Video game publisher Activision has announced that they are terminating the Guitar Hero series. The series had been receiving constant updates, and there was a new version in development for 2011. That title is now scrapped.
But not only that, Activision seems to be pulling the plug on the series entirely. One could argue that with downloadable content, there's no reason to have to keep making new versions - just have a steady stream of new songs available to download for the current games. But it doesn't seem like we'll even get that. The Guitar Hero series is simply dead. Activision blames "continued declines in the music genre".
This strikes me as kind of silly. I can't help but think that Activision overextended themselves with the Guitar Hero franchise.
The 'music genre' will continue to be just that - a genre of video games. It's not going to go away. There are other series that will continue to carry the torch, such as Rock Band, but Guitar Hero has the most recognizable and bankable brand in this sphere of gaming, and Activision would be fools to just throw it away.
In these types of games, you interact with well known songs using a plastic instrument. It started off with just a guitar, but drums, microphones, keyboards and turntables followed. You are given a 'track' that shows you what you are going to play next.
Some people would deride these types of games, saying "Why don't you just go learn to play real guitar?". That definitely misses the point. Anyone who truly wants to make music, yes, should go ahead and pick up a real instrument. These games are about having fun, something you can just pick up and play. There is an element of simulating 'being a rock star', but that's only part of it.
It's a 'rhythm game'. You're not gonna learn how to play the song that you're 'playing' in Guitar Hero, but you are picking up on the rhythms. I found that these games can enhance my enjoyment of songs that I love.
Anyway, these music games hardly need me to defend them. Their popularity exploded several years ago, and they were everywhere. People who don't give a shit about video games and never play them still gave Guitar Hero a try. This shit was hot. That's why I laugh when Activision cites "continued declines in the music genre". Did they really think that level of popularity was sustainable?
Well, whether they thought it was sustainable or not, Activision milked this series to death. It would have made sense to come out with one new version of the game every year, like they do with the Madden series, and support the existing titles with downloadable content. Instead, Activision just released game after game after game in the series.
All of these were released in only a handful of years:
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero II
Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
Guitar Hero World Tour
Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
Guitar Hero Smash Hits
Band Hero
DJ Hero
DJ Hero 2
Wikipedia's entry on the series has a interesting section titled 'Oversaturation'.
So Activision oversaturated the 'music game' market, and now there are likely a ton of plastic instruments just sitting on store shelves. There's a separate issue of licensing fees - all the money it takes to use all of these popular songs. Nonetheless, people have a lot of fun with these games, and a year or or so ago, the Guitar Hero name and brand were unstoppable. The fact that they couldn't continue to make this series profitable is a major fail on Activision's part.
Like I said, we still have Rock Band, and I'm sure other music game titles will arise as well. Hopefully they'll do a better job of providing quality content to players, and won't just milk the genre in the laziest way possible.
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