Activision Admits Guitar Hero and Music Games Lost Mass Appeal

Activision's CEO of publishing affairs, Eric Hirshberg has recently talked about music games in general and the company's Guitar Hero franchise in particular, saying that it has lost some of the mass market appeal, which resulted in massive sales a few years ago, but also revealed that there was still hope through new innovation for the series and genre.

Music games became extremely profitable a few years ago, and Activision's Guitar Hero franchise was leading the way in terms of sales and popularity, closely followed by Harmonix's Rock Band series.

This year, however, things aren't going so well, and the whole genre has seen massive drops in profit, despite the fact that several titles have been released, including Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock or Rock Band 3.

The Activision executive admits that this isn't great, and says that the whole genre has lost its magic in recent times.

"It's no secret that not just Guitar Hero, but also Rock Band, and the music category in general, do not have the same mass appeal today that they did a few years ago," Hirshberg told IndustryGamers.

"That said, I think that we would be foolish to not try and build on the strength of the Guitar Hero brand... I think the road to rejuvenating that category goes through innovation.”

The executive goes on to say that the premise and the core values of Guitar Hero makes it extremely attractive, and the whole genre is still pretty new, so there is still hope if developers work on innovating in future games.

"The premise of Guitar Hero - that everyone has an inner rock star - it's something that we've all done forever... So I think the core premise and the core insight at the heart of the Guitar Hero franchise is still very relevant.

"I think the genre is still fairly new," he added, "and so I think it's probably time for us to really look at what the next level looks like for that genre."

Hirshberg declined to comment on any rumors that Activision might purchase Harmonix, as the studio's parent company, Viacom, wants to get rid of it after disappointing sales for the recent Rock Band 3 title.