An announcement is expected tonight ahead of the publication of Activision’s financial results.
This gives lie to Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg’s claim following bad sales of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock that while the music genre is ebbing, the genre still had a future: ”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. That said, I think that we would be foolish to not try and build on the strength of the Guitar Hero brand…”
He went on to claim, ”I think the road to rejuvenating that category goes through innovation. The premise of Guitar Hero - that everyone has an inner rock star - it’s something that we’ve all done forever. Some version of singing into a hairbrush, or holding a tennis racket like a guitar, or singing karaoke, or singing into the bathroom mirror - we all do that.”
Innovation was hardly something Activision did with Guitar Hero; in 2009, Activision released no less than five Guitar Hero games, including the confusingly named Band Hero.
