AHC: Keep Guitar Hero Alive

The challenge is to keep Activision's now dead series, Guitar Hero, still alive and have new editions sell decently. Bonus points if a spin-off, such as DJ Hero, stays alive as well.
 
What about butterflying away the Rock Band series since it was made by the same company initially and took over both the development interest and market niche Guitar Hero had?
 
What about butterflying away the Rock Band series since it was made by the same company initially and took over both the development interest and market niche Guitar Hero had?

That would definitely be a huge help to Guitar Hero; but the "plastic instruments" trend would probably still produce a good few knock-offs.
 
The problem with this is that the music genre in gaming was largely a fad.

Another problem is Activision itself.
Activision is a very, um, corporate company.

Have Harmonix go to another company that ISN'T Activision (preferably not EA either.)
If that happens, and things progress much the same multiple things could happen.

1.) Games aren't pushed out yearly, so they'll be more developed, and complete.
2.) Since games won't be annual, the market won't be over saturated with the same game, essentially.
3.) The market won't fracture into two games, Rockband and Guitar Hero. There may be another one, I don't know.
4.) The transition into a full band MAY take longer to come.
5) Due to an expanded time to develop games, the spin offs that could come into existance may look more favorable, and not just an attempt at a cash grab.
 
Quite simply don't have them release 2-3 Guitar Heroes a year with new plastic instruments and all. Put more focus on DLC and space games out better. A new guy came into power and said no more Guitar Hero because it was losing money, keeping him out of power might give us another game or two. Also, keep Just Dance from taking over the popular consciousnesses. Rhythm gaming is always back and forth between dancing and fake rocking. It's dancing's turn thanks to Just Dance.
 
Have the game in 3 parts:
1) The instrument
2) The cartridge that has the engine
3) The music/data chip

The instrument would be obvious, it is the drum, keyboard, or other item that matches the stuff on the screen. it would communicate with the game engine so the engine knows what to display on-screen. If the keyboard has fewer controls than the next version, the engine will limit the number of displays, so it can actually be played (so if you are using the 4-button guitar, and the game requires the 6-button guitar, it will only display 4 of the buttons).

The cartridge has the engine, and will adapt what it shows on screen based on what is being used. A smart developer will have okay visualizations if you are using the controllers only, but get things fancier the more instruments you buy. If the player has an avatar, the engine will use that avatar to form a rough face/outfit for the on-screen character. One idea might be to just select the 'concertgoer' option, and the game plays the music while you do something else.

The music/data chip. This is the part that is sold 2-3 times per year. This contains the songs, cues, etc that the engine uses to create the screen information. This would be plugged into the cartridge itself if using a cartridge, or you would buy a new game CD/DVD otherwise.

This way you have three parts that can be used together, and the people playing it don't have to buy everything brand new each time. You can have one person who only uses the regular controller, and they have an okay experience. The person with keyboard and drums has a better experience, and friends come over as well. The music chip means you can change out the music and play something different when you feel like it, or you change out the game CD/DVD to play something else.

The key is disconnecting the buying plastic guitars/drums from buying the game. If they can manage this then they can probably get more fans. Lower prices on a per-disk basis would be explained as they will be using the same (or nearly so) engine for the next several years, so the cost can be spread out. The changing musical data means people will be buying new discs each time, several times per year.

DLC would be a nice idea, since people can go online and purchase the music they prefer, it will arrive immediately, all of it can go in one folder (instead of hunting through multiple discs for That One Song), and you can have a record of the purchases, in case somethng happens to their system. You'd have it where people would buy the game disc once, and they would purhase the music online from that point on, to make their lives easier. The DLC would have higher profits (no need to make money on the engine), and lower material requirements (no location needed to burn, package, and ship the CD/DVD). The songs would cost more than Amazon since you are including the game cues along with th music itself, but not that much more since it can only be played in the game.

The primary source of repetitive costs would be the license and legal fees for the music, which might eat up most of the profits.
 
Top