Guitar Hero is dead.
Maybe.
G4 reports that Activision has dropped the next GH edition from its development schedule and is disbanding the business unit that develops the game. Might it come back in another year or two? Possibly. But some things run their course, and Guitar Hero did that.
In some ways, it’s a shame. GH, and its rival Rock Band, were the perfect party video games, fun for non-gamers and almost the perfect universal fantasy — everyone dreams of being a rock star. But you can’t play it forever. And the novelty of adding more songs wears off, leaving you with a few dozen songs you can’t hear on the radio again without thinking “green-green-green-red-green-yellow-yellow-blueGREENRED… damn.” Plus one or two you can do well enough to impress the other, more intoxicated partygoers (“hey, I didn’t know you could play ‘Bulls On Parade’!”).
Okay, gamers, are you bummed? Surprised? Indifferent? What was your best Guitar Hero song? And what other gaming franchises ought to give it a rest, too? Comments below….
Image: Activision
To me, Guitar Hero died when Harmonix sold it. Rock Band was always a step ahead because Harmonix knew where the franchise needed to go, bigger names for the songs, and more instruments. Guitar Hero fell behind with their peripherals and their poor attempts at niches. (Guitar Hero 80s was a flop, Aerosmith too.)
Umm, Rock Band isn’t going anywhere. So why are you eulogizing both games. It was only a matter of time before Guitar Hero ran its course because they were simply milking the brand name as long as they could after Harmonix changed over to making Rock Band. Rock Band had the right idea by making a constantly expanding platform instead of a slew of stand-alone games like GH put out. I still have Rock Band parties, and I don’t see that changing soon.
When people compare Guitar Hero to learning real guitar, that’s not really a valid argument. It takes a long time to learn how to play guitar. You can’t expect anyone to learn how to play a whole song when they’ve had no experiance at all. That would take over a year. I agree when it comes to people who can play Through the fire and flames on expert but for casual gamers, Guitar Hero is the best option.
Anyways I didn;t get any Guitar Hero games after the 3rd one and much perfer Rock Band over Guitar Hero.
I think Guitar Hero failed when they decided to be arcade-like instead of trying to be more accurate.
It was bound to end up that way.
Rock band is doing alright with its better toned peripherals.
Maybe they’ll come back. Maybe they won’t.
Maybe they’ll have to sacrifice some goats to come back.
Time will tell.
Though I’m a Guitar Hero fan I’m indifferent to this news as I don’t really care much for the last two instalments, GH5 and Warriors of Rock. I much prefer Band Hero, which I refer to as “Guitar Hero’s gay brother”.
I’m not too surprised at this. As nearly all of the guitar hero games were the same with the exception of world tour (full band). Buying the latest game only got you new songs and few other new features.
Rockband’s been able to keep people buying new games because new instruments are added such as the keyboard and that 120 button guitar. They’ve also got a ton more DLC available than Guitar hero ever had. Still I could see Rockband begin to fade out within 4-6 years
Rock Band and Guitar Hero always reminded me of Simon. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_(game)) Never quite understood the appeal. Wouldn’t it be more interesting to pick up a guitar or a drum and learn to play?
There aren’t any real franchises I think should give it a rest. I could name numerous that need to step up their game.
I read Activision’s press release as saying “We’re getting our ass handed to us by Rock Band, and have decided to bow out now.”
While I think there’s an enduring place for music games in the world, I’m not entirely sure that the market could handle two nearly identical games, and Rock Band has always seemed like the better game, especially in its later iterations. It’s also a pretty good gateway to getting people interested in real music – my son started taking Bass lessons after realizing how much fun it is on RB.