Hero franchise will return in 2011

By Fred Dutton Published 4 November, 2010

Activision not put off by falling sales.

The Hero franchise will be back in 2011, Activision has confirmed, despite dismal sales of both Guitar Hero: Warrior of Rock and DJ Hero 2.

Speaking at an investor call today, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said, "In 2011 we'll have releases for our other proven franchises including the Hero brand, Spider-Man, X-Men and Transformers."

No details were given on which flavour of the franchise we'll see - Guitar, DJ or both.

Both branches of the franchise have had a rough year. Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock only managed to sell 86,000 units in its first two weeks on sale in the US, while DJ Hero 2 limped into the UK charts at number 25 last month.

Activision might not be too worried about that though – it's had a great few months. The publisher announced net revenues of $745 million for the third quarter of the fiscal year, well up on its $600 million outlook.

Picture of Fred.

About Fred Dutton

Fred Dutton is Eurogamer's US news editor, based in Washington DC.

Read more articles from Fred by visiting the Fred Dutton archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • NimbusTLD #1 2 years ago

    Time for Keyboard Hero, obviously.
    Edited by NimbusTLD at 04/11/10 @ 21:54

  • arcam #2 2 years ago

    Three quarters of a billion dollars in three months? With no CoD release and a failed Guitar Hero?

    People talk about how Kotick will be screwed when he runs Call of Duty and Guitar Hero into the ground. Doesn't seem that way...

  • icehockeyhair #3 2 years ago

    Jesus. Put it to sleep. No doubt it'll rip off Rock Band's keyboards as Nimbus says (and everything else the GH games have done recently)

  • makeamazing #4 2 years ago

    Nah we all know that the GH game is Queen that was leaked by brian may, which is really cool :D

  • rudedudejude #5 2 years ago

    faphero FTW

  • sir_tripod #6 2 years ago

    Clunge Hero? Fleshlight Hero?

  • BlackSentoki #7 2 years ago

    Perhaps instead of a game where you pretend to play a guitar you could have one where you pretend to be playing a game where you pretend to play a guitar:

    Guitar Hero Hero.

    With the sequel - Guitar Hero Hero Hero.

  • Number1Laing #8 2 years ago

    It doesn't surprise me, they are probably dirt ass cheap to make. When Neversoft was churning out Tony Hawk games they had to design new levels. tweak the gameplay, rewrite the engine, get new voice overs, write scenarios, etc. Guitar Hero requires NONE of that.

    Song licensing is probably the biggest expenditure (and I bet Activision cut some sweetheart deals during the height of the fad), but I bet Warriors of Rock made a killing even at 86,000 units sold. And the fake instruments probably cost almost nothing to make at this stage - pure profit for Activision.
    Edited by Number1Laing at 05/11/10 @ 02:29

  • lockload #9 2 years ago

    "Three quarters of a billion dollars in three months? With no CoD release and a failed Guitar Hero?"

    WOW, Starcraft 2 comw to mind

    Context though companies like IBM have profits of about 3bn a quarter and revenues of 25bn a quarter they have some way to go yet

  • brod #10 2 years ago

    @arcam

    It's no secret that Activision is constantly propped up by WoW revenue from monthly fees.

    ps. Hero franchises? Pfft, who cares... WAR FOR CYBERTRON 2!!!!!!!
    Edited by brod at 05/11/10 @ 16:17

  • Gambit1977 #11 2 years ago

    Harmony Hero
    Dance Hero
    COD Hero

    EA went stale doing this, and as a result they had to make changes. I can't see Acti doing the same somehow.

  • Sunyavadin #12 2 years ago

    We want BOXING HERO.

    With a life-sized Bobby Kotick as the controller.

  • t8yman #13 2 years ago

    great news, will be looking forward to the new transformers game.

    [/sarcasm]

  • jebus #14 2 years ago

    Lucky they own Blizzard isn't it?

  • youhavenomail #15 2 years ago

    I would genuinely like Jazz Hero or Classical Hero. And they couldn't possibly sell any worse than the last Guitar Hero.

  • linksdad #16 2 years ago

    GH Queen? thats gonna be a tough one to ignore. Used to be my fave band eva!

    Damn you grinning ponce kottick.

  • Max_Powers #17 2 years ago

    DJ Hero 2 is a brilliant and fresh game. Warriors of Rock is good, not great.

    Journos crying doom over these games' sales figures at this point have the memory of a goldfish. DJ Hero managed to sell close to 2 million copies after a very average opening week for instance.

    These games have become slow burners, gift games, party games. Day one chart entries do not reflect the health of these franchises AT ALL!

  • pauleyc #18 2 years ago

    @Thought_Criminal:

    "The sane direction would be in the direction of Kinect/Move, and get rid of the bundled controllers altogether."

    So basically Air Guitar Hero. Which might be actually brilliant.

  • TonyHarrison #19 2 years ago

    Maybe they should take a year off, it might revitalise interest if there's a two year wait between games, rather than having to shell out every year. Especially if they introduce a new expensive bit of plastic with each release.

    Or, alternate between DJ and Guitar each year...

  • Cardboardbox #20 2 years ago

    Triangle Hero?

  • Dogs-in-Hats #21 2 years ago

    Robot Ninja Hero?