RIP Guitar Hero

NEW YORK — These days, guns are more popular than guitars, at least when it comes to video games. The company behind "Guitar Hero" said Wednesday that it is pulling the plug on one of the most influential video game titles of the new century.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/10/guitar-hero-gets-axed_n_821159.html

 

Guitar Hero had to be near the top of the short list of dumbest things ever.

 

Obsessing over "Guitar Hero" is dumb. The game itself was incredibly fun party fare.

 

I actually really liked the series, but yes it was getting bland.

 

Agree. You want to learn to play the guitar? Learn to play guitar.

I'm flashing back to the South Park episode.

 

Really, though, what was Guitar Hero other than a) Dance Dance Revolution with your fingers or b) Simon set to music? I never got into it (primarily because I really sucked at the guitar thing, though I had better success with the drums), but it was a good party game.

Is the music game genre done and dusted, or will someone pick up the slack? Viacom sold Harmonix, which developed Rock Band, last month for $50 (and $100 million in debt load). Presumably the new owner will at least publish Rock Band 4, especially now that it appears to be the only musical insturment game in town.

 

Given how much they surely had to pay in music rights, I wonder how profitable these types of games are?

 

This has to be the main reason; not like they're having to pay royalties to Black Ops vets.

A bit surprised, none the less, as I figured GH was still percolating along pretty well. But I'm not much of a video gamer.

 

Not only royalties (though they're also selling a lot of the music on a per-song basis through their online store, so it's not a total loss), but there's not much they can do to get people to buy the equipment or the new games, especially if you can still buy songs for the earlier version. There was a good bit of buzz about the keyboard on Rock Band 3, but that didn't really drive sales that much, I don't think. And at its core, it's the same game. Once they added drums and a microphone (Rock Band, Guitar Hero 2), there really isn't much left to do.

 

I read something recently that said that some of the top video games are more profitable than some of the top films.

 

I think I remember reading that Grand Theft Auto IV was a bigger grosser and more profitable than any movie released that year.

 

I really enjoyed Guitar Hero and Rockband. Didn't play often, but I had one game and I unlocked enough tracks to kill enough time here and there. I never played it instead of learning to play guitar. That's just silly.