Today video games publisher Activision announced the end of the Guitar Hero franchise. Three developers, two publishers, and six iterations later, the once beloved music game is no more. The news came out of the company’s just released quarterly financial results press release.

“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 company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong. 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.”

So according to the company, Guitar Hero was axed due to declined interest in the genre. But there’s more to it, obviously. Ever since original creator-turned-fierce-competitor Harmonix handed the reins of the franchise to Activision (who in turn gave it to developer Neversoft and Vicarious Visions) in 2007, the game’s overall feel quickly went sour. The game mechanics got weaker, the songs got stale, the instrument accessories never evolved past toy-like appearance and usability. Each new iteration of the game following Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, in my opinion, paled in comparison to the franchise’s best version (GH II) and the competition in Rock Band. All of these downfalls led to poor sales and ultimately to the demise of the franchise.

With the Guitar Hero brand dead and gone, what’s left of the lingering related games? Well, the only one left standing is DJ Hero and it’s being reported that its developer Freestyle Games is being hit with layoffs too. No word on whether or not it will meet the same fate as its close rhythm-based cousin.

RIP Guitar Hero (2005-2011). You will always be remembered as the video games franchise to revolutionize the way we play interactive music-based games that always seemed to find the inner rock star in all of us.

Update: I happened to stumble upon a blog post written by Activision’s Dan Amrich and he shed light on today’s unfortunate news with a positive spin:

“So, honestly…is that “death” or a much-needed break? For a while there I couldn’t drown out the cries of gamers on forums, blogs, and Twitter saying GH should take some time off, and from all appearances, that’s what this is. Step back, let it breathe for a while, don’t make any major plans, and see what happens in the future. I’m very okay with that, even if the break turns into a long time. Chapter closed? Sure, okay. Book burned? I doubt it.”

Perhaps the franchise isn’t completely just, it’s just taking a long hibernation. Amrich went on to add an addendum to his post that certainly dampens the aforementioned positive thinking. According to the official GH Twitter feed: “We will release the previously announced DLC track and mix packs for February, but we will not be able to release new DLC packs.” So GH DLC is disappearning (for now) as well.

[Via Activision; IGN]