Activision "abused" Guitar Hero

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 18 February, 2011

Says ex-boss of Red Octane.

Why did Guitar Hero die? Because Activision "abused" it.

That's the damning verdict from Kelly Sumner, the former CEO of Guitar Hero's now defunct original publisher RedOctane.

Summer, who oversaw Activision's purchase of the once all-conquering franchise, told MCV those in control of Guitar Hero "tried to get too much out of the franchise too quickly".

"They abused it. There's no reason why Guitar Hero cannot continue. It's a great product.

"My gut tells me there is still a significant market for Guitar Hero. Not every game can be a billion dollar franchise, but maybe that's what Activision wants. I'd be surprised if they sold the brand as it'd prove to the world there is still a market for this product and show them up.

"Look at how Take-Two has handled GTA. They haven't thrown products out there. They've nurtured it for over ten years and it is still a strong franchise."

Earlier this month Activision shocked the gaming world when it announced the closure of its Guitar Hero business.

"Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011," explained the publisher.

Summer's comments echo those of leading analysts who following the demise of the Hero franchise criticised Activision's management of it.

"By 2007 Guitar Hero was available for most platforms and Activision continued to stripmine the franchise," M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon told Eurogamer.

"It is relatively easy to prepare iterative versions of a music and rhythm game once the formula has been set, and this dynamic facilitated the brand's over-exposure. In 2009 Activision released five separate SKUs of Guitar Hero and the brand essentially lost its relevance."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cianchristopher #1 1 year ago

    It's still quite shocking how quickly it all happened.

    I mean, c'mon, Guitar Hero 3 was the best selling title of 2007, ffs. And that was the year that CoD4 came out.

  • tomjoadsghost #2 1 year ago

    Its really not a secret that activision *does* want every product to be a billion selling franchise, they said it straight out when they axed ghostbusters and brutal legend.
    Edited by tomjoadsghost at 18/02/11 @ 14:54

  • MisterFalseName #3 1 year ago

    And here's the interesting thing about that - I remember quite clearly being really excited for the release of Guitar Hero 3. Not as excited as I was about the concept of Rock Band, but I clearly remember thinking "It's been ages since GH 2 was released - really looking forward to some new songs to play".

    Looking at how the franchise was milked to death in the following years, it's hard to believe I was talking about the same products. Thanks Activision.

  • jefranklin18 #4 1 year ago

    As I said in a previous posting, this is how Kotick will take the fun out of gaming: by milking a franchise till it is worthless and then discarding it like an ADD brat.

  • mcmonkeyplc #5 1 year ago

    Duh

  • JahB #6 1 year ago

    Watch them do the same thing to CoD.

    Bobby K's number 1 skill is killing golden geese.

  • Alf-Life #7 1 year ago

    No shit, water is wet.

    Though I like the GTA comparison.

  • Eraysor #8 1 year ago

    I still love guitar games (admittedly Rock Band is the far superior series) but I see no reason why they can't keep making them really; providing the games were of good enough quality I'd keep buying them. Releasing more than one full game a year was a bad move though.

  • wizlon #9 1 year ago

    If Activision are selling franchises then I'll take Tony Hawk off them for a few quid, pretty sure there is still some life in the old hawk yet.

  • Sonic_D #10 1 year ago

    Think how much better the Rock Band 1 instruments woudl have been if Red Octane and Harmonix had released it. GH3 LP is still my favoured one gor non-protar playing. RB3 only just got them right.

  • Beek4257 #11 1 year ago

    And by "abused" you mean "milked to within an inch of desert-level dehydration and unceremoniously curb-stomped into oblivion".
    Edited by Beek4257 at 18/02/11 @ 15:10

  • mingster #12 1 year ago

    Activision touched the guitar inappropriately.

  • mingster #13 1 year ago

    Still prefer frequency and amplitude

  • drxym #14 1 year ago

    I can think of an easy way for it to continue - for free. Recognize that people play the game for its content so hand the game out like toffee. Get some advertisers to sponsor some beginner content and flog the rest in bundles. Make the thing vibrant by tossing in a community side - battle of the bands, celebrity picks, leader boards etc. Also throw in a mode which uses a controller (like Rockband in PSP / DS) so people don't need to fork out for a guitar.

    In other words recognize people aren't going to shell out full whack but by handing the thing out like toffee you'd probably recoup as much for the increased interest in content.
    Edited by drxym at 18/02/11 @ 15:15

  • arcam #15 1 year ago

    Not every game can be a billion dollar franchise

    But Guitar Hero was a billion dollar franchise!

    I don't really agree with this guy - Activision might (might) have been able to prolong the life of the franchise, but they earned an awful lot of money from Guitar Hero and I'm not sure that a less aggressive release schedule would have benefited them.

