Activision kills the once mighty rhythm game franchise.
Earlier today, Activision Blizzard reported their December 2010 financial results. While the company’s revenues grew by a significant amount, their music genre gaming is not doing so well. As a result, Activision Blizzard plans to “disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011,” leaving Rock Band as the only major gaming franchise. The company has also stated that it will cease development on True Crime: Hong Kong. It is unclear if this will affect their DJ Hero line also, as that title was not specifically mentioned.
Well, I guess Rock Band wins this one. I can’t say I’m completely surprised, I sort of saw this coming after Neversoft and RedOctane got slashed recently. And that’s how Activision rolls, as far as I can tell. Still, competition always brings out the best in companies, so let’s hope Harmonix stays on the ball.
