Jump to content
Awoo.

Activision: Mass Layoffs TBA - R.I.P. Guitar Hero


Mick

Recommended Posts

One of gaming's most celebrated franchises meets its end; Activision net revenue up as digital income jumps; Tony Hawk on hold

The reports are correct. There will be no more Guitar Hero games.

"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," a statement in Activision's financial report, filed tonight, reveals.

Earlier tonight Eurogamer claimed that the series was to face the chop alongside action outing True Crime. Cancellation of the latter title has also been confirmed.

Activision has also confirmed the cancellation of both any potential new DJ Hero title and the next Tony Hawk game. Neither series will see a release in 2011.

The publisher admitted that its peripheral-based titles - which include Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk - performed well below expectations in 2010.

For more here, click here

This didn't surprise me at all. I knew it wouldn't go on and on. Personally, I don't care since I was never really into it anyway. I was OK at it, but I wasn't really great at that game.

Edited by Foxboy Mick
  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

True Crime: Hong Kong... canned? And it looked so good too.

"Due to continued declines in the music genre,......."

I wonder who was to blame for that then...

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I'm certain it has nothing to do with the 20 sequels that they put out in 5 years, if that is what you are insinuating.

Mario, Luigi and Yoshi trek across ice and snow to stop the shelled ones' schemes. But Bowser's slick; in one last trick, he takes the dearest thing of all. Now Tornado is Missing!!

  • Thumbs Up 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally, I prefer Rockband. All these accessories they release with all their new games was kinda of a risky move. I mean, 1 set is all you need. However I love Dj Hero and to it come to an end saddens me a bit

Edited by LunarEdge
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hardly a shocking surprise. This is a case of Activision milking the cash cow to the point where it just isn't profitable anymore. They killed it stone dead.

Honestly, Activision certainly know how to kill their own money-makers.

Edited by Masaru Daimon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh well, I always liked Rock Band anyway.

I'm also happy that no one wished that Sega gave Sonic to Activision, it'd have ended like this a while ago

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Honestly, Activision certainly know how to kill their own money-makers.

On the other hand, my pessimist side fears that Activision will have learned from the corpse of Guitar Hero to prevent death from coming to that...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally. Its about time, the Guitar Hero games IMO have not been good since GH2. I moved on to Rock Band, which the first one felt more like the successor to GH2 than GH3 ever did. I also got annoyed with how many GH titles were being put out every year. Rockband has been showing them up for a while now anyway!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And then, the fact that RB3 also took a blow sales-wise thanks to Activision's oversaturating (do I have to remind you all of Harmonix being sold for 50$?) on top of Kotick being fully focused on that effectively means that Harmonix achieved a pyrrhic victory...

Edited by Pikawil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

FUUUU image...

Seriously, I hate Rock Band. Curse you Assivition :angry:

How can you hate Rockband? It's essential the same thing as Guitar hero, only better. It's not like you are forced to play the drums, or sing, you can play with just the guitar.

Edited by LunarEdge
  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Am I the only one who found the topic title a bit amusing?

I mean, it's about a music game being disbanded. ;)

Can't say this affects me personally at all, since I've never even played a Guitar Hero game.

EDIT: Topic title change ruins my joke. Bah.

Edited by -Mark-
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I knew this was coming. Personally, I didn't like either series. Guitar Hero for causing the oversaturation of Rhythm games, and Rock Band because Harmonix either delayed or didn't release it where I lived. But no matter what we think, there's no denying that gaming has lost a truly important franchise. inb4 Guitar Freaks and Drummania

Also, why would they cancel True Crime? That series hadn't had a sequel in like, 5 years.

Edited by SHAX Hedgefox
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How could I not comment on this? =P

While I've become more of a Rock Band fan in the past few months, particularly thanks to the brilliance of Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero was showing signs of recovery. While it may not be completely wrong to say Activision were milking the franchise a little, the dip in quality seen by World Tour and Guitar Hero 5 was swiftly rectified with Warriors of Rock. So much was added and the setlist was the best yet, not to mention the wealth of available DLC.

I don't get all the hate towards the games though. The criticism "it's nothing like a real guitar" is a mindless one - of course it's not. It may be shaped like a guitar, but it's a five-button peripheral at the end of the day. It will never approach the complexity and difficulty of a real instrument, but who really cares about that? It's nothing more than a bit of fun. Challenging fun at that. Of course, this is all my own opinion and anyone that's seen me play will know that I've invested considerable time and effort into practicing. The sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally managed to clear Black Widow of La Porte was reason enough for doing so.

It's a shame, but as long as Rock Band continues then I guess it's not a major loss. I assume this will also affect the addition of new DLC for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, too? :<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guitar Hero is far from being the only loss here; the topic should be about all those studios and games canned by these cut-backs. Freestyle Games, makers of DJ Hero, and United Front, makers of Mod Nation Racers, are both at the very least suffering some heavy losses. Freestyle might live on though, but without DJ Hero.

Incidentally, at the same time they've opened up another CoD studio:

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/114/1148698p1.html

Talk about sucking the teat dry...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They've already sucked every conceivable penny out of Guitar Hero, and having not learned a single thing at all from it, already they're looking poised to do exactly the same thing to CoD. Why am I not surprised?

Well, if Activision's gonna kill their best moneymaking franchises and most likely themselves along with it, hell, I ain't gonna complain. The gaming world would be a lot better off without their business practices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too bad about True Crime. I wanted to see how it would turn out.

Kinda sad about Tony Hawk. I was hoping for them to get it right again.

I prefer DDR... no extra equipment is required >__

Except the dance mat..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How can you hate Rockband? It's essential the same thing as Guitar hero, only better. It's not like you are forced to play the drums, or sing, you can play with just the guitar.

Time Hit Window is a real mess. Plus the horrible animations and the lack of ROCK songs on a ROCK Band.

Plus Guitar Hero had better charts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile , Kotick found the one license that will bring masses of mindless monkeys to him.

(On that note, when he'll axe his licenses, they'll go not the way of Guitar Hero, but like this. And that was before COD...)

I assume this will also affect the addition of new DLC for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, too? :<

Yes.

Edited by Pikawil
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile , Kotick found the one license that will bring masses of mindless monkeys to him.

I don't believe it, God this is terrible. And odds are those games will sell quite a bit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

You must read and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy to continue using this website. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.