    As much as I dislike Activision, I think they're good at what they do (which is earning money), and after the incredible amount of money they earned with Guitar Hero I think they will consider it a great success.

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #16 1 year ago

    I was playing GH 5 the other night, got on to the 2nd venue and thought "I don't know any of these songs" - got bored - switched it off..

    Waiting for my Rock Band 3 MIDI adapter to arrive so I can plug in my MIDI controller.

  • shave_my_donkey #17 1 year ago

    does anyone like activison these days

  • delboy83uk #18 1 year ago

    I think "abused" is somewhat of an understatement.

  • HermitArcader #19 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Quint2020 #20 1 year ago

    Activision: The Publisher you LOVE to hate!

  • Quint2020 #21 1 year ago

    "Now Mr. Stratocaster show us on the dolly where Mr Kotick touched you."

  • ubergine #22 1 year ago

    I'm caught between negging this "obvious statement is obvious" article and simply enjoying another "Activision's shortsighted greedy stupid is stupid" now that their publicly stated policies of years ago are bearing the predictable fruit.

    Kind of like how it's hard to get sick of people bagging the Bush government for their "obvious lie is obvious" warfare fetish.

  • davisorle #23 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 15:13:14 09-05-2012

  • Bilstar #24 1 year ago

    Activision abused me too! And my Nan!

  • IronCladChicken #25 1 year ago

    @arcam
    True – But I still reckon it's a short sighted business strategy - Activision has actively (& openly) streamlined their company to promote 'annual' games releases.

    Unfortunately, as guitar hero demonstrates, this leads to the problem of consumer fatigue - Actively shortening the lifespan of the product.

    As a result Activision will need to relatively regularly create new franchises to replace the dead franchises.
    & as EA have found, there’s no sure-fire way to guarantee a new franchise will take off - especially since new franchises to an extent still rely on the core gamer base to help establish it as a viable repeat investment -

    If the next-gen franchises fail to gain an audience it would leave Activision in a very vulnerable position financially.

    In opposition - nurturing the franchise would allow a sustained development - proving lower returns for the short term - but maintaining a strong core audience, which should allow the franchise to maintain financial viability even during the weaker sales (e.g. trying to sell £100+ music game during a recession)

    Putting the publisher in a stronger position to introduce new franchise games which (over a very short amount of time) would be much more conducive to creating a much richer/sustainable catalogue (unlike the current bang-bust philosophy)...

    A good example of a company who has succeeded using this format would be Blizzard :)

  • andywilkie35 #26 1 year ago

    Everytime I picture Activision, all I think of is a load of suits frothing at the mouth at the prospect of releasing games as quickly as possible, then blaming everyone and anyone when people lose interest because of the saturation of said product in the market.

    In other words, a bunch of cuntwhores.

  • arcam #27 1 year ago

    @IronCladChicken

    Activision don't really need to birth new franchises - they can take the billions they made from Guitar Hero and buy up existing games or development houses.

    It might end up being more expensive, but it eliminates huge amount of risk and if there's one thing Activision's behaviour in the games industry has shown us, it''s that they don't like risk.

    As evidence, see Bungie or the rumours about Activision buying Take Two, who apparently had the highest-rated games out of any publisher last year. Do that, and they've got another 5-10 established franchises to exploit. Then just rinse and repeat.

  • dagas #28 1 year ago

    Bobby is actually a Ferengi

  • Johnson #29 1 year ago

    "Show me on the toy guitar where Bobby touched you."

    What annoys me most is not that they ruined Guitar Hero but they seem to have poisoned the well for Rock Band as well.

  • Soton4084 #30 1 year ago

    The one thing that always annoyed me about Guitar Hero was this. They list a load of songs on the back of the box and there are obviously a selection that take your fancy. You decide to purchase the game and look forward to playing these songs. But you have to play through a load of songs you're not interested in first!!

  • Pumpatron #31 1 year ago

    So that's why Slash walks funny. I just assumed his leather pants were too tight, now I know better.

  • delboy83uk #32 1 year ago

    I hate hating activision i wish they were a company people loved

  • Murton #33 1 year ago

    Most of the damage was done in 09 with the release of GH5, Band Hero, GH Greatest Hits and GH Metallica and GH Van Halen. 5 titles from a single franchise in a single year is bound to cause some saturation issues. In my opinion Band Hero was totally uneccesary and Van Halen should have probably have waited until the series had made another evolutionary step. GH5 should be allowed as the main installment of the series while Greatest Hits should be seen as more of an expansion pack as it offered tracks from GH games 1-3 but in the new band formula. I'd personally let off GH Metallica as well for giving metal fans something to play, by and large metal fans have been under-represented by the tracklist by committee approach that the GH games usually take.


