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ReZourceman

Guitar Hero Franchise Axed?!

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about bloody time...totally over used the franchise and killed it.

 

Your post really strikes a chord with me.

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It's a shame if true in my opinion. Always enjoyed a bit of Guitar/DJ Hero.

Sure, they don't need to bring out full new games every year with millions of new instruments, but why not just release song packs, like the Singstar games? That would be cheaper to produce and would keep the franchise going.

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Guess they finally milked the cow dry. It's unfortunate for the people who lost their jobs, but I can't say I'll miss the franchise.

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Feel sorry for the devs.... but if you work for Activision this is going to happen as they are the new EA.

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Harmonix having a little party? Just recently been bought and now see their major rival fall.

 

Not really surprised with the decline in sales, I'm more shocked Activision didn't try to re-acquire Harmonix and combine the franchises. Or maybe that's what they tried to do and failed, who knows.

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I agree with the above poster when it was implied that brining a guitar out and full price game every time was stupid. Don't need em'/

 

Just release budget titles every so often. Does it really take that long/is it that difficult to make a GH game? Daft Punk says no.

Edited by ReZourceman

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Just found out they have cancelled True Crime HK as well...kinda disappointed. Was interested in it vaguely as it was asian themed open world game.

 

Weird how they have axed DJ Hero when I think that perhaps still had some mileage just not as yearly release.

 

Here's how Destructoid reported it:

 

[update] During the conference, Activision just confirmed the death of DJ Hero as well as part of the GH franchise. True Crime: Hong Kong was canceled because it was "just not good enough" to compete in the open world genre. Most of all, they didn't expect it to generate enough profit and stopped development.

 

Activision Blizzard is set to announce its Q4 results any minute, but that didn't stop them from announcing that Guitar Hero is dead. No longer shall we have to deal with Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero arguments, as the Guitar Hero business unit has been disbanded and all work on the 2011 Guitar Hero game has been discontinued. Maybe there is a God after all!

 

Development on True Crime: Hong Kong has also been stopped. Which might be one of the reasons you probably didn't hear anything about it for a while now.

 

Activision Blizzard will instead focus on Call of Duty titles, the development of a "best-in-class digital community surrounding the Call of Duty franchise" -- good luck with that -- a new Bungie IP and some new and "innovative universe with broad appeal" that will be revealed at Toy Fair later this week.

 

http://www.destructoid.com/activision-disbands-guitar-hero-and-cancels-true-crime-hk-193638.phtml

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They axed DJ Hero because the DLC was a mess. The licensing probably killed it.

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Layoffs confirmed as well:

 

UPDATE: Reports are coming in that layoffs have also hit the Activision-owned developer Vicarious Visions. Developer Manveer Heir tweeted this evening to say, "Ugh sorry to hear about the Vicarious Visions layoffs today after Guitar Hero canceled. Shitty. Sounds like Freestyle (DJ Hero) got hit too."

Eurogamer has contacted Vicarious Visions, which created the Wii version of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, for comment.

 

ORIGINAL STORY: Activision has hit DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games with severe layoffs and axed the Guitar Hero series, Eurogamer understands.

 

United Front's open world game True Crime has been cancelled, sources have told Eurogamer.

 

An announcement is expected tonight ahead of the publication of Activision's financial results.

 

In December last year Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said Guitar Hero, and the music genre, had a future following dismal sales of Warriors of Rock.

 

"It's no secret that not just Guitar Hero, but also Rock Band, and the music category in general, do not have the same mass appeal today that they did a few years ago," he said.

 

"That said, I think that we would be foolish to not try and build on the strength of the Guitar Hero brand, because as you said, it's a pretty strong brand with great recognition and great likeability, and there's a lot to work with there.

 

"I think the road to rejuvenating that category goes through innovation," he continued. "The premise of Guitar Hero - that everyone has an inner rock star - it's something that we've all done forever. Some version of singing into a hairbrush, or holding a tennis racket like a guitar, or singing karaoke, or singing into the bathroom mirror - we all do that.

 

"I think a lot of video game genres that have had tremendous staying power have a fantasy-fulfillment element at their core, whether it's driving the fast car, or participating in professional sports, or going into battle. People don't get to do this in everyday lives.

 

"So I think the core premise and the core insight at the heart of the Guitar Hero franchise is still very relevant. I just think we need to escalate the experience for people and innovate. I think the genre is still fairly new, and so I think it's probably time for us to really look at what the next level looks like for that genre."

 

The publisher had confirmed the return of the franchise in 2011.

 

Eurogamer's calls to UK developer Freestyle Games went unanswered this evening. United Front Games had not responded to Eurogamer's request for comment at the time of publication.

 

Eurogamer has contacted Activision for comment.

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Layoffs confirmed as well:

 

UPDATE: Reports are coming in that layoffs have also hit the Activision-owned developer Vicarious Visions. Developer Manveer Heir tweeted this evening to say, "Ugh sorry to hear about the Vicarious Visions layoffs today after Guitar Hero canceled. Shitty. Sounds like Freestyle (DJ Hero) got hit too."

