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Booo! Activation Games has announced that it will be getting rid of its Guitar Hero business unit. This announcement seems to have immediate effect too as the 2011 version of the game they’ve been working on has now been cancelled
Here’s the announcement they put out:
“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.”
They’ve also been clear that they won’t be releasing any music games in the near future (which also means DJ Hero is for the chop), so they’re will be no rebranded version of the game.
While the announcement is sad – not least because they’re going be be around 500 people laid off – we do need to remember that interest in the game has been on the wane for some time. The real vision of things to come came with Guitar Hero 5. Sales where apparently down 50% for this release, which was a bit of a shock when it had been widely predicted that it would outsell Beatles by around 2 to 1.
Similar declining figures have been seen in other areas of music games. Between in 2002 reviews by EEDAR rated Dance Dance at about 85%, the 2008 version however was rated at about 65% by September 2008.
So what’s the problem here? Well, it’s not necessarily the lack of interest in music games, but the lack of interest in new music games. Why go out and fork over money for ANOTHER guitar hero game? There’s no real way to revamp them on their own. Rock Band made the right decision by roping in the Beatles. The Fifa series faces the same sort of problem, but again has the updated superstar element each year in its games.
It’s a sad fact, but games in this genre will always have a shelf life. Still RIP guitar hero.
Picture Courtesy of Omarukai
