Guitar Hero shutdown might or might not affect Rock Band

"Guitar Hero", designed by Activision/Blizzard, has played its last chord. The video game could be turned off by publisher Activision. Similar series "Rock Band" hasn’t announced plans to turn off – yet.

'Guitar Hero’ will not last any longer

"Guitar Hero's" death was something that video game maker Activision declared Thurs morning is over. The “casual-gamer” title was once a mega-hit. Of all games, "Guitar Hero" was the first to get over $1 billion in sales. This happened in Jan 2009. U.S. sales last year dropped by more than 8 percent, costing the company $9.36 billion. Activision will stop sales of "DJ Hero" and "Guitar Hero" along with downloadable content starting in February. Activision will be laying off a staff of approximately 500 people.

Survival of ‘Rock Band’ likely

2 different businesses created "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero". "Rock Band" is owned by Viacom and MTV Games which makes it easier and cheaper to make deals and distribute. The setup pack is more expensive for "Rock Band" keeping the company profitable. Nevertheless, "Guitar Hero" controllers could be used for the game. Also, "Guitar Hero" sales have passed away while "Rock Band" sales have continued strong. "Rock Band" isn't doing really well though. When "The Beatles: "Rock Band"" came out in 2009, millions were anticipated to sell. In three months, only $1.7 million in product was sold with the game.

What is going to happen to music gaming?

The reason for the "Guitar Hero" shut down is because of the "rapid decline in the music genre" supposedly. The music genre has always been sold by motion systems like Wii and Kinect. The games have to be mostly on dancing rather than as part of the band though. A reduction in the hardware component of sales has been seen. This means the lower-profit, higher-sales software could be necessary for businesses to make money.

Articles cited

Investor Place

investorplace.com/30610/activision-blizzard-atvi-guitar-hero-sales/

USA Today

content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2011/02/activision-dropping-new-downloads-for-guitar-hero-dj-hero/1