The Death of Guitar Hero and DJ Hero- What happened??

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Most people by now have either strummed a plastic peripheral guitar, or scratched on a turntable like controller. Everyone loves bringing out instrument like controllers to entertain a group of guests at a party. But for now we are going to have to stick to what we have, as I'm sure most of you are aware, there isn't going to be any more 'Hero' games being produced.....for now.

Guitar Hero first hit our shelves back in 2005, when rhythm and dance games weren't really big in Western Countries. In Japan however, games such as Beatmania (video below) were a huge success. Probably due to the difficulty of the game, and the non-commercial western tracks it features, is why it never did too well outside of Japan.

Guitar Hero simplified the idea of Beatmania, gave the game more commercially known rock tracks and bundled the game with a plastic controller shaped like a guitar. It became an instant hit and spawned many sequels and spin off's within the next 5 years of its original release.

As much as I thought Guitar Hero was a fantastic game, I was never a huge fan of the Rock genre. I always longed for a good music game based more around the urban genre. To my delight, and many fans across the globe, in 2009, Activision (Publishers of Guitar Hero) released DJ Hero, a game very similar to the mechanics of Guitar Hero, but instead features a Turntable styled controller, with a rotating platter and 3 main buttons. This was the game for fans of Dance, Rap and RnB. It became one of the highest grossing new products in North America that year.

All up, there have been 14 'Hero' games released since the launch of Guitar Hero in 2005. Most likely the reason behind the death of the 'Hero' franchise is due to Activision 'milking' the series, focusing too much on getting new product on shelves rather then focusing on creating new and interesting game play. PaRapper The Rapper creator Masaya Matsurra stated games need to go beyond the idea of challenging the player to mimic the playing of licensed music.

Activision is currently holding off any future development of the 'Hero' series due to weak sales, recognising that the music game genre was not profitable as it once was. 

Though the music game genre still lives, with titles such as Just Dance, Dance Central and Rocksmith showing great results worldwide. Unfortunatly, the urban genre seems to be left out...again...I guess the best we're going to get is Black Eyed Peas: The Experience.....