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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:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 77 replies.
I went way too far then.
Man, I was trying to be obviously catty and silly for a rise.
Now I'm worried I might have randomly chosen a bitchy set of things to say which actually are things about which you may be concerned, and may feel had weight.
Kind and gentle hate fuck it is :(
I'm sorry. I was just trying to outgayous you - after you outgaygeousing me so often on IRC>
NOW I FEEL BAD. I'm GOING TO GO AND MASTURBATE TO STRAIGHT PORNOGRAPHY, OF A GIRL AND I HAVING SEX. THAT SHE FILMED. TO PUNISH MYSELF. AND I WON'T POST AGAIN FOR AN HOUR.
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