No Guitar Hero in 2011, True Crime Cancelled

No Guitar Hero in 2011, True Crime Cancelled

DJ Hero staff also laid off

Written by Matrarch on 09 February 11 at 22:22

Activision Blizzard's December Quarter and 2010 Financial Results did not paint a pretty picture for its long running music game franchise, Guitar Hero.

According to the report, "due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011". This isn't the only time the decline in the music game industry has affected a game publisher lately. Viacom recently sold Harmonix, the developers of Rock Band, before shuttering their MTV Games division earlier this month.

Another game to fall victim to Activision's cuts is True Crime: Hong Kong. Activision decided to pass on the titles "to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences".

In further bad news from the Activision camp, it was reported by Eurogamer today that Freestyle Games, developer of the DJ Hero franchise, was hit with 'severe layoffs'. Further, a tweet from Developer Manveer Heir states that Vicarious Visions, which was responsible for various Guitar Hero ports for the Wii, has also been impacted by layoffs.

It wasn't all doom and gloom for the publisher, however, as both Call of Duty: Black Ops and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm preformed very well.

No word was given as to whether or not this will affect DLC for either franchise. While layoffs have occurred at Freestyle Games, it was not made clear how that might impact anything they might have in development at this time.
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NastyMastaDaddy - Jesus Shuttlesworth  LETS GO HEAT!
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:23
booooo
SirSmurfus
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:24
Yay :D
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:25
I don't even own any of the Hero games, and I'm worried.

And what about the Tony Hawk games?! Not even mentioned?
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jamro1149
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:25
Shame about DJ hero, but I won't miss Guitar Hero.
Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:25
So Guitar Hero ISN'T dead, just...taking a break?
GuzzyGuyzy
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:25
You've got to be kidding me...
El Zombie
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El Zombie
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:26, Edited on 09 February 11 at 22:44 by El Zombie
Activision has no one but themselves to blame for killing off Guitar Hero. Clog the market with product, which should've been DLC in a lot of cases, and it is no surprise when it doesn't move units.
Poopdog M60Riot - Drunk
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:27
Damnit Economy!
Foitleman
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Foitleman
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:27
Finally. Activision starting to go down the hole. Rock band was so much better than Guitar Hero. Harmonix is the only company that knows how to make music games, considering they made the first two Guitar Hero's and every Rock Band. Took long enough for this franchise to die
SebastianSB
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:27
One year Freestyle Games has the highest selling new IP of the year, and in another year they're hit with "severe layoffs."

The guys over at Activision always seem like such great people.
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finallife6
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:27
maybe its from those dumb month mega packs
they need to put better songs of songs that make sense with each other the only DLC ive bought for gh are 3 packs of megadeth and A7X (good choice of songs like them or not)
actually surprised that DRAGONFORCE coming didnt make a diffrence to the games sales (dislike them anyways)
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:29
I never really liked Guitar Hero but LOVEDDD Rock Band.
Will072
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:30
They will get bored and one will come out at the end of the year...
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:30
El Zombie said:Activision has no one but themselves for killing off Guitar Hero. Clog the market with product, which should've been DLC in a lot of cases, and it is no surprise when it doesn't move units.This clap
DEVINS
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:32
Campbells is mad quick yo
DavieMarshall
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:34, Edited on 09 February 11 at 22:35 by DavieMarshall
SirSmurfus said:Yay :DYou do understand peoples jobs have been lost here.
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Bruk360
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:35
Ouch.
zigs00
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:36
If it doesn't have Call of Duty in the title, Activision will happily and liberally shit all over it, over-milk the franchise, kill the developer, and completely throw them under the bus. Completely infuriating, but they've done it time and time again now.

I'm not even a big GH fan, but I do love music games. Sad news this, but Call of Duty, Inc obviously have bigger priorities.
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Posted on 09 February 11 at 22:38
damn, really looking forward to true crime
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