Game maker Activision is pulling the plug on the “Guitar Hero” franchise.
The company shut down the division that works on the game this week and has laid off 500 people who worked on the project.
Activision Blizzard, which publishes and distributes the wildly popular game, said Wednesday that it will “disband” the Guitar Hero business unit and “discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011.”
The company said its decision is “due to continued declines in the music genre.”
The news came as a shock to many in the video game and music industries. In fact, just three months ago Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, was lamenting the fact that he hadn’t been able to license music from Led Zeppelin for Guitar Hero.
“We simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of the parent’s Activision Publishing unit. That unit will lay off about 500 of its 7,000 employees to account for closing of “Guitar Hero”.
Driving costs higher for “Guitar Hero” were licensing agreements for the music, which were hefty considering that Activision Blizzard was doing the music labels, publishers and artists a solid by including their works in the game. The Washington Post reported in 2008 that songs released on Guitar Hero III and competitor Rock Band “experienced upswings in download sales that ranged anywhere from 15% to 843%.”
And once again, I’ll bet the RIAA doesn’t understand this.
Create a dozed versions of a game in a relatively short amount of time and suddenly demand drops? Whoda thunk it? Let the masses pick up a real guitar and learn something for a change.