Guitar Hero and DJ Hero DLC supply over after February

@Dizazter Welcome to the end of an era. Rock Band may soon follow :(

@VaultBoy

Pretty sure rock band already did it's swan song.

Wow, I can't believe the music rythym genre was born and died within half a decade. Kudos to Activision to saturating the market so heavily that nobody has any interest in it anymore.

@Punkrawk Bbob

I think everyone is coming to some quick conclusions. I think the genre is definitely supersaturated. Way too much hardware, and way too many game, particularly guitar hero games. I think rockband's release schedule has made sense, and your songs import from one game to the next.

Keep in mind, Guitar Hero set unprecedented sales records as people gobbled up all their game generations and new hardware. But Guitar Hero's model of buying a new 'game' every time to get more songs, never made any sense to me, and I was sick of it by GH3. So their death isn't big shock to me, their model is self defeating and unsustainable. Getting people to buy guitar after guitar after guitar, knowing next year there will be a newer better one to replace it makes everyone feel like tools.

But I think people are primarily burned out on hardware. No one wants to feel their living rooms with any more expensive plastic junk. So I think Rock Band could possible just ride the storm out by releasing good quality songs on a regular basis. So people are burned out.....for now. I see this genre getting revived in time. BUT - I think the solution for this hardware burnout, will be for future games to not focus on hardware so much. In fact, I think it would be key if future games would allow and encourage the use of real life, existing instruments, and just have an affordable conversion dongle, and have the game train people so they can use the instruments in real life, while having approachable casual modes that anyone can play.

So I don't think the genre is dead, I just think it's going to go through a severe recession for a while.

@Oobgarm There are obviously enough instruments out the to begin with, used AND new. What I think should have been done is they should have just released the software only, and leave the instrument options on the website. This way, no new instruments are made until someone orders it. Not exactly like a custom order, mind you, but only make them if there is a demand for them

What don't you get about the statement where they said licensing was too expensive? They can make those plastic peripherals for a penny on the dollar in China, it's the music tracks that will cost you your soul.

@Art84 I hope the current DLC doesn't disappear either...there are still quite a few tracks that I would like to download and play, I just haven't had to time with current games releases and future game releases

@MowDownJoe

NMH did not sell well.

@MowDownJoe

In all seriousness, that was one of my few day 1 purchases. Well, both of them.

@MowDownJoe LOL you beat me to it I was thinking the same thing.

@MowDownJoe

DOWNWARD F*CKING DOG!

...was that a good enough joke insert?

@xreadmore

The series is dead.

@xreadmore Just wait a few years so that Gearbox will buy the IP and finish it.

@xreadmore Never take anything a company says literally.

A board meeting
A change in upper middle management
A stiff breeze

can all come along at any time and invalidate everything they just said. Resulting in backpedaling of biblical proportions and the release of Guitar Hero XVII.

Essentially What a company says and what they do 6months down the line usually has little correlation. Hell this could also be a publicity stunt to drive a viral "SAVE THE HERO(S)" movement and score them some sales and free advertising.

No they don't. We all lose.
RB doesn't have competition anymore so they can sit on their asses and do 1/16th of what they used to do and no one can complain about it because if you want a music game, RB is the only place available.

@zero2dash

Except they won't, cause this is Harmonix we're talking about, they didn't do that when they were the only game in town to begin with

@Freddie Mercury
I'm not saying they "will", I'm saying they "can". The possibility is there.
I have no doubt about the love we get from Harmonix, I'm just saying....the possibility will be there now whereas it wasn't in the past.

Competition is good for everyone; a monopoly is not.

@zero2dash

I was thinking the same thing until I realized that RB doesn't really need to innovate any more. They've pretty much done it at this point. I don't want to buy any more discs and I CERTAINLY don't want to buy any more plastic instruments. As long as they keep releasing DLC, I'll be happy.

@baby sea tuna

I have no doubt in my mind there will be a RB4 down the line, their motto is innovate then perfect after all.

But it won't be a mandatory upgrade like it was for RB3, it'll be more in the style of RB1 to RB2. And I REALLY doubt it'll be this year.

@Freddie Mercury
I hope RB4 comes sooner than later, RB3 just seems too broken to me. RB2 feels like the better game, if only it had keys and Pro compatibility.

However, on the subject of competition, GH's franchise was never really a threat to RB artistictly. RB were always the ones to innovate. If anything, RB gave GH competition, but not the other way around. GH were the ones ripping off RB, and trying to snatch up exclusive deals.

@Freddie Mercury Only game in town to begin with, you do know when the guitar hero series began right? Was just a tad before any Rock Band release lol

@KillerC ...Which was made by Harmonix.

@mywhitenoise

You gotta look at it from their prospective. RB3 barely sold over 1 mil across all 3 systems so far, Harmonix just became independent again, and they're restructuring.

