Rock is not dead: Guitar Hero franchise “on hiatus” only

Talking to GamesIndustry.biz, Activision’s Dan Winters has announced that rumours of Guitar Hero’s demise have been greatly exaggerated, and that the franchise is merely on “hiatus.” That’s like rehab for video games.

“Actually, just to clarify, we’re just putting Guitar Hero on hiatus, we’re not ending it,” said Winters. “We’re releasing products out of the vault – we’ll continue to sustain the channel, the brand won’t go away. We’re just not making a new one for next year, that’s all.”

The somewhat exhausted series was put on ice back in February 2011, when it seemed the entire genre just crashed overnight – although industry hipsters would probably tell you it’s all been corporate cheerleading commercial **** since Guitar Hero II in 2007.

“Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011,” was the official line at the time.

I guess it makes sense that there’s going to be a reunion tour at some point.