If there’s one thing Activision loves to do it’s drive their most popular franchises into the ground with constant, never-ending sequels. Sometimes this tactic is successful, which is why we’ve gotten a new Call Of Duty game every single year since 2007. Other times it all but kills an entire series due to oversaturation, which is exactly what happened to poor Guitar Hero.

The great rock star-simulator craze of the mid-2000s began to die out as we headed into the 2010s. And not a moment too soon, as it sounds like Guitar Hero 7 was on the way to being a massive headache for everyone involved.

Playing A Sad Tune

After years of overpriced guitar peripherals, the Guitar Hero series was on life support around the start of 2010. It was no longer the cash cow it had once been, but that didn’t mean that Activision was done trying to squeeze money out of it. Thus, Guitar Hero 7 went into production and was due to be released in 2011.

This edition of the game was aiming to be something different and more authentic. The controller would resemble a real guitar with six strings that would correspond to six buttons. Unlike their top competitor, Rock Band, Guitar Hero 7 would focus solely on the guitar and exclude any drum or microphone functionality. It sounds like the plan was to bring the game back to its original concept of being a rhythm game for hardcore rhythm enthusiasts.

It was being made by a studio called Vicarious Visions, which has done plenty of work for Activision. They’re the developer behind the upcoming Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 remake and even helped create other sequels in the Guitar Hero franchise. So you would think that would mean that Guitar Hero 7 was in good hands.

Of course, things went downhill quickly. The first major problem was the new guitar controller. By all accounts, it felt flimsy and unintuitive. Production costs were also much higher as attaching individual strings required more effort than just slapping on a strum bar.

Then there was the issue of Vicarious Visions’ far too ambitious vision. Guitar Hero 7 was going to feature specially made music videos and backgrounds that would be unique for each track. However, adding individual videos for an entire setlist of songs proved to be more work than the team had expected. To make matters worse, due to their budget they were unable to license any music that was popular at the time. They had to rely on songs that were cheap to acquire, which mostly seemed to be alt-rock hits from the 90s along with other tunes they could use from previous Guitar Hero sequels.

It soon became apparent that the developer had bitten off more than they could chew. The cost of making the complicated controllers and song-specific music videos was going to be too expensive for a franchise that was declining in popularity and profit. Eventually, Eric Hirshberg - the president of Activision at that time - made the call to scrap the entire project. And with that move, the era of Guitar Hero was over.

No Rhythm, Only Blues

There eventually was a seventh Guitar Hero game called Guitar Hero Live that emerged from the depths in 2015. The new developer, FreeStyleGames, took notes from Guitar Hero 7’s failures and used cost-effective FMV footage for backgrounds. In some cases, music videos or concert recordings from the featured bands were utilized. Unfortunately, this game failed to reignite the flames for the rhythm genre. Its GHTV service that allowed fans to stream new songs to play was shut down in 2018. Since then, there’s been no sign of a new Guitar Hero title.

As previously mentioned, Vicarious Visions is still in business and they’re about to release the highly anticipated Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 this September. Let’s hope that they have better luck jump-starting the skateboarding genre than they did making plastic guitars.

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