Activision Has Done Lost Their Mind

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Today, Activision has gone off the deep end. They canned most of their big profile releases for the year, including the 2011 editions of Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and the new True Crime game, but, take solice, as they announced another Call of Duty game!

Source

Publisher Activision has just added a few more games and maybe one more development studio to its kill count. A now partially confirmed report says that the mega-publisher has axed the Guitar Hero franchise, killed its True Crime reboot and fired much of Freestyle Games.

Update: Activision confirms that Guitar Hero and True Crime: Hong Kong are no more, writing "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. The company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong. These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences."

Activision's True Crime update, formerly True Crime: Hong Kong, was pushed back to calendar year 2011 last summer. The title was in development at Modnation Racers studio United Front Games. We last saw the game at GDC 2010.

The demise of the Guitar Hero franchise may not come as a surprise after declining sales of the series, which was most recently updated with the so-so Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Whether Activision will completely do away with DJ Hero, following the alleged gutting of developer Freestyle Games, remains to be seen.

Source 2

There will be no skateboarding games, no music games coming from Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero publisher Activision in 2011. That means no DJ Hero 3 to play and no Tony Hawk games to stand on this year. And, oh yeah, no Guitar Hero games.

Source 3

The people who publish Call of Duty have been talking about their plans to bring more players into the online multiplayer fold, specifically targeting Asian players. Today, Activision finally divulged some details on its Chinese Call of Duty plans.

Activision plans to follow the model made successful by countless MMOs and first-person shooters targeted at Asian players, making the unnamed Call of Duty spin-off a free-to-play, microtransaction-based online multiplayer game. That could mean bite-sized purchases of perks, weapons and maps for Chinese players, instead of using solely an experience-based progression system to unlock those items.

The company has talked about targeting China and Korea with Call of Duty content for the past year, but has been quiet on specifics.

The Call of Duty business is also getting an "innovative new digital platform" and a "best in class online community" thanks to a newly established studio, Beachhead, announced by Activision today.

For the rest of us who prefer to drop sixty bucks or more on our Call of Duty games, Activision has another major entry planned for 2011, rumored to be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. A futuristic entry in the series, complete with space marines, is also rumored.

What the hell is going on with Activision?

[shiranui]

The biggest surprise here is that True Grime... err, Crime was still around. I thought that series had been axed years ago.

[FUNK_US/BRODUS]

I loved Guitar Hero, but it just ran its course. The market became saturated with DLC and endless games (Guitar Hero 80's anyone?) and people lost interest.

[MrBRulzOK]

See, this is what happens when you over-saturate the market.

[shiranui]

Feb 9, 2011 16:25:31 GMT -5 FUNK_US/BRODUS said:

I loved Guitar Hero, but it just ran its course. The market became saturated with DLC and endless games (Guitar Hero 80's anyone?) and people lost interest.

Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's came out years ago and was the third release in the series. That wasn't too bad, but then they started coming out with two or more games and a new set of plastic instruments each year, basically running the entire genre into the ground. If this is in fact the end of Guitar Hero, good riddance to the series that should have ended with GH5 at the latest.

[thwak is T.hawk]

Feb 9, 2011 16:24:26 GMT -5 @shiranui said:

The biggest surprise here is that True Grime... err, Crime was still around. I thought that series had been axed years ago.

It was going to be a reboot.

[KStrick]

Feb 9, 2011 16:30:13 GMT -5 @shiranui said:

Feb 9, 2011 16:25:31 GMT -5 FUNK_US/BRODUS said:

I loved Guitar Hero, but it just ran its course. The market became saturated with DLC and endless games (Guitar Hero 80's anyone?) and people lost interest.

Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's came out years ago and was the third release in the series. That wasn't too bad, but then they started coming out with two or more games and a new set of plastic instruments each year, basically running the entire genre into the ground. If this is in fact the end of Guitar Hero, good riddance to the series that should have ended with GH5 at the latest.

Basically, Harmonix owned the rights to the first 2 Guitar Hero games, and after Activision bought the rights, there was a contractual obligation for Harmonix to churn out "Rocks the 80's".

Harmonix then went off and joined MTV games, got EA to license their games, and now they sell Rock Band.

With how much better in every aspect Rock Band is, I'm shocked Guitar Hero STILL outsold Rock Band 2 or 3 to 1...

Rock Band 3 was an incredible game, but few people know that, apparently, as it really hasn't sold at all...

[shiranui]

Feb 9, 2011 16:31:43 GMT -5 thwak is T.hawk said:

Feb 9, 2011 16:24:26 GMT -5 @shiranui said:

The biggest surprise here is that True Grime... err, Crime was still around. I thought that series had been axed years ago.

It was going to be a reboot.

As usual, I failed to read the text properly and only noticed the part where it talked about a reboot after I had posted.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Feb 9, 2011 16:30:13 GMT -5 @shiranui said:

Feb 9, 2011 16:25:31 GMT -5 FUNK_US/BRODUS said:

I loved Guitar Hero, but it just ran its course. The market became saturated with DLC and endless games (Guitar Hero 80's anyone?) and people lost interest.

Guitar Hero Rocks the 80's came out years ago and was the third release in the series. That wasn't too bad, but then they started coming out with two or more games and a new set of plastic instruments each year, basically running the entire genre into the ground. If this is in fact the end of Guitar Hero, good riddance to the series that should have ended with GH5 at the latest.

