Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk have been floundering franchises that are far removed from their primes, True Crime was on its way to an attempted comeback, and DJ Hero seemed to be a ray of hope in the music game genre. Today, three of those series have been cancelled by Activision, with Tony Hawk on suspended life support.
According to the latest financial report from the publisher, "the company will disband Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero business unit." DJ Hero was also confirmed to be given the axe, and Tony Hawk’s future was put in jeopardy when the report stated that there would be no music or skateboarding games in 2011.
Despite the cancellations, Activision will still continue to make DLC for Guitar Hero and DJ Hero in order to cater to the existing customer base for both series.
True Crime, a franchise that’s next installment was still in development, was the final series from Activision that was tossed to the wayside. True Crime: Hong Kong was set to release sometime this year for the PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 and was being developed by ModNation Racers creator United Front Games.
Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg said that Activision was only looking to release AAA titles, which True Crime: Hong Kong wasn’t going to be.
"To be blunt, it just wasn’t going to be good enough," he said.
The cancellations of all these games are going to have a large impact on several Activision employees. According to company CFO and COO Thomas Tippl, an estimated 500 people will be let go as a result of these cuts.
[GameSpot]
