"Landslide, rocks are falling, falling down 'round our very heads. We tried but you were yawning, look again, rock is dead." - "Long Live Rock" by The Who
Hi there and welcome back to another week. Hopefully the hangover is a little better than last week, with the Super Bowl and all.
I know I didn’t go in to the “big game” last week, and that’s because I didn’t care a whole lot about it. As for the halftime performance, I discussed that on my Twitter page (feel free to follow me): “The Super Bowl Halftime performance is the reason Roe v. Wade was passed in to legislation.”
One more quick bit before we get to business: Anyone looking for a R.E.M. cover by The Decemberists? You’re welcome.
Now then, this week’s news is kinda big in the right circles, as well it should be, since one of the biggest video game franchises of the last decade died a quick and violent death earlier this week.
So, why discuss this in a music column? Because that game franchise was Guitar Hero.
It was a move that many (now) say they saw coming from a mile away naked, except for a pair of clown shoes and a neon sign. And sure, they had good reason. Activision was bleeding money after releasing as many versions as they could in rapid succession, not understanding how to capitalize on this beast. There were—and are—many other problems in that company as well, but I’ll let Josh Lasser and the guys in our Gaming section discuss all that.
My issue here is with the reason Activision gave for canceling the series. Activision announced that it was "disband[ing] Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit" due to the declining interest in the music genre. If game unit sales are to be brought in to consideration, that decline has been happening for a couple of years. As far as declaring the music game genre all but dead, however, that’s where a foul has to be called.
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