Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

Guitar Hero Live will launch later this year with a new controller peripheral, a Yahoo France report has revealed.

Today is the final day of independent operation for 20-year-old games studio Neversoft, best known for its work developing Tony Hawk's titles and later Guitar Hero games.

Activision's library of downloadable song DLC for Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Band Hero will be taken offline at the end of this month, the publisher has announced.

A new report has shed light on the never-released Guitar Hero 7, which would have been based around a new six-string guitar peripheral.

The game would have taken the series back to its roots by removing drum and microphone support, a source told Kotaku.

The peripheral was "not a real guitar, or even [fully] six-stringed", the source described. "It had the classic Guitar Hero buttons on the neck with one extra new button, and six strings where the strum bar used to be. Yay! Now they have an extra button and five more strum bars!

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Former Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero studio Neversoft is making a Call of Duty game, it's announced.

Despite Guitar Hero's bubble bursting earlier this year, the music genre is in great shape and looks set for major growth over the next few years, according to a new book on the genre out this week.

Defunct music franchise Guitar Hero lacked the necessary care and attention needed from Activision to keep the series fresh, the publisher has admitted.

Sales of the Guitar Hero series crashed because Activision had stopped listening to its audience, CEO Bobby Kotick has admitted.

Today Activision releases the last of the announced Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock downloadable tracks for the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Guitar Hero is still alive, Activision has said.

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock is the highest-grossing video game in US history.

A new set of DLC tracks hits Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock today, publisher Activision has announced.

Activision has changed and has promised to release new Guitar Hero and DJ Hero downloadable content.

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

With over-exposure cited as one of the key factors behind the demise last week of Activision's once mighty Guitar Hero franchise, industry talking heads have now turned their attentions to the publisher's other cash cow – Call of Duty – and asked if it's hurtling towards a similar fate.

As the dust settles on Activision's decision to put an end to its world-famous peripheral-based music franchise Guitar Hero and the difficult work of sacking those who helped create it begins, one question remains: where did it all go wrong?

Activision has laid off around 50 staffers at Guitar Hero developer Vicarious Visions, reports claim.

Rock Band developer and original Guitar Hero creator Harmonix has paid tribute to Activision's recently axed franchise - and encouraged users to hop on over to its brand.

The bodycount from Activision's house-cleaning exercise yesterday continues to mount up, with LA-based 7 Studios the latest confirmed dead.

Last night Eurogamer broke the news that Activision had closed its Guitar Hero business, effectively killing the music game after five years of groundbreaking success.

The Guitar Hero franchise has been officially killed off following consistent decline in the music sector, Activision has announced.

UPDATE: Reports are coming in that layoffs have also hit the Activision-owned developer Vicarious Visions. Developer Manveer Heir tweeted this evening to say, "Ugh sorry to hear about the Vicarious Visions layoffs today after Guitar Hero canceled. Shitty. Sounds like Freestyle (DJ Hero) got hit too."

Downloadable KISS and Linkin Park tracks are coming to music games Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2, Activision has announced.

Guitar Hero publisher Activision feels "nothing but love" for troubled Rock Band 3 developer Harmonix.

REM and the Goo Goo Dolls are among the acts featured on the new '90s Rock Track Pack going live for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock today.

Residents of the US have Coca-Cola to thank for a batch of free downloadable DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock songs.

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.

Developer Harmonix reckons rival music game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock's dismal sales might have been down to gamers waiting to buy Rock Band 3.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has sold just 86,000 copies in its first week in the US, across all formats.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has arrived, and Activision is celebrating by offering free music, Rocky Horror Picture Show songs and individual tracks from Soundgarden's Telephantasm album this month.

The UK achieved its best ever result at the World Cyber Games in Los Angeles at the weekend, finishing joint second with Germany and Brazil.

The headline, I'm told, became an all-too-regular mantra for Activision's beleaguered communications team long ago.

For a game promising "warriors", it's ironic to note that the sixth major instalment in the Guitar Hero series marks a significant retreat in its scrap with Rock Band.

The direction and focus make it clear: rather than try to compete with Harmonix in pushing the creative boundaries of the genre, Warriors of Rock settles for the safer ground of something more akin to a homecoming tour.

But retreat isn't necessarily defeat. World Tour matched Rock Band instrument for instrument, but with Harmonix about to unleash a "pro" guitar and keyboard, Neversoft has (probably very sensibly) elected not to give chase. Instead, Warriors of Rock represents an unabashed primal scream to core fans on a comfortably familiar stage.

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EA has slammed bitter rival Activision after CEO Bobby Kotick accused the Medal of Honor publisher of "suffocating studios".

Codemasters' new racing game F1 2010 dethroned Halo: Reach to become the UK's best selling game last week.

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US gamers can import tracks from Guitar Hero Metallica into Warriors or Rock for free – for one week only.

Demos for music games DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock are available to download now from Xbox Live, Activision's announced.

Back to the start power.

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Activision has finally spat out the entire 90-strong tracklist for Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

Activision has announced that 11 more recording artists will make their Guitar Hero debut in the next instalment of the series.

Guitar Hero developer Neversoft has accepted that publisher Activision will release a Hero game every year despite admitting the studio lost its soul competing with rival Rock Band.

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock will be released in the UK on 24th September, Activision has confirmed to Eurogamer.

Veteran grunge band Soundgarden's greatest hits album will be bundled free with the first million launch units of upcoming music game Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock – in the US.

Axe me no questions.

Activision has named another batch of songs that will appear in this autumn's Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.

Warriors of Rock, the new guitar and the contrast with Rock Band.

Customisable guitars and Dire Straits? Yes please.

This is quite interesting: Dave Mustaine from Megadeth has written a song for Warriors of Rock, the new Guitar Hero game. A Megadeth song designed, from the ground up, with note-tracking rather than, um, mosh-pitting in mind.

Activision has unveiled the latest generation of Guitar Hero guitars and revealed that they all have swappable bodies.

Two-part swappable bodies.

The rumours were right; Activision has unveiled Guitar Hero 6 as Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The game's due out this autumn.

Headline features are an "all-new, story-driven Quest Mode" narrated by KISS front man Gene Simmons; a redesigned, "rock-inspired" controller; the biggest on-disc selection of rock music so far and a "Quickplay+" mode.

Quest mode has turned to the fantastical, as eight new characters and a Demi-God of Rock go from New York digs to molten lava fields to battle against The Beast and save rock and roll. Ridiculous powers can be unlocked on the way, and a new art style has been employed.

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The new Guitar Hero is indeed subtitled Warriors of Rock and will be released on PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

That's according to a preview in Nintendo Power, which for some reason the mag has posted on its own website.

This time the developers have narrowed the series focus back to "guitar-centric rock n' roll", with a lot of handpicked songs, after Guitar Hero 5 went a bit off-piste.

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The official title for the sixth instalment in the Guitar Hero series appears to have leaked onto the internet.

Guitar Hero 6 will not feature playable celebrity likenesses.