Activision Kills 'Guitar Hero' Franchise

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To be honest here, Guitar Hero has been on a steady decline for awhile now. It was only a matter of time before the company quit beating that dead horse. Besides, things have been just a mess lately with all the record labels filing lawsuits, demanding more money, so on and so forth. The real tragedy here is that 500 people are losing their jobs too. Thanks to everyone that sent this one in.

According to The Wall Street Journal, despite big hits like Call of Duty, “the hits didn’t make up for the misses and overall game software sales in U.S. stores last year dropped 8% to $9.36 billion,” citing the “fall-off in sales of so-called casual games” such as Guitar Hero were to blame. Activision won’t even release the new Guitar Hero title that was supposed to launch later this year.
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Bout damn time... I had fun with number 1 and 3 i think it was, but it shouldn't have lasted even that long.
 
it's about time really..... how many iterations of the same crap has there been for the guitar games? there was like a version for every major band in history pretty much. ACDC, beattles, metallica, not to mention 5 versions of the game and not to mention rockband. It's sickening that people who play these games think they're masters at the guitar.

It's even funnier when you think of DDR and how many there have been and all the people who think they can dance because of this game. *facepalm* these people have become an heroes
 
Activision in general needs to stop beating all dead horses.

I enjoyed Rock Band much better especially with the amount of DLC they peppered customers with. There is no reason to re-release the same game if all you're doing is changing the UI and character models. $60 for some minor aesthetic changes? No thank you.

I realize a lot of people hate DLC but depending on how they implement it, you choose how you can be nickled and dimed. For example, I choose not to get BFBC2 Vietnam (yet) because I realize it is basically a map/skin pack. I can still play with all my friends and the game has the same functionality as I did when I bought it.

That being said, I thought World Tour looked like someone configured Emacs to a puke rainbow color. I'm serious. The artsy-fartsy part of the development team didn't even need to re-release a game and get paid to design such retina destroying and headache causing monstrosities.

I can only assume a lot of cocaine was involved in the design and development processes.
 
MrGoodbar said:
It's sickening that people who play these games think they're masters at the guitar.
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Just like people who play Madden think they're professional football players, or people who play CoD think they're soldiers? No, you just (mistakenly) think they do.
 
gamz247 said:
Just like people who play Madden think they're professional football players, or people who play CoD think they're soldiers? No, you just (mistakenly) think they do.
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I guess that would be somewhat analogous if they were playing football with the Kinect. So, no, not "just like".
 
Activision killed it when they decided to put out 3+ Guitar Hero SKUs out a year.
 
90% of the other game franchises should be canned.

Come up with something original.
 
LeninGHOLA said:
I guess that would be somewhat analogous if they were playing football with the Kinect. So, no, not "just like".
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What about DDR players and dancing? There's a very small subset of people who think playing the game translates to real world abilities. Although to be fair if you're a GH god, chances are you'd probably be reasonably good at an instrument. Just look at GH phenom, he plays all sorts of instruments IRL and his family is huge on music (their own music, etc.). At the same time, they embrace guitar hero because frankly the kid's a freak of nature.

I'm a huge fan of stepmania, DDR, ITG, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, FoF, etc.

Fortunately, FoF will pretty much live on forever on the PC so I'm good. I have just about every GH game though. Something about these rhythm games and constantly bettering my skills makes me addicted to them.
 
Chalk up another successful path of destruction for the Music Industry.

Now, instead of the Greed price, they get NO price.
 
when will they realize they when something is popular to ride it out instead of shoving it down everyone throat till they are sick of it. did there need to be 2 competing franchise? did we need it games that only focused on one band ?

only positive thing about it, was exposing rock and roll to a younger generation. more songs where classics from the 70's then any other period.



bomb and bust such a great model for business.
 
TechLarry said:
Chalk up another successful path of destruction for the Music Industry.

Now, instead of the Greed price, they get NO price.
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"things have been just a mess lately with all the record labels filing lawsuits, demanding more money"

This is what really killed it. Just more greed from the music industry.
 
Wow, sad...

Two years ago I didn't even know what this franchise was. When I saw some Youtube clips, I instantly realized how much time I would have spent a generation ago with this game had it come out when I was a kid.

I still find it funny Slash having to admit he sucks at these games. But it's also because his fingers want to go where your fingers would really go if you were actually playing it on a real guitar. He can't keep his brain from doing what comes naturally.
 
Yayyyyyyy!!!! I feel bad for the 500 people losing their jobs, but Guitar Hero has been copying things off of Rock Band since Rock Band split from Guitar Hero.
Good riddance
 
I knew screwing around in gimp that one day would have a use...

gth3.jpg
 
gamz247 said:
Just like people who play Madden think they're professional football players, or people who play CoD think they're soldiers? No, you just (mistakenly) think they do.
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Umm, even people who play CS, CoD think they know it all about firearms. people who play gran turismo thinks their stills using a toy wheel translates into real world skill. Hell even the army thought that play America's Army would translate into real world tactical skill. I don't just think they do, I see it happen more often than not.

