Activision Finally Admits Defeat; Shutters Guitar Hero
News - Industry
Written by Jayce Diaz Thursday, February 10 2011 12:17
In a move sure to please the unusually negative anti-music game audience, Activision has finally thrown in the towel on its declining Guitar Hero series. In an earnings report, the giant publisher announced the demise of the series, along with innocent bystanders DJ Hero and True Crime: Hong Kong.
The reality here is that games like Guitar Hero and DJ Hero kills activision in licensing and royalty fees. To make it worse, the company for some reason or another insisted on having real life musicians as playable characters, only to have it backfire via lawsuits. Throw in spiraling sales figures and a general dislike from music game fans, and you have a failed franchise on your hands. While I don't care at all about GH going down, I am a bit bummed to see DJ Hero getting the axe. Maybe now I'll be able to get the game on the cheap. While they haven't specifically said "No more DJ Hero games ever!", they did say they aren't working on any more of them for the time being.
True Crime: Hong Kong's cancellation is kind of a big disappointment for me. While I never bothered with True Crime: New York, I did play and mostly enjoy the original True Crime game. Hong Kong put you in the shoes of original protagonist Nick Kang in an entirely new country, and I was interesed in seeing what they'd do with it all. Too bad then, as now I'll just have to go back to Saint's Row, as the 3rd game in the series launches later this year.
Activision Blizzard Report (Activision)
Tags:
Its really a shame that Dj Hero and True Crime have to suffer. DLC could have saved them with Dj Hero and Guitar Hero but they wanted to be sneaky... Gamers aren't dumb. Karma is a bitch.