.

That sucks for Devin Townsend. His whole Ziltoid album was going to be on it. It would have gave him some deserved exposure.

I had Rock Band. I liked it for a few months but it eventually got old when I was the only one playing. I couldn't get enough people to play on a regular basis. Then I got the Metallica Guitar Hero only because King Diamond was in it and I wanted to hear the re-recorded Mercyful Fate songs. Again that only lasted a few months til I got bored with it. The game never really had any staying power. It never offered any new updates or add ons except for Death Magnetic. If there was anymore I have no idea since I stopped playing it.

I eventually sold all of this stuff because it was just boring to me. I rather play my own drums. If I want to play to those songs then I can put the cd on and play with it myself and not have to follow the stupid colored circles on the TV, which sometimes made no sense what so ever.

It was a cool idea but it just got boring.