GH over

[zidine100]

well since this forum is pritty much dead (well somewhat), i thought any sort of thread would be appreciated, so heres a copy and pasta for your enjoyment.

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.

www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-02-09-activision-kills-guitar-hero

[derelict68]

I wonder if that means they won't try to come after us if we actually did finish building GH2....hrmm, wonder if Callisto has heard this news. ;-)

[zidine100]

There probably going to pull another gh game out of there arse when people have got bored of there newer titles or they want to pull the marketing trick clique of the year with the oh so overused were dead or are we ploy, so i doubt thats a good idea.

[cool29801]

Sounds like the Tony Hawk series.. Too many of the same game and the series dies because of it.. Great Job Activision, 2 down!

I wouldn't mind doing something again.. Just to have some kind of project/hobby again. Modeling for me is 100% useless, but it's knowledge I do have, and I loved working with it. It's been awhile since I felt the joy GZ1 used to bring. I got all nostalgic going through my ancient Youtube videos of Guitar Hero and the very first private beta I got from Callisto. Good stuff, yes.

[~Triple-Jc~]

Do it

[guitarfreak93]

what triple jc said. I'd try and help any way I could.

[zidine100]

Mar 3, 2011 19:44:46 GMT -5 zidine100 said:

There probably going to pull another gh game out of there arse when people have got bored of there newer titles or they want to pull the marketing trick clique of the year with the oh so overused were dead or are we ploy, so i doubt thats a good idea.

Despite what you may have heard, it would appear that Guitar Hero is not actually dead at all, but merely resting. (And True Crime: Hong Kong may still be kicking too.)

The tears flowed freely back in February when Activision announced that the once-great Guitar Hero franchise was being put to rest following a rapid decline in interest among gamers. All work on a planned 2011 edition was canceled and the division that handled the series disbanded. Between the end of Guitar Hero and the cancellation at the same time of True Crime: Hong Kong, 500 jobs were lost.

A few days later, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said the publisher could bring the series back one day if the circumstances were right, although he made it clear that it wasn't a priority. But "could" is apparently now "will," according to Dan Winters, Activision's vice president of developer relations, and the only question is one of timing.

"Just to clarify, we're just putting Guitar Hero on hiatus, we're not ending it. We're releasing products out of the vault - we'll continue to sustain the channel, the brand won't go away," Winters said in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. "We're just not making a new one for next year, that's all."

When the series might return with a new edition is impossible to predict, although as Winters noted the Guitar Hero brand remains at least marginally present in the public consciousness thanks to ongoing content additions like today's release of tracks by Paramore, Middle Class Rut, Madina Lake and Darkest Hour, none of whom I've ever heard of. But with the music game market as heavily saturated as it is, not just by Guitar Hero but also its arch-rival Rock Band, it's hard to imagine anyone seeing a near-term relaunch as a good idea.

Oh, and that True Crime: Hong Kong thing? It's not necessarily dead either. Winters said Activision was "really confident" that it was going to be a very good game "that would have been, and might still be, a very successful mid-tier opportunity for someone," but that its focus is on "big, huge monster" titles like Call of Duty, Spyro and whatever it is Bungie is up to. "That left the True Crime title being a mid-tier opportunity which we felt was an opportunity cost against other things," he explained. "But we have a lot of confidence in the quality of the studio and the quality of the title, just not in the scale of the opportunity."

called it.