Activision Discontinues Guitar Hero And True Crime Franchises


Sad news today. Looks like the music genre doesn’t have room for two (or is it three? four?) overpriced DLC machines. To be sure, Guitar Hero has sold a lot of copies, but you’re not going to get a lot of return business when people have already spent three times the normal amount on your game. Plus, it’s a copyright nightmare, and probably very expensive to produce.

Whatever the case, there won’t be a Guitar Hero 8, or Guitar Hero: Nickelback, or whatever was coming next. Activision is shutting down the franchise, perhaps just in time, perhaps a little too late, but at least before they really ran it into the ground with Barbie Guitar Adventures or some such. The music genre will probably see a revamp in a few years, but it needs to rest for a while.

The aging True Crime series is also getting a pink slip. I don’t have anything against it, but it was never particularly compelling in the way Heavy Rain or the more open-ended games like GTA are. Off it goes to the great retailer in the sky. No hard feelings, little guy.

What’s next? Could your favorite franchise be in line for the guillotine? Studies relate franchise cancellations to murder sprees and weight gain! How will this affect your children? Fox News reports.