It'd be the smart move to start working on RB4 now, but at least give people a year to pick up all the peripherals they want and let the market relax for a bit before busting out a new game in 2012. The more people that have the last one, the better chance they'll pick up the new one, especially if they don't have to buy anything new.

In the mean time, put polish on Dance Central 2 to hold them over to the next year

@KillerC

Go look up who made Guitar Hero in the first place, you might learn a thing or two

@zero2dash

So true

@Freddie Mercury Count on Mercury

@The Pork

Activision probably sees COD being more profitable at least now in terms of sales from Black Ops. But I could easily see the series having poor sales in the future depending on what Respawn Entertainment brings out to compete with COD. I like COD and buy every game that releases but could see not buying the latest entry after being burned out of the series. I am sure most people are burned out on the games releasing every year.

@The Pork
You have to remember that with COD you get a whole new game. Like new characters (some recurring), new story, new levels and features. The only thing that stays the same is the basic control scheme. Just because it says Call of Duty doesn't mean it's exactly the same as the last one. It's like saying all FPS are the same.

With Guitar Hero they really could have just released the songs as DLC. The content of a game like GH is really just about the music. You can't really compare the COD with GH.

A new COD every year might be pushing it, but at least with a different studio making them every year it keeps them fresh and different.

@xreadmore

I'm not bashing the CoD series (I'm actually not a fan, but to each their own, right?). All I'm saying is that like any series, releasing too many titles year after year can be dangerous, and the Guitar Hero situation proves that to a 't'.

@The Pork

True, but the top FPS franchise wont go as stale nearly as quickly as the GH series. You can only push the envelope so far with music games where I don't see FPS games getting stale this quick.

Plus look at what activision did recently- in 2009 they released:

Band Hero
GH Smash Hits
GH Van Halen
GH 5
GH Metallica

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? 2009 might as well be the year activision killed guitar hero. if this isnt overkill I just dont know what is.

@The Pork

Well, no. GTA4, Halo, Gears of War, Metal Gear Solid, Madden, Super Mario, Pokemon, and countless others all would like to have a word with you if you think annual releases are damaging.

Guitar Hero was pumping out band exclusive content (which then drastically cuts your audience, as I'd never touch Van Halen or Aerosmith) - On top of releasing 3+ games a year. That's just too much, and gives little incentive to buy DLC since in 4 months you know another retail disc will be out and two weeks after that it'll be clearanced down to $13.49 at Walmart.

@Punkrawk Bbob

Where exactly did I say that annual releases specifically are damaging? I said that milking a franchise is damaging, which I believe Activision is doing with CoD. Gears of War doesn't come out with annual games, nor does 'GTA4' as you put it (it's one game, with a couple of expansion packs), nor does Metal Gear Solid (don't know what you're talking about with that one). I would say the Mario franchise falls under the 'exception to the rule' category.

You can feel free to not believe me, but mark my words, CoD is going bye-bye if it continues like this. Again, I'm not saying that because I'm not a CoD fan, I'm saying that based on what I've seen from other Activision franchises.

@The Pork

Explain to me how this isn't milking the virtual tit? You live in denial land like woah if you can't see MGS being just as bad as any other franchise from over saturation.

Metal Gear Solid
Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions
Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater 3D
Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops+
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
Metal Gear Solid: Rising
Metal Gear Acid
Metal Gear Acid 2
Metal Gear Online
Metal Gear Arcade
Metal Gear Solid Touch
Metal Gear Solid Digital Graphic Novel
Metal Gear Solid 2 Digital Graphic Novel

And sorry, I said GTA4. I meant GTA3+. San Andreas, Vice City, Stories from Liberty City/Vice City, GTA4, Gay Tony, Lost & Damned (released as a play-alone disc, so easily just as valid).

@superfrick

I'd recommend the $5 MP3 section on Amazon. 100 new albums each month for $5 apiece and the selection is usually pretty solid.

@baby sea tuna That's just the thing. I don't listen to music often at all. I'm just not the target market for general music purchases/itunes/etc, so if RB/RBN were to be shut off today, my actual music purchasing would grind to a halt. My music listening is generally limited to the following:

1) Alarm clock radio.
2) Driving
3) Playing Rock band with friends, and buying whatever tracks seem catchy and fun. On occasion something I'll hear from #1 or #2 gets stuck in my head so once I can buy it in RB or RBN, I do!

@creid8 Ah, here we go:

"The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small"

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/07/us-warnermusic-videogames-idUSWEN736120080807

@creid8 And that is where these collaborations always historically fail.

Everyone involved wants all the money and litigates to the point where no one is making any money or at least enough to justify the activity in question.

@creid8
Hmm so could it be that the music industry is to blame for this and not the market saturation?

Music Biz: "We want more money"
Acti: "Then we'd have to charge too much to make this profitable"
Music: "Too bad! Cough it up bro!"
Acti: "GMAES CANCELED!"

While I think Activision can be jerks for not pricing things the way I want, I hate the music industry more.. so I'll blame them =)