Guitar Hero DOA [Archive]

parkmania

02-09-2011, 06:31 PM

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/710321/Guitar-Hero-Killed-Activision-Drops-GH-Franchise.html

Activision/Blizzard announced it is dropping the in-development Guitar Hero game planned for 2011. The company is also disbanding its Guitar Hero division, best described by the company itself in the following statement:

“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."

Kalyx triaD

02-09-2011, 06:39 PM

Buy GH, milk it to hell, kill it.

Yeah that sounds about right.

Blitz

02-09-2011, 06:49 PM

Guitar Hero Dead On Arrival, 6 years after its arrival.

Kalyx triaD

02-09-2011, 06:52 PM

I wonder if they recognize it nosedived because of their lulzy business model?

Emperor Smeat

02-09-2011, 07:11 PM

They also killed off the True Crime reboot attempt, the DJ Hero series for at least a year, and Tony Hawk for at least a year as well.

Kalyx triaD

02-09-2011, 07:14 PM

So sick of publishers.

Fignuts

02-09-2011, 08:09 PM

Wait what? The new true crime is cancelled? wtf that was looking good.

Also, I am hoping for at least one more dj hero game, before it bites the dust. Love those games.

alvarado52

02-09-2011, 11:08 PM

Buy GH, milk it to hell, kill it.

Yeah that sounds about right.

BizarroKing

02-10-2011, 12:01 AM

Kalyx triaD

02-10-2011, 12:23 AM

They released multiple games a year. They made it repetitive. And for fuck sake Guitar Hero Van Halen?

And the ones who made the terrible decisions keep their job while the workers get fucked.

D Mac

02-10-2011, 01:08 AM

Hopefully Rock Band will live on. At least in DLC.

Emperor Smeat

02-10-2011, 01:10 AM

I think it was the Beatles version of GH that ended up being their money drain since they spent a lot for the songs but the sales couldn't match up and Activision lost a lot of money. The original plan might have been to use the huge sales from GH Beatles to fund the next 1-2 titles but it never happened.

One reason True Crime got axed ended up being too many delays and Activision not wanting to fund the project for a game that kept moving its release date window.

D Mac

02-10-2011, 01:11 AM

Meatball, The Beatles game was from Rock Band.

Tom Guycott

02-10-2011, 01:32 AM

To be fair, I think he may have meant Metallica. Personally loved it, but the sales on that one were lackluster.

Of the music genre decline, I really feel for Power Gig. FINALLY, someone develops a game where you actually have a stringed axe, and it's too little, too late.

Emperor Smeat

02-10-2011, 02:00 AM

Whoops, yeah mixed up the games.

It was the Beatles for Rock Band and GH 5 along with the Metallica edition that bombed badly compared to what was paid for the rights of the songs.

Funky Fly

02-10-2011, 02:06 AM

What killed the Beatles game was making it a separate game. People would have shelled out big for Beatles DLC.

SlickyTrickyDamon

02-10-2011, 09:57 AM

Yeah and Green Day Rock Band didn't sell like they thought it was going to.

02-10-2011, 10:05 AM

I bet if Beatles came with an import code then it would've sold more. That was the only reason why I bought Green Day instead of Goozexing it.

SlickyTrickyDamon

02-10-2011, 10:14 AM

It was probably deemed to expensive to re-do the songs without the psychedelics.

02-10-2011, 10:17 AM

Nah, I am sure it had to do paying the Beatles more money. I dunno what the video effects have to do with the audio track and note chart.

Shaggy

02-10-2011, 02:09 PM

Wait what? The new true crime is cancelled? wtf that was looking good.

Also, I am hoping for at least one more dj hero game, before it bites the dust. Love those games.

They canned that as well.

D Mac

02-10-2011, 02:16 PM

Hopefully Metallica will get back into Rock Band!

Kalyx triaD

02-10-2011, 04:46 PM

YES

Kane Knight

02-10-2011, 05:49 PM

In all fairness it was starting to get a bit repetitive. Probably would have been better to download songs onto the existing games as opposed to releasing new ones every year or so...

Still, surprised it's done. Why not just take a break from it. Like I said, it seems like they released a new game every single year.

Like already said, this was repetitive because they made it repetitive by releasing fifteen titles a year.

However, I'll point out that neither abandoning the net game nor disbanding the current team means we won't see another GH title in a couple of years.

....Though Activision being fuckheads probably does mean that.

They released multiple games a year. They made it repetitive. And for fuck sake Guitar Hero Van Halen?

And the ones who made the terrible decisions keep their job while the workers get fucked.

GHVH Was one of the most requested side titles.

...Though with Metallica beating it out and selling poorly should have been hint enough.

What killed the Beatles game was making it a separate game. People would have shelled out big for Beatles DLC.

Remember, though, the problem of artist control. I'm pretty sure the spin-off decision involved controlling the songs, including who sang them.

SlickyTrickyDamon

02-10-2011, 05:59 PM

Not True Crimes! Nooooooooo!

D Mac

02-11-2011, 01:11 AM

I thought GH Metallica did very well.

