Activision has laid off staff from FreeStyle Games, Eurogamer is reporting, closing down the Guitar Hero series in the process. In addition, the publisher has cancelled United Front’s upcoming True Crime title.
This follows a statement late last year from Activision’s publishing head Eric Hirshberg that said the music category in general didn’t “have the same mass appeal” as they used to do.
GamesIndustry.biz claims that the company will now focus on their three key franchises: Call of Duty, StarCraft and World of Warcraft – something that many expect their financial year conference call will confirm later tonight.
Our thoughts go out to those affected by the lay-offs.
Update: Just in the interests of full disclosure: Dan Amrich, Activision’s prominent blogger, has since posted on his blog that all is not quite as clear cut as some would declare. Apparently the business around the Hero titles has been scaled back to reflect the fact that sales in the music genre haven’t been as high as in previous years.
The business division is closed but development on DLC continues and DLC will be wrapped up after the currently announced packs this month. There also won’t be a new full title in development for 2011. Sure, this may just be semantics and a certain degree of corporate double-speak. We’re sure the cacophony of half informed internet news-sellers will be keen to chase the negative. But, Dan Amrich has always been as open and honest about things behind the scenes as anyone in his position is ever able to be and he has a much clearer route to the facts of the situation than anyone else you’ll see or hear passing judgement.
Perhaps it really is just a case of a declining genre not needing a separate business division or yet another new sequel or spin-off? After all, the multitude of Hero sequels and spin-offs were also something the internet masses are keen to decry when they’re announced.
Why search for the facts when the most negative, sensationalist story is right there on the surface though, right?
Update added by Peter C.
Charmed_Fanatic
Well you have 6+ games and lots of DLC, im sure people who like GH cant complain
iucidium
And how many of these can be exported to ther titles? barely 3.
DRCD1
So, basicly, Activision will now only publish this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miOwbEDgDQo
Congrats, Activision, you’ve been promoted to MASTER SARGENT SHOOTER BORING PERSON IMPORTANT EXTREME TO THE MAX!
Forrest_01
Well, i am just going to reflect what’s already been said in that i don’t really care too much about the GH series, as they killed it off by being ridiculously greedy, but i was really looking forward to playing the new True Crime, as i really enjoyed the PS2 versions & this one was looking promising.
Perhaps Acti should drop in here sometime & see just how much support the game would have had?
Shame.
Tuffcub
Very sad they have pretty much closed Freestyle Games :(
mynameisblair
:(
Rock Band 3 was the peak of the genre: if you like Rock Band or Guitar Hero games and you don’t own it, you should go out and buy it.
Poor people losing their jobs…
TheDeathAvenger
Now I feel guilty :-(
TheDeathAvenger
I can understand not releasing more Guitar Hero games (at least for a while), but stopping the DLC seems like a strange thing to do, I would have thought.