Guitar Hero cutting out the console

In a move that will send shudders down the spine of platform holders, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has stated that his firm is looking into the possibility of releasing a new Guitar Hero SKU that can be played directly through the TV without the need to be connected to a console.

Furthermore, the outspoken exec hinted that Guitar Hero might not be the only IP to be preparing for a console-less future.

I think what the untethered Guitar Hero does is it maybe equals the playing field a little bit more and gives you leverage with first parties on downloadable content and the business model,” he told an audience at a Deutsche Bank conference, according to IGN.


You should expect to see many of our products to be playable on the television independent of a console.”

Kotick added that the proliferation of high-capacity broadband and the ability to stream 1080p video and download large files is the key to these ambitions.

"When you look at the installed bases of these devices, and you look at the size of our business today worldwide at $50b, there are so many more places that we have to exploit videogames and sell our content than we’ve been able to sell today," Kotick added.

"As you start to see broadband connections to the television, that’s where you see the 350m users who may not be tethered to an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3 but can have a browser on a television – that is an enormous amount of expansion opportunity."