D Mac

02-11-2011, 01:12 AM

You know, since they are the greatest band in the world.

Super V

02-11-2011, 04:16 PM

One reason True Crime got axed ended up being too many delays and Activision not wanting to fund the project for a game that kept moving its release date window.
More publishers should start doing this.

Kane Knight

02-12-2011, 10:28 PM

I thought GH Metallica did very well.

You know, since they are the greatest band in the world.

You'd think it would have sold a lot more if that were true. :)

Kane Knight

02-12-2011, 10:30 PM

Nah, I am sure it had to do paying the Beatles more money. I dunno what the video effects have to do with the audio track and note chart.

RB3 DLC can no longer be played on prior titles due to lighting cues and video effects. At least, that's the reason given.

DaveWadding

02-12-2011, 10:52 PM

I remember buying GH5 and selling it at a profit while getting the free Van Halen disc and then selling THAT. Win.

02-12-2011, 10:56 PM

I remember getting GH5 and VH, exchanging the GH5 for another GH5 because the guitar didn't work, and getting a 2nd VH.

LoDownM

02-12-2011, 11:01 PM

Gotta admit, when I saw this threads title, I thought there was going to be a Dead of Alive themed GH.

parkmania

02-13-2011, 07:20 PM

LoDownM

02-13-2011, 07:49 PM

I was talking about the fighting game lol.

parkmania

02-13-2011, 10:00 PM

Oops.

Kane Knight

02-13-2011, 10:03 PM

Kane Knight

02-22-2011, 09:15 AM

So anyone see the bit from Activision Co-Founder Alan Miller where he says it wasn't Activision bleeding GH to death that was the problem, but rather the shift to a DD market?

It's bullshit for a lot of reasons, but it was funny.

He says it's hard to get casual gamers to buy a 100 dollar guitar. The problem being there are 42 quadrillion in circulation right now, and people still use first gen XBox controllers. Even if you take "casual" to only mean "farmville crowd" and "BDC," The games shouldn't sell as poorly as they did because there's an install base that's past that entry barrier. Even a lot of casuals, because GH was a party franchise for years before it stopped being "cool."
Switch to Digital Distribution was fully within their grasp. Rock Band has 2600 songs. Activision dicked around with this, but until WoR, they didn't really do it well. And it took them like two games just to export Metallica. Why? They weren't serious about digital.
And more proof they weren't serious about DD? They put out like 25 games in a year. That content could have been delivered digitally and taken advantage of the a la cart nature. Not to mention it's cheaper for them. But they wanted more titles. They wanted to push more instruments. They wanted to sell you stuff.

Kalyx triaD

02-22-2011, 03:16 PM

Emperor Smeat

02-22-2011, 04:27 PM

Fignuts

02-22-2011, 05:30 PM

New DLC dropped for DJ Hero. Hopefully there will be a couple more before they are done completely.

Kane Knight

02-22-2011, 06:34 PM

Activision pretty much no cred concerning why GH failed, being the guys who failed it. And we talked about how they have released their game's soundtracks as DLC for years now. It seemed like common sense, but they had other plans.

Really wish somebody would call them on their shit when they're interviewed.

Sadly, most press (of any stripe) is too concerned with getting the interview, so they will slurp that cock like it was going to cum gold.

It's a shame they didn't save title releases for major updates. I mean, even Harmonix wasn't immune to that, with Green Day getting their own disc, but all those extra releases with nothing really different....It's such a waste. Though WoR had a STORY MODE....>.>

I do like the fact that Activision is trying to say "We didn't do it."

It's the market. Really. And we can't be held responsible for not understanding the market. What do corporations know about that sort of thing?

Kane Knight

02-22-2011, 06:43 PM

A few people from the studio they fired said the real reason was Activision envisioning every game being a billion dollar revenue producer (or at least the main games) even during the year they pumped out too many games. Activision is also a company that favors the quick mega sales over the slower gradual sales but that was due to CoD being soo easy to reach multi-million status.

The same ended up happening to Tony Hawk but that was over a much longer period of time than GH/DJ Hero series.

The irony is they've vowed to not do the same thing to CoD they did to Guitar Hero.

The funny thing is, I'm not even sure they know what makes CoD sell so well. Like, I'm not even knocking the franchise, but it's easy to milk a series when it's on top. If the next game sold poorly, though, would they know what to do to correct that? Are they in touch enough to save that franchise?

Not to completely bash them for trashing the GH franchise because I understand that there was always some level of "fad" to the craze.

But oversaturation is a bad thing in any market, and fuck did they do that..

Funky Fly

02-23-2011, 02:36 PM

Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero 2
Guitar Hero: Rocks the 80s
Guitar Hero 3
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
Guitar Hero: World Tour
Guitar Hero: Metallica
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits
Guitar Hero 5
Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Band Hero
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

That's the main series. Not even including the 3 portable titles or DJ Hero titles. GH came out in 2005. Completely fucking ridiculous.

Kane Knight

02-23-2011, 02:41 PM

No, it's the damn digital market!

Funky Fly

02-23-2011, 02:51 PM

Damn, let's roll out another Call of Duty next week and cover our losses.

