The Player

Will the end of Guitar Heroalso mean the end of music games, asks CIARA O'BRIEN

I WAS A bit of a late comer to music games. Guitar HeroIII was my first introduction to the genre in 2007, and things have moved quickly since then. For me, like many others, Guitar Herowas the closest I've got in recent years to picking up something that looked vaguely like a guitar and actually making something like music come out of it.

That has now come to an end, with the news last week that Activision is calling time on the franchise and shutting down the division responsible for it.

It wasn't so long ago that Guitar Herowas hailed as a "cultural phenomenon". So how have things changed so much? The music game genre has been on the decline for a little while now. When the first Guitar Herowas launched, it sold about 1.5 million copies. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rockis said to have sold 1.4 million in just five days, and in one week raked in $115 million in the US alone. But the most recent effort, Warriors of Rock (2010), sold only 86,000 copies in the US in five days.

It seems inevitable that Guitar Herowould be downsized, though few thought it would as final, or as swift – Activision last week said it was halting work on its 2011 game.

It also means an end to games such as Band Hero and DJ Hero. I have to admit, I never really got the appeal of plastic decks.

Still, Activision has had a good run of it. In addition to the main Guitar Heroreleases, there was special editions featuring Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen. The franchise made its way from the PlayStation 2 to the next generation consoles, the PS3, XBox 360 and Wii. It even managed an iPhone app and a DS version. Downloadable packs, extra controllers; no wonder Guitar Heroand its offshoots have earned some $2 billion.

But this particular type of music game appears to have had its day. There are several possible reasons: high costs for developers, increasing competition, and boredom with a genre that can’t possibly take any more.

Activision isn't the only one seeing this. In December Harmonix Music Systems, the company behind Rock Band, was sold off by Viacom. MTV Games was shut.

It’s not clearyet what the future is for music games. But unless developers can come up with something original and compelling, it may not be a bright one.