Yesterday Activision killed the Guitar Hero franchise, just like over-hyped rock stars smash their guitars to pieces at live shows. Fans normally love it when they do that, and it seems that gamers are also revelling in Activision’s death blow to the over-milked franchise.
Downloadable content for the Guitar Hero series has been a staple part of the business model with regular updates to the various versions of the game being the norm. Come the end of February, that’ll be gone too.
This news came via the @GuitarHero Twitter feed yesterday. The tweet reads: “We will release the previously announced DLC track and mix packs for February, but we will not be able to release new DLC packs.â€
What’s interesting is that the tweet mentions “mix packsâ€, and those are obviously for the much younger DJ Hero franchise. So it looks as if that DLC stream is also dead.
In the conference call in which the shutting down of future Guitar Hero titles was discussed, two of the main reasons for the decision were “the considerable licensing and manufacturing costsâ€. Obviously Activision pays significant royalties for each song, and with an ever-expanding library of DLC, that amount grows exponentially. It makes sense that they don’t want to increase those costs. How long they will maintain that cost, however, is open for debate. Is it only a matter of time until all DLC is removed for good?
Source: CVG and OneOfSwords [via Twitter]
Last Updated: February 11, 2011