The real death blow for the GH series was 2009. In 09, we saw, GH: Metallica, GH: Greatest Hits, GH5, and GH: Van Halen.

4 f***ing full console releases. Now granted, not all of them came with plastic controllers, only Metallica and 5 did, but still, Greatest Hits and Van Halen could've been DLC releases.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Updated both the thread name and the quoted article. It is official. Guitar Hero and the True Crime reboot are both dead.

Guitar Hero is dead, long live Guitar Hero.

[Deleted]

Not a musical game person in the first place and not surprised by this news - imagine Rock Band is dead too, or will be after one more game - but what the hell else does Activision put out?

[shiranui]

Feb 9, 2011 16:33:12 GMT -5 KStrick said:

With how much better in every aspect Rock Band is, I'm shocked Guitar Hero STILL outsold Rock Band 2 or 3 to 1...

I think it was mostly the brand (Joe Public: "Oh, look, there's a new Guitar Hero with full band gameplay! What is this Rock Band? Ah, so it's some s***ty GH ripoff, f*** that!"), and in the PAL region at least it was combined with absolutely pitiful marketing of the RB series. We never got the RB2 instruments (and I think Australia didn't even get the game), there was no advertising for the games, nothing.

Rock Band 3 was an incredible game, but few people know that, apparently, as it really hasn't sold at all...

At least those of us who did buy it are having a blast. I for one now know how to play "Whip It" on a keyboard, and on a good day I might even be able to fumble through "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"!

Feb 9, 2011 16:40:08 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

imagine Rock Band is dead too, or will be after one more game

I don't think they will be releasing another RB game in retail, after the unfortunate failure of RB3. However, as long as the DLC keeps coming out (and Rock Band Network exists), Rock Band isn't going anywhere. (and holy crap they're releasing "Obsession" by Animotion in next week's DLC, that better have Pro Keys support or I'll riot!)

Feb 9, 2011 16:38:39 GMT -5 Koda, Master Crunchyroller said:

Guitar Hero is dead, long live Guitar Hero.

DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD
WHICH OLD WITCH
THE WICKED WITCH
DING DONG THE WITCH IS...

[Malcolm]

Feb 9, 2011 16:40:08 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Not a musical game person in the first place and not surprised by this news - imagine Rock Band is dead too, or will be after one more game - but what the hell else does Activision put out?

Call of Duty and Tony Hawk.

Why the hell hasn't the Tony Hawk games been axed yet? The games ran their course like years ago.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Feb 9, 2011 16:40:08 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Not a musical game person in the first place and not surprised by this news - imagine Rock Band is dead too, or will be after one more game - but what the hell else does Activision put out?

Call of Duty. And hell, it seems like Activision's sole major release this year is going to be Modern Warfare 3.

In fact, thanks to the whole Infinity Ward fiasco last year, the game was barely developed on in 2010, so it looks like Activision is focusing all their studios, and even some outside studios, to help push MW3 out the door in November. They flat out canceled the third person shooter Call of Duty game that was to be made by Sledgehammer Games that was meant to be out about midway through this year, so that Sledgehammer could help the gutted Infinity Ward, and then they grabbed Raven Software to focus on the online multiplayer part of the game, so we have Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer working on the single player, and maybe whatever co-op mode they are putting in this game. And now we have this line from Activision, "These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences.", which makes me think that that simply means they are taking the Guitar Hero 2011 and True Crime teams and are pushing them onto the MW3 project as well.

As for why they haven't used Treyarch on MW3, well, that's simple, so Treyarch can focus on the Call of Duty game they are making.

[Deleted]

Feb 9, 2011 16:44:15 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

Feb 9, 2011 16:40:08 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Not a musical game person in the first place and not surprised by this news - imagine Rock Band is dead too, or will be after one more game - but what the hell else does Activision put out?

Call of Duty and Tony Hawk.

Why the hell hasn't the Tony Hawk games been axed yet? The games ran their course like years ago.

I'm guessing to fulfill a contract on that. I'm guessing once the rights to his likeness run out, they'll drop it.

[Koda, Master Crunchyroller]

Feb 9, 2011 16:48:45 GMT -5 Lizuka #BLM said:

Feb 9, 2011 16:44:15 GMT -5 Malcolm said:

Call of Duty and Tony Hawk.

Why the hell hasn't the Tony Hawk games been axed yet? The games ran their course like years ago.

I'm guessing to fulfill a contract on that. I'm guessing once the rights to his likeness run out, they'll drop it.

They HAVE to be under some kind of contract, as the last two Tony Hawk games, RIDE and SHRED, have sold like shit. If I remember correctly, across the Wii, PS3 and 360, in the first week SHRED was out, it sold only 4,000 copies. Yeah.

[Deleted]

Must.....Not.....Cry......

[Michael Coello]

So, does that mean the Guitar Hero DLC stuff is no more, too?

I was mostly sticking with Rock Band, but was more than willing to give "Warriors of Rock" a shot.

[noleafclover1980]

Meh, my last GH game was Metallica... I quit after that, because there was no way a future release would have a song list I liked anywhere near as much.

[Ghostorm]

Cant say im sad to hear of the demise of G.H. Ive tried a few of the games but its absolutely nothing like playing a real guitar so thats probably why i disliked it. Oh and the fact that the songs on all their games never fit my tastes would be the other factor.