Guitar Hero Axed By Activision

Activision has announced that it will discontinue the production of the Guitar Hero game series due to a lack of consumer interest in the game and music genre in general. The Guitar Hero game which can be played on the iPad, iPhone, Xbox, Wii, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation, has been described as one of the most influential video games of the new century. It allowed users to live the rock star dream by using a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing lead, bass and rhythm guitar across various rock music songs. Players match notes that scroll on the screen to coloured buttons on the controller, strumming in time to the music so as to score points.

In spite of the games popularity since it was first published in 2005, when it sold over 25 million units worldwide, the recent slump in sales appears to be behind this decision by Activision. Apart from disbanding further development of the series, the video games developer also announced that the upcoming 2011 Guitar Hero game has been canceled with immediate effect. However, the decision is not expected to affect other Activision franchises such as, Call of Duty and World of Warcraft (WOW) although the a reassessment of the decision has not been completely ruled out depending on future interests. The company is expected to continue supporting additional downloadable content of the game series for some time yet.

Talking Point

Do you agree with industry analysts that there is little interest in music oriented video games?