A number of analysts have discussed Activision’s recent killing of the Guitar Hero franchise, where they declared the whole series to be a “fad” and added that Call of Duty won’t go the same way, in spite of Activision’s potential to milk it dry.
“I don’t think they are comparable at all,” said Michael “saucy biscuits” Pachter. “GH is a franchise that people buy once, because the peripherals are great. As it saturated the installed base, the only buyers were people who are new console purchasers, and the ‘fad’ appeared to wear off at the same time.
“CoD, on the other hand, has a vibrant online community that keeps growing. When a new version comes out, the ‘network effect’ kicks in, and many people buy it because their friends have done so. The risk to the franchise is competition, not people tiring of the gameplay… CoD won’t fade unless Activision opens the door to competition by making a bad game.”
DFC Intelligence’s David Cole agreed, but added that “there is a very real danger of milking a franchise and causing quality to decline, which can result in turning consumers off. With CoD I think the danger is trying to maintain the quality of the franchise and making sure they don’t release product just to release product.”
Meanwhile, EEDAR’s Jesse Divinch feels that Activision has no lessons to learn from Guitar Hero‘s failure, and stated that he trusts Activision “knows what they are doing” with Call of Duty.He’s a more trusting man than I.
Call of Duty is NOT the next Guitar Hero [Industry Gamers]