Eurogamer has contacted Vicarious Visions, which created the Wii version of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, for comment.

 

ORIGINAL STORY: Activision has hit DJ Hero developer Freestyle Games with severe layoffs and axed the Guitar Hero series, Eurogamer understands.

 

United Front's open world game True Crime has been cancelled, sources have told Eurogamer.

 

An announcement is expected tonight ahead of the publication of Activision's financial results.

 

In December last year Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said Guitar Hero, and the music genre, had a future following dismal sales of Warriors of Rock.

 

"It's no secret that not just Guitar Hero, but also Rock Band, and the music category in general, do not have the same mass appeal today that they did a few years ago," he said.

 

"That said, I think that we would be foolish to not try and build on the strength of the Guitar Hero brand, because as you said, it's a pretty strong brand with great recognition and great likeability, and there's a lot to work with there.

 

"I think the road to rejuvenating that category goes through innovation," he continued. "The premise of Guitar Hero - that everyone has an inner rock star - it's something that we've all done forever. Some version of singing into a hairbrush, or holding a tennis racket like a guitar, or singing karaoke, or singing into the bathroom mirror - we all do that.

 

"I think a lot of video game genres that have had tremendous staying power have a fantasy-fulfillment element at their core, whether it's driving the fast car, or participating in professional sports, or going into battle. People don't get to do this in everyday lives.

 

"So I think the core premise and the core insight at the heart of the Guitar Hero franchise is still very relevant. I just think we need to escalate the experience for people and innovate. I think the genre is still fairly new, and so I think it's probably time for us to really look at what the next level looks like for that genre."

 

The publisher had confirmed the return of the franchise in 2011.

 

Eurogamer's calls to UK developer Freestyle Games went unanswered this evening. United Front Games had not responded to Eurogamer's request for comment at the time of publication.

 

Eurogamer has contacted Activision for comment.

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Looks like Activision are more force on making COD games.

dL0np.jpg

 

Activision restructuring: 500 jobs lost

Publisher will shell out up to $50m in severance costs to lost staff

 

Cutbacks at Activision will result in 500 jobs lost at the publisher, Develop reports.

 

The firm this evening confirmed a restructuring effort to focus on a reduced slate of titles going forward, including the death of the Guitar Hero franchise, some near-completed projects, and layoffs at (and potential closures of) key studios.

 

A refocused publisher means 'a related reduction in studio headcount and corporate overhead'.

 

"The plan will result in the separation of approximately 500 employees," a corporate filing by the publisher adds.

 

"The plan is expected to be implemented in the quarter ending March 31, 2011, resulting in a net pre-tax charge in the first two quarters of 2011, which is expected to total between $35 and $50 million, comprised of severance costs, the costs of other separation benefits and other exit costs.

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This kinda sucks. As long as HMX are aflot I'm happy, but this doesn't bode well.

 

I'm more upset about the loss of DJ Hero - an innovative music game which definitely had room to shine. Shame the damn thing cost £100, no wonder it never took off!

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So... how many years until the inevitable Call of Duty MMO, followed by the scrapping of every other title/franchise apart from World of Warcraft and Call of Warcraft: Universe, some bizarre crossover where you either play some douchebag 'Spec Ops' guy with a pussy heartbeat sensor who spends his days sprinting everywhere while trash talking everyone for no good reason, or some douchebag fantasy creature that wields magic/shoots arrows/kills enemies with his giant sword but never actually does any of those things because all he actually does is stand around chatting to other virtual characters in the hope that one of them will give him the love he desires now that his IRL wife has left him and his mates have forgotten he exists? My guess, 4.

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While I'm not exactly sad Guitar Hero has been curbed, it annoys me they canned True Crimes: Hong Kong. Recent impressions were good for the game and it was shaping up to be alright and certainly looked alright from what I'd seen of the game. Wouldn't be surprised to see it picked up by someone else (EA perhaps as they don't have an open world title do they? I can't remember anything that fits the bill from them).

 

Still, Activision have been circling the drain for some time now. Definitely the beginning of the end for them.

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So... how many years until the inevitable Call of Duty MMO, followed by the scrapping of every other title/franchise apart from World of Warcraft and Call of Warcraft: Universe, some bizarre crossover where you either play some douchebag 'Spec Ops' guy with a pussy heartbeat sensor who spends his days sprinting everywhere while trash talking everyone for no good reason, or some douchebag fantasy creature that wields magic/shoots arrows/kills enemies with his giant sword but never actually does any of those things because all he actually does is stand around chatting to other virtual characters in the hope that one of them will give him the love he desires now that his IRL wife has left him and his mates have forgotten he exists? My guess, 4.

 

 

 

I like how blizzard get attacked for activisions shitty decisions lol

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About time, the market has become completely saturated, Rock Band outshone GH when it first appeared and none of the guitar-only games since 3 have done anything interesting or been worth picking up.

 

The same thing will happen to CoD in a few years.

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Guitar Hero 3 will always have a little place in my heart. I still consider beating it on Expert to be one of my finest gaming achievements.

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