    It's a shame that GH is gone as there's now no reason for Rock Band to try and innovate further, they're the only band game now so they can sit back and count the benjamins. If only Activision had changed its business model for GH to allow it to offer the variety that it tried in 2009 without over reaching itself. Personally I'd have gone with GH5 and GH Metallica only, pushed Van Halen back to 2010 and released all the tracks from Band Hero and Greatest Hits as DLC, there's no need to produce retail titles unless you have new art assets and game logic to sell, otherwise heap on the DLC and watch the money roll in as people cherry pick their favourite tracks at a much higher margin as a retail disc brings, worked a treat for Rock Band who had the better game, better tracklists, shit-tons of great DLC offerings and most importantly, is still going.

    It was more short sightedness than abuse that killed Guitar Hero in my opinion.

  • Toothball #34 1 year ago

    @mingster

    Did you try any of the portable Rock Bands? Unplugged on the PSP, and versions of Lego and RB 3 on the DS. They're basically the same games, albeit painted with a Rock Band brush. They're not as trippy, but they certainly help my Frequency cravings.

  • aphex187 #35 1 year ago

    Also put Call Of Duty in the title can ya?

  • Mayhem64 #36 1 year ago

    And in other news, the sun rises in the morning and the Pope is Catholic...

  • BEXANT #37 1 year ago

    It's activation all over!

    Call of duty, excellent game, but we don't need one every year!

    Tony hawks, originally excellent, but one every year killed it dead'

    Any franchise they get their hands on they just bleed dry as soon as they can!

    Bobby Give games breathing room, create new IP, and release games every two years that way interest stays!

  • darth_paul #38 1 year ago

    itll be so fun the see COD go the same way :-)

  • hulahoops #39 1 year ago

    Business over creativity never works. In this case though I think creativity had a fair run. Thanks GH, we'll miss you, but life goes on.

  • BlinkeredAxis #40 1 year ago

    Love GH world Tour, but there weren't enough standout songs on Warriors of Rock, and why oh why did they try to sell us another guitar? The old ones seem to last forever anyway!

    What the series needed was a constant influx of good songs into GHtunes or boxed expansions, and that didn't happen. Too many of the new additions were obscure b-sides or half-arsed live tracks.

    At the same time, Rock Band had the Beatles! exciting music is what keeps music titles going, and Acti lost sight of that, for shame :(

  • spekkeh #41 1 year ago

    I don't think the GTA reference is that apt. There's been nine GTA releases in ten years time. True, some of these were more or less expansion packs, but then the same could be said for things like warriors of rock and aerosmith.

    Of course I completely agree with the fact that Kotick ran the brand into the fucking ground
    http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/22885...

  • dirtysteve #42 1 year ago

    I was never sure what Activision wanted to be, profitable sure, but for a while it seemed that they wanted to dwarf EA in size, whereas now it seems they're happier to milk core franchises, and cull everything else. It seems short-sighted to me, any franchise can decline or be overtaken, that's why innovation now = new franchises later.

  • yeahetc #43 1 year ago

    Surely somebody will pick it up. It's like Big Brother, you know you haven't seen the last of it.

  • callum9999 #44 1 year ago

    I really can't understand this viewpoint. Can someone explain to me why the presence of different song packs etc. you don't necessarily want possibly ruins enjoyment of the game?

  • Lemming81 #45 1 year ago

    It should be picked up as a franchise by someone who knows what they are doing.

    Just a single guitar peripheral, online expansion DLC FOREVER (well, for the forseeable future). The guitar peripheral should have been treated as a joypad the entire time; people will buy one when their current one is worn out, or they want an extra one for a friend.

    We didn't need a new one for every new GH. We didnt need new GHs. Just new songs. We certainly didn't need the whole band thing. That should stay/have stayed Rock Band's thing. Guitar Hero should have kept it simple, and classic.

  • azix2 #46 1 year ago

    They are abusing cod now. LOL

  • jarek98 #47 1 year ago

    CoD will be next ;-)

  • Grayvern #48 1 year ago

    It's a sensible money making strategy, short term, but long term activision will put themselves into a situation where the rest of the industry is poisoned against them, which will be a problem for a company who depend on aquisitions as a source of new franchises.

  • man.the.king #49 1 year ago

    @arcam

    "As much as I dislike Activision, I think they're good at what they do (which is earning money), and after the incredible amount of money they earned with Guitar Hero I think they will consider it a great success. "

    I'm sure they do, and I'm not disputing that. However, whether or not abusing the franchise was good or not for Acti is NOT what the Red Octane boss was arguing.

  • alcides #50 1 year ago

    BILLY PIDGEON

    Priceless!