Activision's Q4 2010 earnings call yesterday revealed big changes to its music game stable -- namely the cancellation of any music games this year. Today, we're slowly seeing pieces of the fallout from that decision become clear.

7 Studios, the Los Angeles developer and pinch-hitter for the Guitar Hero division, has been shut down according to Joystiq. Various staff members tweeted that the studio closed last night. One unnamed source claimed that half of the staff had been let go with 60 days severance pay, while the other half will remain employees for the next 120 days to resolve a legal dispute with the creators of Scratch: The Ultimate DJ. Read more »

Well, 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. Read more »

Activision has just announced it has halted development on the open-world, action title True Crime: Hong Kong and a new game in the Guitar Hero franchise.

According to the release, Activision has decided to disband its Guitar Hero-specific business unit and cancel development on a Guitar Hero title slated for release later this year "due to continued declines in the music genre." Read more »

Extending its Rock Band rivalry to the iPhone and iPod touch, Activision today released Guitar Hero to the iTunes App Store. Developed by Guitar Hero Nintendo DS maker Vicarious Visions, the game is also compatible with, but not optimized for, iPad.

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Inside the same SEC filing that included information about an investigation into "breaches of contract and insubordination by two senior employees at Infinity Ward", Kotaku noticed an interesting bit of information about Activision Blizzard's 2009 profits.

A significant portion of our revenues has historically been derived from products based on a relatively small number of popular franchises and these products are responsible for a disproportionately high percentage of our profits. For example, our top three franchises, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and World of Warcraft, accounted for approximately 68% of our net revenues for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Delivering his keynote at DICE ("Activision CEO: We Should Have Partnered With Harmonix" on Game|Life and "DICE 2010: Kotick Talks Passion For Industry, Debuts Indie Contest" on Gamasutra), Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick addressed the company's acquisition moves and motives. Among these, he talked about their making the wrong choice from the partnership between Harmonix and Red Octane that created Guitar Hero and lamented in hindsight their not better recognizing the talent involved.

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Marking the end of an era, there will be no new Guitar Hero games released on PlayStation 2 in 2010, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith has revealed.

The popular series premiered on PlayStation 2 in November 2005.

Speaking to investors, Griffith explained that the company will be targeting current generation hardware iterations--Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3--for this year's efforts, which include an all-new Guitar Hero entry and the expected DJ Hero sequel.

The BBC reports that Pink Floyd has "has not ruled out working on" a rhythm game though Floyd drummer Nick Mason is none too fond of the genre, Kotaku spotted.

"It irritates me having watched my kids do it - if they spent as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons they'd be damn good by now," said Mason. Read more »

Occassionally villified Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has made another revelation bound to spark some interesting conversation, admitting that "the goal that I had [at Activision]...about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games."

The comment came during a Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference attended by GameSpot, during which Kotick spoke rather frankly regarding the company's culture, future and focus on profit. Read more »

While relatively sluggish sales of Guitar Hero World Tour has some convinced that the music game series has peaked, Signal Hills analyst Todd Greenwald disagrees.

"Guitar Hero sell-through [is] a bit soft, but not a disaster," he explained to Edge. "Despite this 'weakness,' we disagree strongly with those who contend that Guitar Hero is a 'fad,' or that the franchise peaked last year with [Guitar Hero III]." Read more »

Sure, Rock Band and Guitar Hero have inspired many to take the leap into learning a real-life instrument, but that didn't appeal to electro-rockers The Guitar Zeros.

Instead, they opted to craft custom software for use with Guitar Hero instruments that, according to Current, allows them to create "thousands of sounds" and songs. Read more »

"Listen, I can't keep up with this shit," complained Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich in response to the internet pointing out that the Guitar Hero III DLC version of the band's new album Death Magnetic is of better quality than the CD on store shelves.

Speaking to Blender, Ulrich sounded much more educated on the issue than he gave himself credit for. "You gotta remember, when we put out '...And Justice for All,' people were going, 'What happened to these guys, this record? ... It sounds like it was recorded in a fuckin' garage on an eight-track.' And now '...And Justice for All' is sort of the seminal Metallica record that supposedly influenced a whole generation of death-metal bands." Read more »

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has once again come out swinging in his public shouting match with record labels including Warner Music, suggesting that maybe the publisher behind the Guitar Hero series deserves compensation for including songs from labels in the hit rhythm-music series.

"When you look at the impact [Guitar Hero] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant," Kotick told the Wall Street Journal as relayed by Edge. "So much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse." Read more »

Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash has let slip that there will be a Guitar Hero title centered on 1969 Woodstock headliner and Greatest Guitarist of All Time Jimi Hendrix.

Slash, speaking on tribute games Guitar Hero: Metallica and Aerosmith, said to Rolling Stone: "Those are two ones that I think gives it some credibility. And they're doing a Hendrix one, which is great." Read more »

Internet audiophiles have discovered that the Guitar Hero version of Metallica album Death Magnetic is of better quality than the retail CD recently released by label Universal--and they have science to back it up.

"The CD version ... has been heavily compressed, limited and/or clipped, and sounds massively distorted as a result," said recording industry mixing engineer Ian Shepard in a blog post relayed by Wired. Read more »