Activision Abused Guitar Hero, Says Former Publisher

Logan Westbrook

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Feb 21, 2008
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Activision Abused Guitar Hero, Says Former Publisher

Activision should have nurtured Guitar Hero, says the series' original publisher, rather than trying to make a quick buck.

Kelly Sumner, former head of RedOctane, says that Activision has been a very poor steward of the Guitar Hero franchise, and basically destroyed it by trying to squeeze too much out of it, too quickly. RedOctane was the original publisher of the Guitar Hero games, until it was acquired by Activision in 2006.

In an interview with MCV [http://www.mcvuk.com/], Sumner said that not every game had the potential to become a billion dollar franchise, but wondered if that wasn't all that Activision was really interested in. He said that he didn't see any reason why the franchise couldn't continue, but didn't think that Activision wouldn't sell anyone the brand. He thought that if another publisher was able to find success with the series, it would prove that the problem had been Activision all along,and that was something that Activision wasn't about to let happen.

He thought that Activision should have aped Take Two's handling of the Grand Theft Auto series. Rather than launch game after game, Take Two had nurtured the franchise for ten years, leaving it strong and healthy. Sumner's thoughts on the demise of the Guitar Hero franchise echo many others who think that Activision mismanaged the series, resulting in a difficult climate for all music games.

It would have been interesting to see what would have happened to the Guitar Hero series if it had mirrored the evolution of its chief competitor, Rock Band, a little more closely. Rock Band saw regular - almost yearly - releases, but far fewer of them and much better support for each release. It's hard to imagine it could have ended worse for the franchise, and hopefully, if Activision does bring the series back in the future - which CEO Bobby Kotick said was possible [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107745-Guitar-Hero-Could-Make-a-Comeback-Says-Kotick] - it will take the Rock Band route.

Source: via CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/289665/news/activision-abused-guitar-hero-says-ex-boss/?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-News-RSS]


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LawlessSquirrel

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Jun 9, 2010
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Therein lies the biggest criticism of Activision. From what I've seen, RedOctane speaks the truth. It's a shame that Activision's greed has almost killed the music game genre, and has destroyed several otherwise brilliant franchises. It's things like this that make people think they're the ones who will next crash the industry.
 

digital warrior

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Activation beating a franchise to death? Never, they take good care of their franchises. Now if you'll excuse me I must ride my unicorn to the sherbet kingdom to meet the gumdrop king.
 

Arehexes

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LawlessSquirrel said:
Therein lies the biggest criticism of Activision. From what I've seen, RedOctane speaks the truth. It's a shame that Activision's greed has almost killed the music game genre, and has destroyed several otherwise brilliant franchises. It's things like this that make people think they're the ones who will next crash the industry.
And now there sights are set on take two
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Yeah... does he know Activision's business strategy?
Milking a franchise to the point of death, that's kinda their thing.

I don't doubt that Guitar Hero will make a comeback, I do strogly doubt that its comeback will take the Rock Band route.
I'm calling it now, in maybe a year it'll return in a greatest hits collection (another one) and then the franchise will continue to be milked until even the marrow in its bones are gone.
 

Ben Legend

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Hit the nail on the head much? Seriously game developers, take note. There is only so much we are willing to spend on games. You are not invincible!
 

TerribleAssassin

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There we go, that's the way we do it, the good thing about Take Two is they'll polish a game to a good standered before sale, instead of Activision's way of making it barely playable, even with faulty peripherals.
 

IamQ

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Wow, really?! In other news: Shooters have guns in them, and Duke Nukem goes to a strip club!
 

Atmos Duality

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Lets be frank; from a technical standpoint, it isn't hard at all to create one of these games (if the numerous knockoff programs online are any indication); the graphical detail is mostly irrelevant (since you have to remain focused on the notes) and largely of poor/mediocre quality anyway.
So that means the hardest part of creating these titles is securing the licensing for the songs. Lawyer-legwork ahoy!

By this reasoning, it's possible that Activision intended to capitalize on the limited number of exclusive popular songs they could before Rock Band got to them.
(Given that Guitar Hero 1 and 2 took most of the popularly-recognizable classics, that number was already considerably diminished when Rock Band came around).

So, in their fervor to capitalize on what remained, they effectively wrung the market dry.

This explains, in part, why Guitar Hero (and by extension, the rhythm-game genre) burned out as quickly as it did.
 

Caliostro

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Absolutely nobody is surprised.

This is what Activision does. Get IPs -> Run them to the ground. Standard MO.
 

zehydra

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digital warrior said:
Activation beating a franchise to death? Never, they take good care of their franchises. Now if you'll excuse me I must ride my unicorn to the sherbet kingdom to meet the gumdrop king.
take me with you
 

The Wykydtron

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Sep 23, 2010
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Zvarri! The truth has once again been elegantly revealed to me. This guy can only be...

The Master Of The Obvious!
 

Xeorm

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Atmos Duality said:
Lets be frank; from a technical standpoint, it isn't hard at all to create one of these games (if the numerous knockoff programs online are any indication); the graphical detail is mostly irrelevant (since you have to remain focused on the notes) and largely of poor/mediocre quality anyway.
So that means the hardest part of creating these titles is securing the licensing for the songs. Lawyer-legwork ahoy!

By this reasoning, it's possible that Activision intended to capitalize on the limited number of exclusive popular songs they could before Rock Band got to them.
(Given that Guitar Hero 1 and 2 took most of the popularly-recognizable classics, that number was already considerably diminished when Rock Band came around).

So, in their fervor to capitalize on what remained, they effectively wrung the market dry.

This explains, in part, why Guitar Hero (and by extension, the rhythm-game genre) burned out as quickly as it did.
This seems like a pretty good explanation. I know myself I never really felt much need for buying more games, as the gameplay is the same, just different songs.

Not a lot of room for improvement in the genre.
 

Quellist

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Oct 7, 2010
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Wow, i think Kelly Summer just owned Activision. This is their primary, in fact their only strategy...squeeze a franchise until nothing is left then drop kick it into oblivion. Be nice if they learned from this but yeah, not likely to happen.
 

googleback

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Kotic's buisiness strategy makes me think he's only there to make as much from the flagship titles as he can and when they're all run into the ground he'll just leave, taking all his millions with him... The man is a fucking parasite.
 

Eclectic Dreck

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Caliostro said:
Absolutely nobody is surprised.

This is what Activision does. Get IPs -> Run them to the ground. Standard MO.
To be fair, the Hero franchise was only the second time they did this. The first time was Tony Hawk.

But at this point it does seem to be the established pattern. Call of Duty certainly seems to be the next product in the cycle but the problem is Activision doesn't have a new rising star in the Stables.
 

Dexiro

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Dec 23, 2009
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I hate how it takes someone like this to make a problem apparent in the industry.

To most people it's blatantly obvious that Activision have been milking their franchises to death. The same is happening to CoD, with each instalment I'm hearing more and more people disappointed.