The End of Guitar Hero

[Chicago1989]

From Yahoo News: Did you hear that? It's the fat lady, singing her heart out.
Activision released a bombshell today during their latest earnings report by announcing that the once-vaunted Guitar Hero franchise will be unceremoniously put to rest for the forseeable future.
"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," the company said in a statement.

You heard that right....

The Guitar Hero franchise is finished and it's no surprise . Sales have been going downhill FOR YEARS now and it is a big blow to the music game genre. Guitar Hero was the franchise that started the movement in the beginning. They were the ones that revolutionized party gaming with friends and who inspired other imitators such as Rock Band and other irrelevant franchises. Rock Band owes everything it has to Guitar Hero and there is no question.

I used to enjoy playing both Guitar Hero and Rock Band, but like everything else, it becomes a thing of the past. Every year, they came out with a new GH game. DLC pack after DLC pack wont help every GH or RB game that comes out; It only hurts it. It's oversaturation and prices were still overpriced as well. It's safe to say that at this point, the music game genre is in trouble after this, especially with the bad economy and lack of interest.

It's sad to see a once-successful, mega franchise that set gaming and sales records, as well as addicting entertainment, fade away. But when you force people to buy GH game after GH game every year, it's only a matter of time that the flame goes out. Call Of Duty is also following suit as well.

What are your thoughts about the end of this very influential game franchise?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

I am disappointed but it was coming. The game had hardly moved on from the original version. I guess there is only so much you can change about playing a guitar to the time of the notes on screen, other than incorporate other instruments if possible (done), and change the guitar a bit (done).

I think it could have gone on longer, with different genre-specific versions but I can see why they have dropped it if sales are declining each year.

I always thought they should have improved the characters on screen, they have always looked shit. More realism such as with the SDvsRaw CAWs would allow you to realy put yourself in the game, and you should have been able to hire different people for your band, with different abilities which grow the more successful your band becomes.

The career mode should also have incorporated emails from rival bands, offering you a spot or from the secret characters, asking you to play guitar on one of their upcoming songs- if you accept and play well enough you unlock that character and their songs.

 

[Kashagi]

Firstly, you realise the team that made the first Rock Band (at least) were the same team that made Guitar Hero 1,2 and Rocks the 80's? Rock Band owes little to Guitar Hero because Rock Band created Guitar Hero.

I say good riddance, though I am tired of the genre, I am happy to see that the series (Rock Band) that continued to innovate, and clearly showed so much heart to its content compared to Guitar Hero survives. Look at Guitar Hero Aerosmith, now look at Rock Band Beatles or Green Day, the difference in quality is stunning, Rock Band made personal tributes to their bands, Guitar Hero gave them about half the set list and that is about it for personal touch.

I hope Rock Band continues to innovate with every game (and I worry they wont, Rock Band 3 has slowed down) and enjoy the success they deserve.

 

[D-Man]

There is only so much you can do with creating new characters and storylines with the same purposes... to be on-screen playing a fake instrument and thus saving the world in the process. This is why Guitar Hero is failing.

Now, I'm wondering how the sales of new songs for existing games is doing. It makes sense for them to discontinue creation of entire games to support the same format, but they can keep creating songs that can be purchased online. Existing fans of the franchise want to purchase and play additional songs for $2 each but do not wish to pay $60 for an entire game to get the same result.

 

[Dave]

I can't say I am particularly bothered with this decision because, as far as I am concerned, once you have played one of the games, you have played them all. I mean, think about this, the only development that the Guitar Hero franchise made was bringing in a drum-kit and a microphone to their games. Nowhere was any more development noticeable and they constantly got by through selling packs of songs that were ridiculously overpriced.

To me, I am not surprised because they really priced themselves out of the market with this one. I have never seen a game sell like Guitar Hero 3 a couple of years back. Everyone was buying the game and the guitar to play it with. To be fair, they managed to milk that cow for what it was worth and the fact that they didn't know when to stop was the straw that broke the camel's back, I think. I recently went onto the Live marketplace with the mindset that the tracks would be reduced by hundreds of points. Imagine my surprise when I saw that they were still full-price! Not only were they full-price, they were for Guitar Hero 3! That is insane! I know that they were trying to get money from us but you simply cannot give any sort of reasoning for that pricing that I will believe.

They did the same with all of the games for this franchise and that is why they now have to stop. People were never going to pay over the odds for something that was basically an add-on the game. Guitar Hero was fun but £140 worth of fun? Absolutely not and that is how much they were charging for the pack with the drums and mic. That is a classic case of pricing yourself out of the market and Activision have no one to blame but themselves for this decision.

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

Now, I'm wondering how the sales of new songs for existing games is doing. It makes sense for them to discontinue creation of entire games to support the same format, but they can keep creating songs that can be purchased online. Existing fans of the franchise want to purchase and play additional songs for $2 each but do not wish to pay $60 for an entire game to get the same result.

