Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has revealed a new Guitar Hero game was discussed, following Microsoft's acquisition earlier this week.
In an interview with VentureBeat, Kotick explained the kind of opportunities the company could get with Microsoft saying: "Phil [Spencer] and I started riffing on things for the future. [...] I wanted to make a new Guitar Hero for a while, but I don’t want to add teams to do manufacturing and supply chain and QA for manufacturing. And the chip shortages are enormous."
The Activision Blizzard CEO then goes on to say: "We didn’t really have the ability to do that. I had a really cool vision for what the next Guitar Hero would be and realized we don’t have the resources to do that." Seaking about a potential follow-up to Skylanders, which he and Spencer also discussed, Kotick explained that that series suffered from "the same kinds of things that we can’t do but Microsoft can.”
This doesn’t mean we should start getting in our band practice now, but it does mean that Activision hasn’t forgotten about the rhythm game. If you haven’t had the pleasure of performing Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer on the Xbox 360, here’s a brief overview of Guitar Hero:
To play, players needed to use a guitar-shaped controller which had five colored buttons on its fretboard that corresponded to the patterns displayed on the screen. To do well at the game, players had to hit the right buttons at the right time to play in sync with several classic rock and pop hits.
Starting in 2005, the series expanded into several sequels and spin-offs including Guitar Hero World Tour which also came with a drum set, microphone, and guitar controllers.
If you’re not up to date with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, here’s what you need to know. Microsoft agreed to acquire the Call of Duty publisher on February 18, 2022, for just under $70 Billion. This deal means Microsoft will now own the likes of Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, King, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, Treyarch, and more, when it completes ahead of the deadline of June 2023.
If you’re now worried about Activision games on PlayStation, don’t be, Activision Blizzard games won't be pulled from platforms after acquisition.
