Symphony of Destruction

Paving the way for the music genre of video games, Guitar Hero has certainly given many gamers what they desired, to be a rockstar! Whether you love it or hate it, Activision still sold 25 million units of this game worldwide and pulled nearly 2 billion dollars in revenue from sales. Giving gamers the power to rock was the first step to success with the Guitar Hero franchise, never before has a video game mastered the way of the virtual rockstar. After five sequels there was no end in sight, and competitors were quick to jump on the gravy train of the musical video game industry while it was at it's peak. Titles such as RockStar, Rock Revolution, and even the biggest titan of the genre, Rock Band, started popping up all over the place following the great success of Guitar Hero, everyone wanted in.

Like cocaine in the 80's, the musical genre exploded to life with the intensity of an atom bomb. The video game industry brought together two major forms of media and created one beautiful equation, musical ability mixed with the sheer nerd rage of video games. Combining the two created a vortex that pulled both music lovers and video game geeks into one common interest, multiplying their audience by astronomical proportions! What company didn't want in on this? Sadly, the path to success also lead to the path of downfall.

Over-saturation of the musical video game genre split up the sales between the countless companies pumping out Guitar this or Band that at alarming rates. Thus dividing the profit by millions of dollars that were needed to stay afloat during these tough economic times. With profits heavily divided and most companies taking losses instead of making profit, it was time to cut ties and move on.

Viacom sold off Harmonix, the developer of Rock Band, MTV Games has ceased publishing, and last but not least, Activision has shut the doors to the studios behind Guitar Hero and any other musical Hero that was in development. While the games were amazing and broke ground on new territory, their success was merely the first verse to a true symphony of destruction. The industry is to blame for the death of this amazing genre, but what can we say, they were just trying to make a buck.