Activision Pulls the Plug on Guitar Hero Franchise

[9Darksoul6]

A classic case of franchise overexposure. Activision milked those franchises to death.

Couldn't agree more.

 

[wooty]

WAHEY! Now maybe going to a party will actually mean going to a proper party, as opposed to trying to hold a conversation with people over the sound of clicking and clacking.

 

[Alpha Maeko]

When you release Guitar Hero 15 for full price only six months after the original Guitar Hero came out, you have a problem.

 

[Dasrufken]

Oh well, GH2, GH3 and GH6 were the only good ones anyway...

 

[standokan]

We had some good times Guitar Hero, but now you must go, before you stop being cool and just become another milked franchise, oh wait

 

[Speakercone]

I have the sudden urge to sell my activision-blizzard stock...

 

[gerrymander61]

Guitar Hero was always just Dance Dance Revolution for the weak. DDR all the way.

 

[Sux2bu]

Around ten minutes of playing Guitar hero with my friend i screamed FUCK THIS and smashed the dam plastic thing over his head. (not really of course but you know what i mean.)

 

[Madmanonfire]

Good. Guitar Hero ceased being able to compete with Rock Band years ago.

That makes about as much sense as LBP being able to compete with Mario. Try again. (Hint: Other way around)

OT: GH6 was the perfect swan song for the franchise. If it weren't for oversaturation, GH could've been an amazing thing. Instead, it's just a great thing. Hopefully RB dies as well, as it's still a few years away from being able to match GH3, let alone GH6. We don't need such a downgrade continuing in GH's place.

I want to know how Rock Band is a downgrade from Guitar Hero. If Harmonix(who I'm going to hope you do know created Guitar Hero and all) hadn't made Rock Band, there is a very good chance that you'd probably just now be getting drums and whatnot in Guitar Hero. Rock Band also set the precedence to import songs from previous titles, as well as DLC carrying over.

Quite a lot that Guitar Hero has, infact was on Rock Band first.

Rock Band now boasts a musical library of 2,500+ songs, has pro-modes which allow people to get a start on learning instruments and songs within the game, and one more instrument over Guitar Hero.

Quite frankly I was expecting an announcement on how they were going to fail at attempting to top Rock Band this year, but instead they just gave up. Rock Band totally sounds like a downgrade.

First, the counterargument.

If GH were to just get drums and vocals now, that would either be good or bad. Good if the franchise still survived, as it would bring in new people to try the new instruments. Bad if the franchise tried to push 5 guitar-only games so quickly, with a much higher chance of dying out sooner.

Rock Band generally has peripheral additions first. Gameplay additions come from GH first. I'll expand on this later. Besides, GH tends to improve on what RB starts, except for vocals which are mediocre at best right now.

It's too bad the majority of those songs are pricier than just buying a new game with over 60 on-disc songs. Not to mention how the charts can be questionable, that is, if you can see the charts at all with all the blinding crap in the background blinding you.
Pro-mode is merely a tutorial that can be applied to real life, and as such is not part of the "game".
Keyboard is a riskier addition than drums and vocals, as they aren't used nearly as much in songs people would like to play on a game like RB. It's also only worth playing on pro-mode because normally it's like playing an easy guitar part with no strumming. The mechanics for the keyboard don't look too enticing as well, but I'll have a better opinion once I feel like getting the peripheral.

And finally, they did both! GH6 easily surpasses RB3 as a game and they just stopped because it's not profitable anymore, not because they consider RB a threat.

Now I'd make up a long list of other reasons why GH is great, but I just had to type this twice because of my stupid backspace key backing out of the page and I've wasted enough time here. Here are 5 major reasons instead.
- RB3 lacks competitive gameplay. GH6 has quite the selection of competitive modes.
- GH charts are generally more accurate (if you can consider 5 buttons accurate in a sense)
- GH6 started most of the neat gameplay mechanics like notes during sustains and sustains as drum/cymbal rolls, that make it "more realistic".
- Every instrument can activate starpower anytime in GH.
- DOUBLE BASS!!

 

[Kris015]

But... We need Guitar Hero: Tool D:
Guess it's up to Rock Band then.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Recall when I talked about a firm shutting down because they weren't being profitable enough?
Here it is.

In my opinion: the Guitar Hero series stopped being fun immediately after 3.
Some would argue 2, but 3 still had actual GOOD songs on it through and through.
"No Sleep Till Brooklyn"? I don't hate the song, but it isn't exactly something I think of when I want to rock out.

 

[esperandote]

I thought you went for a creative title to say that they would released and unplugged version of the game, whatevere that would be.

 

[ThaBenMan]

This comes as no surprise, really. I still have and will treasure my PS2 copies of the original Guitar Hero, II, and III - the titles that were still good and not just shameless attempts at cash-ins.

 

[Snake Plissken]

Oh no! All those poor gamers will have to move on to play Rock Band! Or, you know, learn to play a *gasp* REAL guitar!

Travesty...

I feel kind of bad for the employees, though, but I'm sure they saw it coming too.

 

[DuelLadyS]

I'm dissapointed, but not surprised... my and my friends played the crap out of World Tour, but never got into Band Hero/Guitar Hero 5/ any of the one-band spinoffs (I went on a lil' music game bender when the local Gamecrazy shut down.) We like Warriors of Rock a lot- but that's becuase we like the songs this go-around.

Oh well- guess I'll just pick up Rock Band 2 when we wrap up Warriors of Rock and see if we like it better than the first one. (Do they get rid of the lil' arrow on the vocals? I hated that thing.)

 

[Snotnarok]

About fucking time.

Whole heartly seconded that. I was very much sick of it after just 5 minutes, I don't know how that game is enjoyable. It's a minigame put together with music, there's a billion other games worth more than the game that was so ..yeah you get where I'm goin' with this.

Really? Because I played it with 3 friends and we all had lots of fun, far more than we would when playing Call of Duty and mindlessly shooting at one another, or far more than we would grinding our way to level 85 in Wow. Personally I think that Guitar Hero is really fun when playing it with friends, but by your self it gets old fast.

It's personal preference, I hate hearing songs over and over, I hate color matching games, and I didn't like their selection of music annnd I have no interest in playing music at all. That's why I wasn't into it, and friends were always trying to force it on me. :\

 

[Optimystic]

[HEADING=2]Hopefully Activision is signing it's death sentence like this.[/HEADING]

Death sentence? The folks who own World of Moneycraft and Call of Moolah? Surely you jest.

The music arm may be flailing, but Activision is sitting pretty as a company.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

I used to like Guitar Hero, then Harmonix left and Activision decided to start milking the cash-cow to a frankly absurd degree.

This is what happens when you release a new game with no major advancements every other fucking month, you kill the damn franchise.

 

[Ben Legend]

Good riddance. You could have taken your time and release them when you had something innovative and new to add. But no, every couple of months a new one was bought out.

This is where you went wrong. You bought it on yourself. But I think we all know they'll revive it in a few years time.

 

[Danpascooch]

I salute you Guitar Hero 2!

The rest of you can fuck yourselves and die (the games, not the people in this thread, they are fine fellows! [sub]no ban please[/sub])

Except Guitar Hero 1, but I started with 2 so that is where my love is.

You were whored to death, you didn't deserve it Guitar Hero YOU DIDN'T DESERVE IT!

*gets on knees and looks up into the rain* (yes it's raining indoors)

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY *thunderclap* YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!