Thursday, February 10, 2011

Guitar Hero Has Left The Building

Activision has announced that the seminal rhythm based game that swept the world Guitar Hero is no more.

Yes, the franchise that, along with the Dance Dance Revolution, brought rhythm gaming to the masses will no longer be produced.

As has been established, I was a late adopter of the Guitar Hero series, but I still fell in love with it after I had played it, as many other people had as well.

We all knew that it couldn't last forever. Yet it is still sad to hear that this popular series has finally come to an end. Though part of me thinks that there may be other legal reasons why the series is coming to an end with so many artists suing them over their likeness in the game being used on other songs.

DJ Hero seems to be unaffected at this point, at least as far as I have read. But that could change soon too.

On the game trading websites I frequent, there is a little bit of trepidation about the future of the Rock Band series as the end of Guitar Hero may be an indication that music games in general are on their way out. I think that is indeed a legitimate concern, as the market is rather saturated at the moment and people may be sick of the genre. But hopefully Rock Band can weather the storm and come out stronger because of this announcement.

But I guess only time will tell how this entire segment of the industry grows now.

2 comments:

Lee Sargent said...

I think Rock Band had eclipsed Guitar Hero for me anyway so this doesn't really worry me. It's probably the right decision especially with SingStar making its way into the guitar industry - there's little point in the brand itself.

If you upgrade over to PS3 you should really check out Rock Band which is superior in my opinion. But in saying that I still have the PS2 guitar sitting in my living room.

Amber said...

I suppose the end of guitar hero is sort of sad. I still remember when my boyfriend bought me the first one--that was probably the day I fell in love with him. But I haven't actually touched anything guitar hero related in a couple of years now (the same goes for rockband) so I can kind of understand why they've decided to call it quits. I tried playing DJ Hero and it was beyond me. Possibly a sign that I'm getting old.