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Evening Reading
by Jeff Mattas, Feb 09, 2011 5:00pm PSTWell, ladies and gents, it would seem as though the heyday of plastic instruments (and their associated games) might finally be appearing in our rear-view mirror. It was bound to happen, eventually.
The beginning of the end, so to speak, seemed to be when Harmonix -- the developer that founded both Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises -- was put up on the chopping block by Viacom late last year. Harmonix elected to, in effect, purchase itself, and remains an independent entity that continues to churn out Rock Band DLC at a regular clip.
Couple that with today's news that Activision is not only canceling the 2011 installment of the Guitar Hero franchise (which it's owned since 2006), but is pursuing the "discontinuation of the development of all music-based games," due to "anticipation of a continuing weak environment for casual and music-based games," and the trend couldn't be more obvious.
Don't get me wrong. I still fire up Rock Band on a semi-regular basis, and it still does an exceptional job of making someone who can't play any real instruments (like myself) feel like a rock star. Granted, it's been three years since I've purchased a plastic guitar. If peripheral sales are built into your expected profit margin, factors like a plateauing or declining user-base and making an increasingly iterative product make it harder to meet those numbers each year.
And, in case you missed it:
""Sales of mid-tier titles are being squeezed out," according to the publisher"
http://pc.ign.com/articles/114/1148889p1.html
While I can see it from the bottom line on Activision's side, at the same time, they're at fault for these mid-tear games have little to no sales. They rush the work product to market, do little promotion of them once there, and then penalize developers on low sales.
I know EA has backed off from mid-tier titles, but at the same time they're open to a lot more risks, like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space (which has proven very successful).
It may simply be more that the "retail" market for these titles is waning - such mid-tier titles can't compete against CODs and Maddens and the like on the same shelf. But certainly plenty of room for titles when the publishing costs are kicked out.
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