Activision Stops 'Hero' Franchise, Continues Others

In a move which has surprised every one of its dozen remaining fans, Activision has decided to scrap the Guitar Hero franchise after dwindling sales with 2010 entry Warriors of Rock (not surprising, it only got a 5/10 here). The decision comes with a whopping number of nineteen instalments of finger-blistering goodness now available on shelves, reportedly as the company don't want the series to be remembered as a repetitive one- bit late for that now, but still- and so that they can put more focus on the Call of Duty franchise now updated on an annual basis, for better or for worse. More surprising was the publisher's move to also shut down FreeStyleGames, the developer who brought us the excellent DJ Hero titles and that was currently working on a sequel to the great 2010 version (9/10). Presumably this also means the 3DS port planned has also bitten the dust, although FreeStyleGames have assured us via their Twitter account that their fans' cries have been "much appreciated" and that it's "still early days" for DJ Hero 3, possibly indicating the dev will switch to another publisher (they better, or the £100 shelled out by many gamers for the turntable will have been a wasted investment). This might have left Rock Band developer Harmonix room to take the stage with a sequel to Rock Band 3 had EA not decided to shut them down as well last December! Speaking to the press, Activision did however reveal that there would be new Call of Duty, Spider-Man (Shattered Dimensions 2), X-Men (Destiny), Transformers (A prequel to Dark of the Moon developed by High Moon Studios, who did the excellent spin-off War For Cybertron), Family Guy and Spyro (a weird project involving toys) games out in 2011, so perhaps all isn't lost!