Activision Smashes Guitar Hero Reboot Plans

[vansau]

Activision Smashes Guitar Hero Reboot Plans

Even though Activision killed Guitar Hero last year, it was working on a reboot of the series. The key word here being "was."

Nobody was all that surprised when <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107672-Activision-Pulls-the-Plug-on-Guitar-Hero-Franchise>Activision pulled the plug on Guitar Hero, since sales had been consistently dropping over the past couple of years. However, back in July, Actvision CEO Bobby Kotick announced that the publisher was working on plans to <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-07-20-kotick-activision-neglected-guitar-hero>reboot the franchise. Now, it turns out that Activision has killed that project, too.

Over on Twitter, <a href=https://twitter.com/#!/supererogatory>Superannuation spotted and linked to the LinkedIn profile of Kyle Johnson, who was working at Vicarious Visions until he was laid off. In his profile, he explains just what happened with the reboot:

In 2006 I was hired by Neversoft to work on the Guitar Hero franchise as part of the design team. After three years with Neversoft, I was one of five people selected by Activision to transfer to Vicarious Visions to help redesign of Guitar Hero. Sadly, last week, Activision brought all Guitar Hero development to an end. I'm proud to have been an original part of such a celebrated game.

It's a little sad to hear that the dev team's project was axed, but it's not exactly heartbreaking. A reboot of a franchise that's only been dormant for a year seems like a dubious idea, at best.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-22-activision-axes-guitar-hero-reboot-report>Eurogamer

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[The_root_of_all_evil]

Ah, no matter how monstrous EA become, they can never really contend with the dream-crushing of Activision.

 

[k0n9]

"Kiss" the Guitar Hero reboot goodbye

 

[Waaghpowa]

Good that it's dead and not coming back. They were totally incapable of getting decent music licenses after 3, arguably 4. It got to the point where they were just putting the same songs from previous games on the new ones.







Still waiting for a Judas Priest Guitar Hero...

Edit: Got Rock band confused with Guitar hero. Both the games had very similar track lists near the end.

 

[Lt. Rocky]

Give it a few years and we'll likely get a similar report on the publisher's attempt to reboot other franchises they messed up, including but not limited to their Call of Duty series.

 

[Something Amyss]

Vansau kind of touched on this in the article itself, but the fact that they were trying to reboot it a year after they trashed it (due to sales issues) pretty much proves they don't get the problem and shouldn't have been making it in the first place.

Honestly, they oversaturated the market. If music games are ever going to come back, it won't be a year later.

Unless their plan was to burn the genre to the ground, then salt the Earth. In that case, they should have made 3 Guitar Heroes this year.

Looks like this reboot...

*puts on sunglasses*

...Got Axed!

*rimshot*

It got to the point where they were just putting the same songs from previous games on the new ones.

lolwut?

 

[gigastar]

If Activison didnt have this inept need to release sequels for everything as soon as possible, then they could have just made one game then went on to continue updating that with new songs.

Some of my ideas make total sense, too bad they come about 3 years too late.

 

[VonKlaw]

If Activison didnt have this inept need to release sequels for everything as soon as possible, then they could have just made one game then went on to continue updating that with new songs.

Agreed, the complete lack of any sort of license transfer that Rock Band has pretty much killed any chance of me buying a Guitar Hero game after the third one.

 

[Suicidejim]

See, I loved Guitar Hero 3 beyond the realm of how much any rational person should enjoy a game, but even I couldn't really build up any enthusiasm by the time it reached 5. Too many games, too fast.

 

[Sonder Saunters]

And like most of my other great loves during high school, Guitar Hero won't be growing with me as an adult.

 

[Fredrikorex]

I guess they tried to copy the CoD style of releasing the same game over and over with minor changes, oh well.

 

[Jailbird408]

No Guitar Hero means no DJ Hero.
No DJ Hero means no DJ Hero starring Nintendo characters.
I had hopes that my dream game would come to be, but nope, Activision is determined to forever be "Mr. COD and Skylanders."

 

[snave]

Why couldn't they just release a definitive version entirely built around ongoing DLC packs? People simply got fed up with annual releases that added little to nothing I'd wager.

 

[A BigCup of Tea]

Looks like this reboot...

*puts on sunglasses*

...Got Axed!

This made me chuckle!

OT: good i was bored with guitar hero after 3, it just wasn't worth it, i would of liked it more if they kept one game and released songs through DLC (and had votes as to which songs would get released)

 

[Bomberman4000]

I often find myself wondering what the next step in music/rhythm gaming will be, and honestly I was never a guitar hero guy. I cut my teeth in the genre with Guitar Hero 2 (the girls who lived across the hall from me one year in college had it) but as far as owning any of it I started with Rock Band 1 and have owned just about every version of the game. i still have fun playing Rock Band 3 on almost a daily basis.

I can't say I'm really surprised though about this cancellation though. Sales steadily going down tells me the product is getting stale, and the last thing a stale product needs is for the company to try to re-sell old ideas. Clearly the music gaming genre is moving in a more realistic direction (with Rock Band's pro mode and games like Rocksmith) Guitar Hero was never really about that conceptually so I doubt we'll see another GH entry unless it's a complete overhaul of the mechanics and presentation.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Bah! Those games actually got worse with time, in terms of interface, mechanics and tracks lists. I'm glad they stopped, but it was already too late to redeem itself.

Not to mention selling over priced shitty plastic instruments every year with each new addition.

 

[Beaujon85]

As Anthony Campos & Elliott Rudner both pointed out in the facebook comments the "last week" Kyle Johnson is referring to is february 2011. Looks like eurogamer figured this out and 404'ed their article into oblivion. Maybe escapist should do the same?