Activision has axed the blockbuster video music game Guitar Hero.
When Guitar Hero hit the marketplace, it was an immediate sensation. Video game players could play some of their favorite songs using plastic guitar shaped controllers, pushing buttons on them as directed on-screen. The market grew, spawning the competing Rock Band franchise, and special editions were released concentrating on songs from a specific artist (Aerosmith, Metallica, Van Halen).
Unfortunately, the market got saturated and people began to move on to other forms of games, leaving all those plastic instruments to collect dust. It was those declining sales that today forced Activision to announce that they were shutting the franchise down. The company made the announcement in a conference call, saying that they were closing their music-game division, cancelling the development of any further releases and laying off the staff (estimated in the hundreds).
To get a feel for the situation Activision Blizzard was in, when Guitar Hero III was released in 2007, it sold 1.5 million copies in the first month. The latest release, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, only sold 86,000 copies. Those sales were noted as a main reason for closing the division along with the high cost of licensing music.
While their main competitor, Rock Band, continues to be made, its original owner, Viacom, announced its intention to sell the Harmonix division last November and to shut down MTV Games.
How does this hurt veteran artists? For a couple of years, their music from the 60's through the 80's was getting a huge amount of exposure to a younger generation as most of the main releases mixed classics with newer songs. At one point, it was being called a savior for the music business with visions of the video game business fueling ongoing sales of catalog titles.
Alas, it looks like all that may be over. Time to look for the next savior of the corporate music business.
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