I think that could be a great idea. I think that would be a decent way to make some money while still keeping the fans of Guitar Hero happy, and giving some alternative songs to be enjoyed. Nice thinking. As long as the songs were made affordable, and the rest of the back catalogue for the previous games was kept available I see no downside to this.

 

[Sparky]

There is only so much you can do with creating new characters and storylines with the same purposes...

Try telling that to pokemon...

Now, I'm wondering how the sales of new songs for existing games is doing. It makes sense for them to discontinue creation of entire games to support the same format, but they can keep creating songs that can be purchased online. Existing fans of the franchise want to purchase and play additional songs for $2 each but do not wish to pay $60 for an entire game to get the same result.

I'm thinking this is why they are failing. well failed. As you said but I deleted and can't be bothered bringing back, there is only so much you can do with the main story line. Why shell out $80 dollars for a new game when you can download games online for way cheaper. They made a horrible mistake doing this that cost them dearly.

 

[D-Man]

I'm thinking this is why they are failing. well failed. As you said but I deleted and can't be bothered bringing back, there is only so much you can do with the main story line. Why shell out $80 dollars for a new game when you can download games online for way cheaper. They made a horrible mistake doing this that cost them dearly.

I respectfully disagree. Keep in mind, when a new game comes out, it contains at least 60 songs. That's $120 (if they are $1.99/song) just for the playlist alone that we're grabbing for a steal at under $60. In addition, we get a new interface, new characters, better graphics, possibility of more instruments being played in the game, improved gameplay with each new game, and a storyline to go with the game. It's not as much of a "mistake" as you think.

They had no way of knowing that these novelties would wear off so quickly. But this is why Rock Band has been so successful... they have been selling track packs and upgrades through the network, and they've been selling like hotcakes.

 

[Sparky]

I respectfully disagree. Keep in mind, when a new game comes out, it contains at least 60 songs. That's $120 (if they are $1.99/song)

and out of those 60, most people will only play about half of them if they're just casual gamers/want it for likemost people I know as a drinking game and only play the songs they like.

just for the playlist alone that we're grabbing for a steal at under $60.

I guess this is where we live comes into affect, even for the game alone on release it's $100 I found it way cheaper to download the songs I liked instead of buying Guitar hero five.

In addition, new characters,

that most people create their own anyway, or if you're like me you just use your avatar.

better graphics,

When playing a game that consists of pressing buttons at the right time, I don't think graphics are that important.

possibility of more instruments being played in the game,

After the drum and microphone came out, what came out after that? A drum with symbols? remember you can buy guitars/instruments separate anyway.

improved gameplay with each new game, and a storyline to go with the game.

Playing Guitar hero one, then not playing again to Guitar hero warriors of rock, I can't see that much of a change at all with the improved gameplay aspect. and no matter how you look at it, the storyline will always be you play in a band.

It's not as much of a "mistake" as you think.

Meanie


They would of been much better off using the downloads as a way to release new versions. you don't have to pay for the disk, or anything like that, just connect to the net and download new storylines ect.
ontop of that, they should of released a few different styles of guitars to get people to upgrade them.

 

[thewrestlinggamer908]

Well i'm glad to see it go. I find all music games to be overprice trash. I played it at a friends house and was not impressed by it at all. If i wanna play music i'll use a real guitar or drums or what not.

 

[Sean Valjean]

What the OP neglected to mention is that in addition to Guitar Hero, DJ Hero was axed as well. In addition, True Crime: Hong Kong, which had been in development, has been canceled.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I enjoyed the first three GH games immensely; I had never played anything like it at the time and I loved being able to play some of my favorite songs. I also credit those games for turning me on to bands I may had never given a chance before.

But as time went on, and Activision began to over-saturate the market with sequel after sequel, the novelty began to fade. Mainly because Rock Band came out, which offered a more robust, polished, and innovative experience while GH, for the most part, stayed the same. I just lost interest in them. I'm not too sure how the last few entries have fared in terms of sales, but many others must feel the same if Activision would just up and pull the plug on such a big franchise.

While this is a big blow to the genre, I don't think music games will or could ever completely die. Harmonix is still going strong with Rock Band 3 and Dance Central. These games still seem to sell; I just think the genre as a whole needs some re-invention to keep things fresh and keep people interested.

 

[Dagger Dias]

I'm not surprised about Guitar Hero ending. There's only so much you can do with that type of game. There are only so many rock tracks that they could use, get permission to use, and still generate interest in those who buy the games. The series then had to deal with Rock Band and all of the imitations that followed. How could they expand beyond letting four instruments be played, or trying other genres? You honestly cannot expand much with the series beyond that point. Even if they had not ended the series at this point, it would have come eventually when they ran out of songs they had permission to use or to potentially ask for, whether they had a decline in money/interest or not because there are only so many things they could have done in future entries to the series. The series had a good run and will always be remembered, but all things eventually come to an end. Guitar Hero will always live on as one of the more popular series of its time.