Guitar Hero gets it's strings cut(Also True Crime)

[MuMu]

Activision Axes Guitar Hero and True Crime (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/114/1148687p1.html)

Today Activision Blizzard announced that it will "disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit" due to the declining interest in the music genre. The company has ceased development on its previously planned 2011 Guitar Hero game.

Too soon or too late? Anyone knows how well Rock Band has been doing to confirm if that decline of interest isn't just bull?

[Arcanum]

The only thing that surprised me about this was that it took this long for Guitar Hero to be bled dry. Actually that's not true, I'm also surprised that they didn't axe the Tony Hawk games too, because I'm pretty sure those have been failing miserably recently as well.

I also view this as an omen that Call of Duty will be bled dry as well, although it will take longer for that to happen since Activision probably plans on beating that horse until it's a pile of dust. Also it usually takes people a while to transition from one popular shooter to the "next big thing."

[Krylo]

Also, even repetitive lame shooters are still more variable and fun than 'ok, now play THESE songs on the same controller you have had for years'.

Guitar hero was a gimmick game. The gimmick lasted way longer than it had any right to. I'm sure other music games, using different instruments, or with more advanced controls, or some kind of combined control scheme where the music is like super powers or something (like Brutal Legend + Guitar Hero but not shitty), or some OTHER innovation, would sell just fine.

It's just Guitar Hero was a one trick pony, and never should have lasted for more than one or two sequels and maybe some DLC.

[Nikose Tyris]

It's just Guitar Hero was a one trick pony, and never should have lasted for more than one or two sequels and maybe some DLC.

To be fair, I could get along fine with constant DLC releases on some of the older games. Repackaging games and discs was the real overkill to it. maybe just throw out a new one for each console update and DLC it to death.

[Sky Warrior Bob]

The only thing that surprised me about this was that it took this long for Guitar Hero to be bled dry. Actually that's not true, I'm also surprised that they didn't axe the Tony Hawk games too, because I'm pretty sure those have been failing miserably recently as well.

Ask and you shall receive....

http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/710323/Tony-Hawk-Skateboarding-Games-To-Be-Discontinued-In-2011-According-To-Activision--.html

Of course, I think this might be more likely a hiatus for the games. If the pace themselves and only release every three years, it would be for the best.

[Lost in Time]

Did they really need to say that they were going to stop making True Crime games. I mean, if they were silent no one would have noticed. Was there even a game made in this current generation? Did anyone care?

[Jagos]

Linkage (http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2011/02/guitar-hero-canceled/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:%20wired/index%20(Wired:%20Index%203%20(Top%20Stories%202)) )

I think there's more to it than just Activision giving them the axe...

Activision said that the decline of the genre, plus the high cost of licensing music and producing the games, led it to close the business.

The really drain their sources of income, (http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/07/us-warnermusic-videogames-idUSWEN736120080807?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews) to the point that people don't want to do business with them.

One thing I'm going to call soon though... Blizzard is going to really be hurting with the focus on only military shooters and WoW. I'll say that WoW needs a significant overhaul to keep up with the rest of the new competition out there.

[Krylo]

I'll say that WoW needs a significant overhaul to keep up with the rest of the new competition out there.

http://gamerfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/cataclysm_preorder.jpg

[Jagos]

More than that...

I'm not thinking in terms of the game world, I'm thinking more in how it may be usurped by the Free 2 Play games, where more and more casual players are making a choice about spending money on items vs the rental license of WoW.

[Krylo]

It will never be usurped by free to play. Free to play is 99.99999% complete shit and only exists because WoW makes it impossible for any other MMOs to break into the market without offering a free experience to drum up players.

Also: It wasn't just the game world. How abilities and talent trees work were completely altered with the expansion as well.

[Jagos]

Vindictus is 99.99999% crap?

And why would DnD Online still be a great game to play? I would think more and more people will escape the $15 dollar subscription fee if they can get their entertainment elsewhere for a cheaper price.

[Krylo]

Vindictus is 99.99999% crap?Isn't that the one Pyros tried awhile back that was kinda ok but not really? That had no character customization? That had a shitty quest hub? That had decent but poorly balanced combat?

But Perfect World is crap (It is WoW but without tab targetting and shitty controls, and even shittier quests, etc.). Flyff is crap (It's like PW with flying). Guild Wars is good in a lot of ways, but it suffers from a poorly implemented instancing system that removes the vast majority of Multi-player experience outside of PvP... so it's basically a single player MMO, and that's shitty. Maple Story is crap. Legend of Martial Arts is crap. Etc. etc.

And why would DnD Online still be a great game to play?It's not. Not good enough to pull people from WoW. Not good enough to charge a subscription fee (that was their original model) and not good enough to keep players for over a couple months, tops.

It has no end game, PVP is horribly imbalanced, class balance is fucked (but it is D&D sooooo), etc. etc.

