Activision CFO Thomas Tippl noted the reason the Guitar Hero franchise went from a billion dollar game series to a discontinued one was because of a lack of "nurturing and care."
"Guitar Hero probably didn't receive the amount of nurturing and care that it needed to maintain that position," he said. "And I think there were a number of good lessons to be learned. "
"There were a number of elements to the franchise, as well as our relationship with the providers of the music, that didn't make it conducive to make the digital transition," said Tippl.
Earlier this year Acitivision clarified the Guitar Hero franchise wasn't gone. "If we come back, and when we come back, with a reinvented Guitar Hero experience, I think all of that will have to be taken into account," Tippl said. "Clearly, consumers still have a lot of love for the brand."
If Guitar Hero can reinvent itself, would you buy it?
Source: Gamasutra
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Displaying 1–20 of 20
crocodilius
No, it failed because you made the same game 10 years in a row.
pogowolf
Really? Tell us something we didn't already know. Might have helped if Management listened to employee's.. but that's not how it works.
Pytor
The lesson learned is DON'T BE A GREEDY FREAKIN CORPORATION!
Wozman23
I would rather Rock Band be the only music franchise since I find it to be far superior, but I'd still buy Guitar Hero games if they brought more great tracks that aren't in RB. I bought Warriors of Rock mainly for Rush's 2112, NIN's Wish, A Perfect Circle's The Outsider, and Blue Oyster Cult's Burnin' for You.
I think Guitar Hero needs to take a few notes from RBs charting, especially the rectangular notes. Maybe its just because I'm so used to Rock Band, but I have trouble reading Guitar Hero's charts, which actually hinders the fun.
geomancer21
Yeah, too many games. but more then that.
I liked GH5 but it lost that heart, and sense of showmanship the previous games had. Look at world tour. Ozzy rising from the depths with bats flying around. Ted Nugent riding in on a buffalo. the stage transformations going into the encores. in GH5 the guest simply walked out on stage. the encores were revealed ahead of time and had to be selected so you never got that "God what am I going to have to play" moment from previous games (who didn't go "Oh Crap!" when Freebird popped up in GH2?)
They should have stopped at World tour and just kept releasing DLC.
gamerjes
Over-saturation and abuse of a good name must equal "lacked nurturing and care" in CFO language.
Lonan
i remember playing the first Guitar Hero and being completely amazed, then i played 2 and finally 3. That was the peak of its popularity, everyone was playing guitar hero. Well, everyone i knew. Then World Tour came out and, it was good. But that marked the dropping point. To be honest. I think it was the mass producing of titles in short times that crushed them.
Lonan
i remember playing the first Guitar Hero and being completely amazed, then i played 2 and finally 3. That was the peak of its popularity, everyone was playing guitar hero. Well, everyone i knew. Then World Tour came out and, it was good. But that marked the dropping point. To be honest. I think it was the mass producing of titles in short times that crushed them.
Graphicsgod
I loved the idea and the game and guitar was kinda fun, but for my age, I just was horrible at it. Even on easy after doing just one song, I felt like I just ran a marathon!! They need to make it easier for older audiences.. that's eye and hand coordination has gone out the window lol!! Loved most of the music, just couldn't pull it off to get anything over a 60-70% on easy :(..
disturbedmck
I'd buy a new Guitar hero game......I buy them all
MasterOfWeed
I personally think GH: Aerosmith and GH: Van Halen drove the series to the ground not saying the music is bad but the generation that mainly listened to their music usually isn't really into video games and/or lacks the hand eye coordination/comprehension skills to be able to even play the game. GH: 5 Wasn't that great either Metallica was pretty good Smash Hits was a good idea and I heard Warriors of Rock was awesome but haven't played it yet. I myself would have taken a GH: M�tley Cr�e over Aerosmith any day and I do hope the series comes back.
Electric_larry
Well that's there answer, I'm going with over saturation.
Blaze016
Rock Band > Guitar Hero. Therefore, I will pass on Guitar Hero, and I always have.
commonperson
Honestly it comes down to mentality behind development. Harmonix was more interested in creating a sustainable platform and bringing as much music to the platform as possible (hence their step away now they have RB3 and continuing to bring content and make content available from third parties) Activision wanted a quick and easy buck at the cash register and not caring about sustainability. In the end with the "Pro" mode, keyboards, harmonies, etc. it's impossible at this point for GH to come back because there is no way to "innovate" just let it be and move on. I'm just waiting for the same to happen with CoD and other Activision brands. There's only so much good will people will allow them.
jwide62
Lets see. Don't flood the market with a clone of your product with a different name. I mean the band specific GH's were pretty good and a good idea but really? It's a game with music. Let it run it's course and offer DLC. Oh wait that's Rock Band nvm.
guitarherofanatic
i will buy it in a heart beat if Guitar hero comes out with a new games because i have every Guitar Hero games that there is except the Nintendo DS versions
WestDaniel
Guitar Hero was great for up to 3, then everything afterward was starting to dissappoint, though I thought Warriors of Rock was a great way to go out. I feel like they recaptured some of the lost greatness of GH with WoR, too bad it's the last one we'll get for a while.
Hellfire87
Well, this is probably the most obvious statement to come out of Activision ever. I could have said the exact same thing... In fact I think I did say the exact same thing when the first announced discontinuing GH.
And I sincerely doubt that Activision has any REAL intentions to reinvent the Franchise. I mean, lets face it, The only thing Activision knows how to do is buy up new franchises and then milk it to death, they do NOT know how to foster innovation in the in-house development teams. The ONLY exception is Blizzard, but I think that is because Blizzard is move like Activision's publishing partner than its in-house developer.
BONERJAM
Guitar Hero was only good when Harmonix was in control, once they left the series went to crap.
Parasyte
Guitar Hero was a good franchise for the first 3 games. "Lack of nurturing and care" may have been one reason that it went down the crapper, but the fact that they were releasing a game every five minutes it seemed like didn't help wither.
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