UH OH, KIDS LEARNING STUFF FROM GTA4 AND APPLYING IT TO REAL LIFE SITUATIONS??? where did that come from?
 
MrGoodbar said:
it's about time really..... how many iterations of the same crap has there been for the guitar games? there was like a version for every major band in history pretty much. ACDC, beattles, metallica, not to mention 5 versions of the game and not to mention rockband. It's sickening that people who play these games think they're masters at the guitar.

It's even funnier when you think of DDR and how many there have been and all the people who think they can dance because of this game. *facepalm* these people have become an heroes
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Hey I like DDR & I could dance good well before that game surfaced here in the United States. :mad:
 
Guitar Hero ceased to be Guitar Hero after the original developer left. Of course, Rock Band is the bar setter now and with good reasoning because that game is developed by the same original Guitar Hero team, Harmonix Music.
 
This also included DJ Hero, as both studios involved with the Hero franchise are standing at the gates of oblivion.
 
Originally Posted by MrGoodbar
it's about time really..... how many iterations of the same crap has there been for the guitar games? there was like a version for every major band in history pretty much. ACDC, beattles, metallica, not to mention 5 versions of the game and not to mention rockband. It's sickening that people who play these games think they're masters at the guitar.

It's even funnier when you think of DDR and how many there have been and all the people who think they can dance because of this game. *facepalm* these people have become an heroes

terrybogard21 said:
Hey I like DDR & I could dance good well before that game surfaced here in the United States. :mad:
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Good that GH is finally dead.

I'm a DDR/ITG person myself and GH for whatever reason when it got popular pretty much killed the DDR scene :( (think Red Octane *sigh*, I was just about to buy one of their Afterburners when they pulled all the DDR stuff for ... GH - and which Activision also shut down)

And no I don't think playing DDR/ITG will actually teach a person to dance - might teach them rhythm.

Same with GH or RB, it's not going to teach you how to play an instrument. As was said earlier, the only positive is that it introduced music that many, many people might not have heard otherwise.

I tried GH a few times and hated it. Last time went from where my friends were playing GH over to the ONLY place around with an ITG cab and mashed arrows for over an hour. Did that teach me to dance? no, but I did burn around 300 - 400 calories, worked up a sweat and had a great time!
 
I'll miss it, I will admit ever since red octane ceased to exist it stopped being as epic as it was. GH3 was the last of the great series, after they introduced World Tour they should of stopped the development of the game and just concentrated on DLC for it. It still has a kick ass list for DLC which I hope it stays for a good while since I still enjoy the game.
 
Could care less about Guitar Hero I never played it, but I was pissed at Activision for announcing along with this that the new True Crime was being canceled. That game actually looked really good, and Streets of LA was an awesome game. Plus the fact that the creators said they were already 95% plus done. Just finish it since its almost done and release it.
 
Too bad, I enjoy the games. I didn't like the duplication between the GH and RB songlists (Du Hast, etc), but the fun factor was still there.
 
pothb said:
Bout damn time... I had fun with number 1 and 3 i think it was, but it shouldn't have lasted even that long.
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I totally agree. It outlived it's fame. Hang it up and put it in the archives.
 
How did it take 500 people to make that crap? Even make market, sell, produce in factory and provide customer support for. I could have easily done it for 3/4 of the money single handedly, with a little outsourcing.
 
DeathPrincess said:
How did it take 500 people to make that crap? Even make market, sell, produce in factory and provide customer support for. I could have easily done it for 3/4 of the money single handedly, with a little outsourcing.
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You're a developing, marketing, selling, supporting genius!! :p If the world only had more of you we wouldn't be in this financial crisis. And probably wouldn't be at war. DeathPrincess for president!! :D
 
DeathPrincess said:
How did it take 500 people to make that crap? Even make market, sell, produce in factory and provide customer support for. I could have easily done it for 3/4 of the money single handedly, with a little outsourcing.
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It might have went like this: each person that actually worked on the game had a supervisor, and that person had a supervisor, and then that supervisor of the supervisor of the supervised, had a supervisor. :D Remember, this was an Activision game...
 
JMccovery said:
It might have went like this: each person that actually worked on the game had a supervisor, and that person had a supervisor, and then that supervisor of the supervisor of the supervised, had a supervisor. :D Remember, this was an Activision game...
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Sounds like they need a consult from "the Bobs". :D
 
I still think there is untapped market potential in a "Honky-Tonk Geetar & Fiddle Hero" game. It would sell like hotcakes fresh off of Ol' Granny's griddle! :D
 
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