bye bye Guitar Hero

For a while I’ve had the feeling that Guitar Hero would be meeting it’s fate very soon. Last year I notice a DRAMATIC drop in Guitar Hero tournaments ever since the release of Guitar Hero: World Tour.

With the release of GH5 and Band Hero it was very clear that Activision just stopped caring about the series, and cared more about producing as many versions of the game as possible as fast as possible, and having celebrities promote the games vs ensuring that people actually enjoyed the games. Every version of the game just got worse, and the dollar amount spent per game just went up and up, even though sales for each version continued to drop.

Last summer over 150 testers were laid off from Activision as they opened a new division in Quebec, Canada to take over the testing for all of their rhythm games. Recently Kotaku has been posting about the massive layoffs and shut downs associated with all companies involved with Guitar Hero and it’s been announced that the only games scheduled for release this year are Guitar Hero 6 and a new DJ Hero meaning that this is the end of Guitar Hero’s reign in the rhythm world.

Some excerpts from Kotaku:
“Luxoflux, also responsible for True Crime and Kung Fu Panda games for Activision, is said to have been shut down completely, according to former employees. Approximately 55 people have been let go, according to sources at the company, with some possibly being transferred to Call of Duty developer Treyarch.

Activision is said to have laid off another 50 at developer Neversoft, formerly of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series and responsible for the Guitar Hero series after the departure of Harmonix.”

They later posted:
“In addition to sackings at Neversoft and Luxoflux, Kotaku has learned today that publisher Activision has also laid off employees at RedOctane and internal studio Underground Development.

We’ve heard that RedOctane, the publisher of the original Guitar Hero and creator of the franchise’s plastic instruments, has been completely shut down. Those responsible directly for the series’ hardware will now report straight to Activision, while those remaining – around 30-40 people – have been shown the door.

Also reportedly affected is Underground Development, an Activision studio responsible for games like Guitar Hero: Van Halen and…BMX XXX. We’ve heard that, as of today, the entire studio has been shut down.”

Activision says:
“As we discussed on our earnings conference call yesterday, we are directing our resources against the largest and most profitable business segments, and as part of this initiative, we are realigning our resources to better reflect our slate and the market opportunities”

The end is likely near for Guitar Hero. What does that mean for me? Not much. I’ll still be posting Guitar Hero videos on my YouTube channel, so make sure to stop by and drop a sub if you’d like to get updated when I post new content. With the lack of Guitar Hero tournaments, I’ll shift my focus to Rock Band tournaments.