Guitar Hero Finished

By now you now that the Guitar Hero franchise has been cancelled. After reading Cale's post When We Were Kings, I feel an urge to jump in and add my two cents to the news that shocked (?) the gaming industry. I question the shock of it all, because really, we saw this coming to a degree. Sales were decreasing and it didn't take a market analyst to see that that we were being saturated. If you're a casual gamer, you don't devote a big part of your budget to video games. So if you are in this demographic, you may be prepared to buy a title per year (or maybe two) at full price. So imagine fifteen plus titles coming out within the course of a few years, including full blown double dips - looking at you, Smash Hits.

My first exposure to this franchise was at a display stand in a Toys R Us store. I follow the game industry but sometimes my goggles are pretty selective: Guitar Hero was something I was vaguely aware of but did not bother to fully comprehend. So the opportunity to play couldn't be squandered: Nirvan's Heart Shaped Box seems to be everyone's first time and I was no different. It's actually quite a nostalgic trip putting Guitar Hero 2 in the tray and playing that particular tune. It's also worth noting that back in those days the songs were merely well done covers, and it wouldn't be until later in the series that every tune was provided the original master tracks. Either way, they are a blast to play.

So, I bought Guitar Hero 2, and shortly afterwards its own sequel was released and purchased. Later that year Rock Band would come out, and in just a few short months I had spent hundreds of dollars on plastic instruments. But it's worth it: almost every Friday night, people would come over and we would rock out, even taking up the mic every so often. But the focus was with Cale and either taking turns, or playing together for marathon sessions. As I gradually increased the difficulty my home became the bass guitar, while my more skilled friend would take the lead guitar. My ability to play on harder difficulties was a slow one at that: while I basically started on medium, it's taken years to get to hard.

My strategy for handling the saturation was patience and waiting: I snaked Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for a mere $4.99 new, in some random deal that I haven't seen since. The magic price point seems to be $20: if you're a music game and there, I will buy you. Trudging through one of the titles has been a soothing experience. I gather my achievements, listen and interact with some great music and move on. But for the most part I've stuck with Rock Band, as the Guitar Hero series has featured heavier music, and lots of metal. When I get to the harder songs, they are almost exclusively unrecognizable to me. I've never been a fan of the art direction either, and the gimmicks have always felt somewhat broken. For me, at least, the Hero franchise has never had a good framework; each title seemed to add gimmicks that were not appealing. I liken Guitar Hero as being the Myspace to Rock Band's Facebook.

So there you have it: I'm not sure cancelling the entire franchise was the best call to make. If you scale back production, release fewer but higher quality titles, the market could respond favourably. But perhaps, this is indicative of the casual game market. Wii sales are dropping (probably because everybody has one already) and it's entirely possible the fabled "casual gamer" is moving onto something else, iPhone, anyone?