Harmonix: Guitar Hero genre disappeared due to abundance and lack of innovation

The Guitar Hero genre disappeared due to a plethora of games and a lack of innovation within the genre. Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos made the announcement in an ama on Reddit. Nor would the genre have responded well to the economic recession.

Rigopulos responded to a question from a user who wondered if Rigopulos agreed with many people’s opinion that the declining popularity of Guitar Hero-style games is due to Activision. That company released five Guitar Hero games in a twelve-month period.

According to Rigopulos, there is some truth to Activision releasing too many GH games at one point. However, he emphasizes that the genre’s declining popularity was also due to the fact that Guitar Hero and Rock Band were the most expensive games on the market, amid a major economic recession. Furthermore, the lack of innovation by both games would not have helped the genre’s popularity much either.

Rigopolus is sure that Rock Band will regain popularity. He says that the immense popularity of rhythm games has already been followed by the great success of many dance games. He expects a new type of games that Harmonix is ​​currently working on will continue the success of dance games. Whether this comment refers to Harmonix’s new musical shooter Chroma, which will be released later this year, is not clear.

Harmonix worked on several Guitar Hero games from 2005 to 2007, including the first game in the series. When it was bought by MTV games, the company stopped developing Guitar Hero to work on several Rock Band games, which it still does today.