Video Game Guitar Hero No More

Once upon a time (well, about three years ago) Guitar Hero was a world conquering pastime, to which many attributed the resurgence of rock music after many classic rock and metal songs given a new lease of life - and a new audience - via a plastic guitar controller.

However, times appear to have changed and game publisher Activision have canned the Guitar Hero franchise after sales plummeted from Guitar Hero III's record sales of 1.5m copies in its first month in 2007 to just 100,000 sales in the first month of sale for Guitar Hero: Warrior's Of Rock last September.

In a statement today, Activision said, "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." The statement goes on to say, "These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences."

Current owners of the Guitar Hero games are likely to continue to be serviced in terms of new downloads and various items of downloadable content for the forseeable future.

Last year Viacom sold off Guitar Hero's chief competitor, the Rock Band franchise, after it stopped being profitable.