Activision last night confirmed that it had shut its Guitar Hero business unit and cancelled its upcoming GH game. It signals the end of the road for a franchise which came to define 'party' gaming for the best part of a decade.
In addition, and in another shock decision, the firm has terminated production of its promising open world action game True Crime: Hong Kong.
Yesterday, Activision Publishing's CEO Eric Hirshberg explained the cull in the firm's Q4 2010 earnings call.
Here, we print his comments at length - a business-like farewell to what was, at one time, one of the video games industry's brightest stars...
Although we did well with the core gamer in 2010, we felt the effects of changing consumer demand for peripheral-based and mid-tier titles, which performed well below our expectations.
After two years of steeply declining sales, we've made the decision to close our Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on our previously playing Guitar Hero title for 2011.
Despite a remarkable 92 rating on DJ Hero 2, a widely well-regarded Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, as well as the 90-plus rated release from our most direct competitor, demand for peripheral-based music games declined at a dramatic pace.
Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand. Instead, what we'll do is focus our time and energies on marketing and supporting our strong catalogue of titles and downloadable content, especially to new consumers, as the install base for hardware continues to grow.
In addition to changes in music, we announced our decision to discontinue development on True Crime: Hong Kong. Even our most optimistic internal projections show that continued investment is not going to lead to a title at or near the top of the competitive open-world genre. In an industry where only the best games in each category are flourishing, to be blunt, it just wasn't going to be good enough.
These are tough decisions, but we believe they're the right decisions being made for the right reasons. And they reflect our ongoing commitment to delivering the games that gamers want to play. As a result of these decisions, we enter 2011 a leaner, more focused organization.
We intend to devote our time and resource to the areas, where we have true competitive advantages and the potential to make gaming experiences that are best-in-class. Our product line-up will be more focused, should be more profitable and will provide deeper online experiences than ever before.
Comments
21 comments so far...
StonecoldMC on 10 Feb '11 said:
Guitar Hero, I get. True Crime, I dont!
CVG, you posted a pretty positive preview last week on True Crime and if I remember correctly, called it one of the most polished open world Games around that also had something different to make it stand out from the crowd?
So I suppose my real question is this, should we be going to this Acti suit who seems to know what will make a good or a bad Game or yourselves for our Gaming news?
Very very confused
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AJDarkstar on 10 Feb '11 said:
"Rock Band was way too innovative, and kicked our asses".
MissSouthampton on 10 Feb '11 said:
OMG there is hope for an end to COD... *dreams*
Tingham on 10 Feb '11 said:
Not as confused as us, StoneColdMC. Andy saw a LOT of True Crime the other week and came back very positive. In terms of 'action' open world games (i.e. less L.A Noire investigation, more explosive mayhem), he thought it could be 2011's most exciting - even up against the likes of Red Faction.
The problem here seems to be that Activision believed the game couldn't compete vs. Rockstar's output, and being at that level was not good enough for profitability. When you look at the performance of the likes of Crackdown 2 last year (a decent game in its own right), and how similar titles suffered at the hands of Red Dead's dominance, their thinking begins to make more sense. But all that investment in development down the drain? Bizarre times.
Talking of Activision and Bizarre...
milky_joe on 10 Feb '11 said:
I've lost count of the number of times I've read a glowing preview for a game only for it to transpire into an average review from the same magazine/website.
I'm not saying that that would have been the case here, but it could have been.
StonecoldMC on 10 Feb '11 said:
Thats pretty much what I thought. There a strange bunch over at Acti sometimes
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Looking at your other article on the homepage about the Game being nearly complete, do you reckon we CVG'rs (and staff) could create a Fund and try and help bail the Dev team out?
From Gamers, Journos and Forumites to Full On Publishers!!!
Activision, EA and Take Two beware, were coming after you (maybe)
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ranaraptor on 10 Feb '11 said:
CVG, oh how I long for the day when you publish the headline, "Activision: Why we killed Modern Warfare / COD"
JD_Method on 10 Feb '11 said:
They really didn't care whether it was good or not. They cancelled it because they didn't think it would make any money. That, and they decided the money going towards True Crime could instead be used to further milk the Call of Duty cash cow.
