Activision Blizzard has issued a the 500 or so employees, as well as ending the True Crime franchise (whatever that is) and firing whoever (if anyone) was actually still working on it. This news comes after an awful holiday season for music games:
First Harmonix was sold by Viacom to a consortium of shareholders; the terms were undisclosed, but it was reported to be a fire sale. MTV Games, which collaborated with Harmonix on Rock Band, was shut down. Guitar Heroes: Warriors of Rock, the sixth title in the series, received lackluster reviews and even more lackluster sales. Activision posted a $233 million net loss for the fourth quarter. Its decision to lay off the 500-person Guitar Hero division was, Activision said in a press release today, “due to continued declines in the music genre.”[Mashable]
But don’t shed any tears for Activision. They’ll be all right. They paid $100 million for the Guitar Hero franchise five years ago and have made an approximately $2 billion return on investment from it since. That said, we’re totally going to miss buying another expensive, game-specific controller so we can play Guitar Hero: The Doors “Just The Songs Recorded After Morrison Died” Edition. We don’t know how we’ll go on without playing “No Me Moleste Mosquito” on Expert.
[Banner picture via CrunchGear]