Guitar Hero team among 500 layoffs confirmed in a financial report.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/25138
The Guitar Hero team at Activision has been disbanded, and the 2011 game release has been cancelled. The series will continue only through downloadable content. This is due to declining sales in the music game genre. The DJ Hero series meets the same fate, as the entire music division will close down.
"Despite a remarkable 92 rating on DJ Hero 2, a well-regarded Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as a 90-plus release from our most direct competitor, demand for peripheral based music games declined at a dramatic pace," CEO of Activision Publishing Eric Hirshberg stated.
Development of the shooter, True Crime: Hong Kong, due for release in 2011 has also been cancelled. There will not be a Tony Hawk game released this year as all music and skateboarding releases have been cancelled.
It is not clear yet exactly how the company-wide 500 employee cut will affect Guitar Hero developers Vicarious Visions or DJ Hero developers Freestyle Games. A resource refocus means that a new studio, Beachhead, will be created to handle online community, content and services for the Call of Duty games.
Is it just me or does it seem as if Activision is going to depend on their one IP, Call of Duty, and forsake all other franchises? It seems as if Call of Duty is the new Guitar Hero and we had better prepare for a new iteration of that series every year until it finally gets stale.
if Call of Duty is the new Guitar Hero and we had better prepare for a new iteration of that series every year until it finally gets stale.
Well, I can't say I'll miss the flood of overpriced plastic instruments in storesevery Christmasyear-round. I do feel sorry for the folks that Activsion are now laying off when it was incompetence at the highest level of Activsion that caused the market to become oversaturated and self-destruct. I can only hope that Call of Duty will meet a similar fate. While I enjoy my fair share of First Person Shooters, that genre's been long-overdue for a general culling with everything copying CoD 4's multiplayer and very few games advancing the genre.
I think everyone can agree that Guitar Hero really sucked, and I'm glad that era is over. Here's to hoping we'll never hear from that genre ever again.
I agree. I'm sick of the modern warfare crap. The franchise started out in WW2, but COD4 was revolutionary as it broke out of that and moved to modern warfare, but that was 4 years ago and every game since then except WaW (which was way back in 2008) has been set in modern times (black ops is in the cold war so its somewhere in between). So while COD4 was something fresh and new in 2007, this is no longer the case. Now its at the point where if the franchise returned back to its WW2 roots it would actually be a refreshing change. But it really should move to some other war period of human history. Its not like WW2 was the first war mankind ever fought, and I for one am sick of all the modern weaponry. To me its all the same, all automatic bang bang explosions and rapid firing machine guns and helicopters and planes. ENOUGH! Why can't we have a COD where we fight with swords and bows and arrows for a change? If this would happen it would be even more revolutionary to the franchise than COD4 was and would keep it fresh and interesting. I'm sure it would sell millions as long as Treyarch made it and it bore the COD name. I'd also look forward to the Zombie modes Treyarch would create for a Medieval COD game. That would be cool.
So fake dancing is better than fake instrument playing?
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Can you seriously tell me there's really a distinction between the multiplayer-centric experience in something like Crysis, the Conduit, Medal of Honor; Battlefield; Call of Duty; etc.? It's the same experience with the same standard modes and frequently the same weapons and powers, with minor differences between them. It's lazy, repetitive, and boring.
At this point, the only way that these games distinguish themselves these days is in the singleplayer mode, and often in this genre that experience is marginalized in comparison to the multiplayer. If First Person Shooters aren't going to try to do anything more than copy a set format (even Call of Duty), I'd rather they weren't made.
I wonder if Blizzard get away with it because they make over $150 million a month just from WOW, almost pure profit. Most companies can not afford to release about 1 game a year.
Can you seriously tell me there's really a distinction between the multiplayer-centric experience in something like Crysis, the Conduit, Medal of Honor; Battlefield; Call of Duty; etc.? It's the same experience with the same standard modes and frequently the same weapons and powers, with minor differences between them. It's lazy, repetitive, and boring.
Call of Duty is toast. Maybe not this year or next year but at some point no one is going to care.
People said the same thing about Pokemon circa 1998 or so.
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So again I have to say the way out of that is to change the scenario. Since everyone is doing modern era warfare, do medieval warfare. The weapons would consist of axes, swords, bows, maces, etc. and would stand out for that reason alone. What other medieval FPS online MP game is there? None that I can think of.
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...but I don't know about anyone else, but I'm shocked it happened so quickly. If I had to estimate the situation, I would have guessed it would have limped its way into the next console generation before finally falling off.I didn't think it would happen just yet either. Last I remember hearing, the newest versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band were still selling well, and even DJ Hero 2 was performing better than the first entry.
Boot up any given new First Person Shooter these days and enter a given multiplayer game mode, and you'll almost always see the same thing: a standard deathmatch-type experience where players run around until someone runs into them and someone dies, or a player from the other side of the map snipes someone else. Players die and respawn, the match ends, experience is dolled out for kills, players who are already good acquire perks and whatnot through level-ups that make them even harder to kill, words are exchanged via microphone, wash, rinse, repeat. Can you seriously tell me there's really a distinction between the multiplayer-centric experience in something like Crysis, the Conduit, Medal of Honor; Battlefield; Call of Duty; etc.? It's the same experience with the same standard modes and frequently the same weapons and powers, with minor differences between them. It's lazy, repetitive, and boring.
