Guitar Hero Gets Axed - shares dip 10%

[bradfordws]

"Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its "Guitar Hero" game for 2011," said Activision, in its fourth-quarter earnings statement Wednesday.

I thought this was interesting. I've played the game once or twice - didn't enjoy it, but then it seems that it was geared more towards non-musicians and we figured it would steer kids into buying and learning to play real guitars, etc. "Declines in the music genre." Well, I went to NAMM show in January and it seemed pretty crowded as usual, but the question is - how much business was actually being written vs. a bunch of looky-loos kickin' tires and junk. Guitar Hero came out in 2005 - seems like a quick run - and people are already bored with it? We thought it would help the industry. How about now? Maybe BP can put in his $.02 on the state of the industry.

Full article:
Activision stock drops as company abandons Guitar Hero - Feb. 10, 2011

 

[RocketRalf]

I think:
1)They mean the music GAME genre, not all the music industry
2)Rock Band is in my opinion a better game that Guitar Hero, and ultimately won the race for THE music game. The last itineration of it actually claims to teach you to play the real guitar. I think it's just a gimmick but I might be proved wrong.

 

[Big Poppa]

Im not going back to explain this it turns into an ugly smug conversation. Guitar Hero and then rock band were HUGE drivers of bringing new players into our industry and right now there arent many new ones coming in.

 

[DirtyHippie]

I am an avid bass player, and a manager of a GameStop store. I have played all of the new music games and I can tell you that Rock Band, and Rise of the Six String will teach you how to play guitar and drums. It may seem gimmicky but, it could really work if played enough. I find it exciting when a gamer tells me he bought a guitar because of those games. Game on and rock on!

 

[slukather]

I have played guitar hero and rock band a couple of times now, my mate has a lot of these games, they are a lot of fun to play when just chilling out with a couple of beers, l don't think l would buy these games, as l wouldn't play them very often. TBH l don't care if it encourages kids to play guitar or whatever, it's a game and i treat it as such and have a lot laughs and fun.

As far as the game being discontinued, who cares?? it's a game, a lot of great games have been discontinued.

Scottie.

 

[TNT]

It certainly shows what lays hidden in the hearts of music lovers. It brought to the surface the enormous love of the guitar in an easy, user friendly form.

 

[nathanhny]

It's definitely a fun game to play with a few mates. I suppose its got its pro's and cons. It seems like it can help with your hand co-ordination, with pressing all those various buttons while staring at the TV. But then again you see way to many youngsters putting copious amounts of hours into these games when that time could be used playing a real instrument. Never the less it is a fun game to play

 

[slukather]

I agree Nathan, i'd rather see kids playing in the streets (like the good ol' days haha, l'd never thought l'd say that) than sitting on their ass playing some computer game, but it's great every once in a while.

Scottie.

 

[kdj771]

They were discontinued due to the fact there was an extreme market saturation of music games over the last 5 or so years. There was probably at least 15 guitar hero, and such games, released during this period. The casual gamer who plays this just for fun isnt gonna fork out hundreds of dollars every year for a bunch of plastic instruments which they essentially already have.

Activision, doing what they do best, just flooded the market because the first couple games were extremely popular and they just milked as much money out of it as they could, but it bit them in the ass finally. Thank god this franchise is dead