_Marty_ on 10 Feb '11 said:
Thats ridiculous. Thank god EA didn't think like this with regards to Dead Space (we can't compete with Capcoms Resident Evil...). So, it seems Activision are both money grabbers AND defeatist. Tut tut.
ricflair on 10 Feb '11 said:
In all honesty, I don't know anybody interested in True Crime. And GH has again been overdone once they brought in the band element, they didn't have anywhere else to take it.
Can't say I'm surprised, but you'd think they'd release TC if it's so close to completion. My friends worked for Bizarre, so it will be even less of a surprise for them.
Nice to see a reply from the staff on here.
wrightandrewjame on 10 Feb '11 said:
With Guitar Hero (and DJ Hero) I can see their point. It wasn't making any money, licensing was killing it and the expensive peripherals weren't being bought. It also didn't help (and I was shocked when I read it on MCV) that they released 14 games in 28 months! It was doomed to die as it was a novelty, one I bought into and so did my friends, but after GHIII we stopped. There's only so many 'classics' and so long you want to play the game.
True Crime on the other hand I am well and truly disappointed that it has been canned. It was one the more interesting games from the last gen in the sandbox genre. I don't always want to play the bad guy like in GTA and Saint's Row. Playing an undercover cop was fun and the different endings based on your actions (playing the good/bad/neutral cop) was a nice touch. It was the more fun version of Driver I suppose. Although I only had a passing interest in the sequel, it being over 5 years from the last one, I no doubt would have bought it especially with the good press it'd been getting in the previews.
It is very defeatist to claim it wouldn't stand up against other games in the genre. Just because it won't do a COD and dominate the genre doesn't mean it shouldn't see the light of day. I'd be interested to know how much they've lost in development costs. Just stick it on PSN and XBLA and save some publishing costs rather than waste all that money you've spent. You know COD will make it all back for you anyway...
The_KFD_Case on 10 Feb '11 said:
That's what happens when you over-milk a franchise, Activision. Guess you'll have to learn the hard way...If you ever learn that particular lesson at all.
Anyway, as for the fellow's letter, for once I believe it - it struck me as being lucid, salient, and earnest, even heartfelt, until the last two paragraphs. At that point some of the usual business waffle crept back in to his tone.
Ah well. A bit of a shame - I've recently been enjoying GH: Van Halen which I got cheap as chips in a sale. Still, I'd rather the franchise be put to sleep than continually pumping out one or two iterations a year.
The_KFD_Case on 10 Feb '11 said:
Seconded!
craiglackenby on 10 Feb '11 said:
Surly TC:HK would be worth publishing after the wages have been paid to develop it for the last 3 years? Recoup some losses, the game would of done at least half a million IMO.
Mont4n4 on 10 Feb '11 said:
HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY - CALL OF DUTY? ARE YOU s**tTING ME?
BenThomasFoster on 10 Feb '11 said:
No brand new rock band for atleast 2 years and no Gh for foreseeable future. This is perfect time for new franchise to jump on board
AegisK on 10 Feb '11 said:
You don't make money by cancelling a near finished game.
ffcoppolla on 10 Feb '11 said:
I THINK THEY MEANT THE QUALITY OF THE MONEY ROLLING INTO THEIR ACCOUNT FROM SALES!
woodins on 11 Feb '11 said:
"Given the considerable licensing and manufacturing costs associated with this genre, we simply cannot make these games profitably based on current economics and demand." = "Most people into this diabolical s**t have already purchased some kind of plastic guitar thing, and all the good classic tunes have been raped good and hard, so pulling this game from our "IP" was an easy decision to make. Hopefully, releasing a plastic keyboard and tracks like "Crocketts Hammer" will have married men slap bang in their middle of their mid life crises' playing "Keyboard Hero" in the early hours of the morning whilst their fat ugly wives and spoilt kids are asleep - Did we also tell you Blizzard are releasing Diablo 3 and probably another WoW add-on soon?"
jtthegame on 11 Feb '11 said:
yeah there are so many gh games now that they don't need to release another anyway. all they need to do is release dlc for it. but why cancal true crime?
legion on 11 Feb '11 said:
Now do the world a favour and kill COD. maybe then the retards that litter the online community because of it will die off