It's fun to play for awhile, but there's a reason they had to drop the subscription model. And making it free to play has only made it less fun, with the need to either farm for or buy objects to advance your character past certain points (unless they've dropped that now), and giving advantages based on a player's willingness to waste money instead of on their skill at the game*.

I would think more and more people will escape the $15 dollar subscription fee if they can get their entertainment elsewhere for a cheaper price.Only if they get an equal amount of entertainment. And free MMOs don't offer that.

At best, you might see one some day that is about equal to WoW gameplay wise, but WoW still has a much larger playerbase, and people don't play MMORPGs to be alone. Even soloers like myself. There's no point playing an MMO if there's no one else there to compete with, team up with, talk to, or whatever else.

And that's why WoW isn't being taken down any time soon, especially not by a Free to Play game. You'd need a game that is so much better than WoW in every way that it not only draws some of WoW's players, but draws enough to create a similar feeling of 'fullness' on the servers, without causing undue lagging.

Sure, they might grab some casual players who don't play WoW already, but they'll never touch WoW's profit margins. Not for awhile yet, anyway.

*This is also a huge turn off for some mmo players, casual and hardcore, and many refuse to play games with microtransitions as more than a momentary distraction for just this reason.

[Azisien]

Personally, I'm quite glad Guitar Hero got cut. Rock Band can get cut for all I care too.

I think I got solidly bored of that style of gaming...at Guitar Hero III?

[natowarhead]

RIFT (http://www.riftgame.com/en/) looks promising. It may not be the WoW killer, but it's a darn good start.

[Melfice]

Personally, I'm quite glad Guitar Hero got cut. Rock Band can get cut for all I care too.

I think I got solidly bored of that style of gaming...at Guitar Hero III?

I disagree on Rock Band... it's a fun party game, and if you're into it solo is good fun too.
But opinions.

Rock Band is, in any case, leagues ahead of Guitar Hero.

[rpgdemon]

I feel like Guild Wars 2, and potentially RIFTS are the only two games which could kill WoW, at least partially, right now. Guild Wars 2, because they're trying to make it much more MMO-Like this time around, but still free to play past the initial purchase.

[synkr0nized]

GW 2 and Rift are indeed the two upcoming MMOs I've seen get the most attention from MMO players of all kinds and reviewers alike. Being a GW player, I am pretty pumped about the sequel and having a persistent world. Also, a friend of a friend is/was in the Rift betas and can attest that the system with the invasions coming in and such was pretty novel and fun. In any case I see both of these surviving quite well from release onward and doing better than some of the other MMOs that have cropped up and faded away over the years.


But I finally stopped playing on a private server and got an official account once Cataclysm dropped, so I've been doing the WoW thing, too. There are a lot of things there that I like, despite the things I don't, that make it difficult to claim it is terrible (though the stat jumps with each expansions are getting ridiculous, and I'm wondering what retarded thing they can think of to make more; also aren't they working on some code-named new MMO for release in a few years?). And they continue to make the game more available to casual players and provide increased graphics for those of us with newer/more powerful rigs. So I guess I don't see it ever being beaten with the huge playerbase it has already and the amount of new folks that trickle in, either to play with friends or to get in on what everyone is talking about, regardless of the fact that it's not free to play (though I finally agreed that paying about three latte's worth a month isn't too steep for me).

In any case, with that many players you can't "kill" WoW. Another thing to note is that each time a promising MMO comes out tons of WoW players claim they are leaving, go play it, and then in a few months re-subscribe. *shrug*



As to the actual point of the thread: Guitar Hero failed to introduce anything new for a long time. Each "new" game was kind of like an expansion or just a DLC pack in my opinion. Sometimes they introduced new clothes, they provided a new set list, and then maybe threw in some new animations. The characters weren't wholly customizable, and then they made people pay full price for "games" that were just song lists from one band. At least Rock Band has tried to up the ante for players with "Pro Mode" and more varied controllers so that the subsequent games aren't just menu updates and the like.

That said, a lot of the sports genre -- most notably Madden and NCAA football -- games are more or less roster updates, yet they continue to go fairly strong.

[Magus]

I'm pretty sure I said this was a rather repetitive and pointless fad genre back about a year or two after it came out, I find it incredibly ironic that people are just now realizing this.

I'm too lazy to look up whatever relevant posts I made in relevant threads, though, just be assured that if I were to many of the members on this forum denouncing it now would probably have egg on their faces now if I put the effort into placing it there.

Also True Crime had what, two frickin' games, I'd say they were out of luck any which way you sliced it. I believe the only thing they had going for them were you could play them on Gamecube, if you were the one guy who only had a Gamecube. Like a poor man's GTA or something.

[RobinStarwing]

All I got to say is it is about time Guitar Hero got cut.

I played the LA True Crime and it really didn't work with me. Too complicated and too much stuff to memorize.

[Jagos]

So has anyone heard the rumor of Activision trying to buy Take Two?

Would make sense to let go of True Crime if they're paving the way for GTA...