D Mac

02-23-2011, 03:00 PM

And I have all the Xbox 360 GH games. Except Band Hero.

Kalyx triaD

02-23-2011, 03:36 PM

Let me take a crack at armchair publishing:

First, we don't count the Harmonix games, we start at GH3.

Guitar Hero 3

Drop this title as it went down. Had some acclaim, people dug it.

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

I'll give Activision the benefit of the doubt here. They're excited, they have a new franchise, let's try one off-shoot.

Guitar Hero: World Tour

We gotta compete with Rock Band. Full band set, broader range of music, music creation mode. GH3 DLC, made for a different engine, may not work. I'll accept that. So far so good. MOST MUSIC TO BE FUTURE PROOFED AS EXPORTABLE DLC, WE KNOW WE'RE MAKING ANOTHER ONE.

Guitar Hero: Metallica

It's a big band, with a big price tag. Lot's of people wanted Met on a music game. No exclusive instruments, smart move. Accepts Death Magnetic DLC, good. Cross-compatible with music creations, also good. ADD OPTION TO EXPORT MUSIC TO GHWT. People would have to buy the game anyway. License issues, well at least allow WT DLC for this game. No, James Hetfield wouldn't be playable for The Touch.

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits

THIS WOULD NOT EXIST. All music (master tracks no doubt!) would have been DLC promoted as Smash Hits DLC, sold separately. Game was a waste of production, waste of printing, waste of shipping, etc.

Guitar Hero 5

The new engine. I can get that. Nice adjustments to interface. Great party play mode. New instruments, although past instruments are compatible. LEAVE MUSIC CREATION ALONE, JUST ADJUST INTERFACE - NO GALAXY BULLSHIT. Past music creations are compatible, in fact the platform is expanded to a whole new hub. If DLC strategy still sucks at this point, the music studio 'DLC' will be the trump card. Put a lot of effort behind this.

Guitar Hero: Van Halen

What? No. DLC pack. Save a lot of stress. The rendered band could have been DLC.

Band Hero

No, another DLC pack. And as far as reaction is concerned, it would have proved to be a popular pack. Rendered celebs would have also been DLC.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Desperate cash-in. Would not exist in it's current form. Would have been Guitar Hero 6, touted as a return to rock orientation. Rhythm guitar play returns. Back-DLC compatible. Expanded music creation tool to include crowd reaction effects and camera angles. Basically remove any sign of WoR's design.

If it all still fails, blame consumers and Harmonix.

Funky Fly

02-23-2011, 03:49 PM

Well, I have all the GHs up to WT and won't buy any of the others unless they're bargain bin. I have RB 1, 2 and Beatles and 34257623478345634576 songs downloaded.

Kane Knight

02-23-2011, 09:02 PM

Well, I have all the GHs up to WT and won't buy any of the others unless they're bargain bin. I have RB 1, 2 and Beatles and 34257623478345634576 songs downloaded.

I got Aerosmith and 5 from major deals. And Band Hero as a gift.

But most of the spin-offs should have been DLC.

I don't care for this whole "Pre-rendered bands as DLC" either. I'm betting it wouldn't be cost effective for them, and thus excpensive for us.

Also, with the suit about Cobain doing the YMCA and such....

What kind of faggot would pay to download a band that could only play their tunes?

...D Mac?

Kane Knight

02-23-2011, 09:09 PM

Actually, I like the idea of releasing a game that's a family friendly platform. Lego Rock Band allowed access to the RB library, provided it was family friendly.

If Band Hero did that, I could justify it as something other than DLC packs. Of course, it didn't. Not exactly, anyway.

Kalyx triaD

02-23-2011, 09:14 PM

Lego RB had a theme with it's own visuals and charm, Band Hero was GH 5 with a gay color set and Taylor Swift.

02-23-2011, 09:53 PM

You leave Taylor Swift out of this!

Kalyx triaD

02-23-2011, 10:00 PM

Why should I? They didn't.

D Mac

02-24-2011, 01:06 AM

Yes KK you asshole I would if it was Metallica.

Kane Knight

02-24-2011, 06:33 AM

You would for Hetfield. :naughty:

Kane Knight

02-25-2011, 05:21 PM

Not to harp on this, but I found this article from Kotaku while researching some shit for my dad:

http://kotaku.com/#!5483798/guess-which-three-games-help-keep-activision-afloat?comment=20004278

ONE YEAR AGO, Guitar Hero was one of the three pillars accounting for almost 70% of the revenues of Activision. The other two were (Unsurprisingly) CoD and WoW.

Matt Gingarac

02-26-2011, 12:53 PM

im glad guitar hero is done with, what a waste of time

Kalyx triaD

02-26-2011, 01:26 PM

It wasted your time?

Kane Knight

02-26-2011, 05:28 PM

Once he found out it wouldn't get him laid or teach him to play guitar....

Funky Fly

02-28-2011, 03:34 PM

Rock Band got me laid.

Kane Knight

02-28-2011, 03:46 PM

Rock Band got me laid.

Nobody believes that.

Your massive cock and rapier wit got you laid.