Activision: Guitar Hero projects may return

Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise may return from what the publisher has described as a “hiatus”.

The series was widely presumed dead, yet an Activision executive has said the publisher “is not ending it”.

"We’re releasing products out of the vault,” said Activision developer relations VP Dan Winters.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, he added: “We’ll continue to sustain the channel, the brand won’t go away. We’re just not making a new one for next year, that’s all."

The publisher had axed the franchise, and at least one Guitar Hero project, as part of a drastic cost-cutting plan announced in February.

Some 500 internal staff have been targeted for redundancy.

Sales of the franchise had slowed considerably in the past 24 months.

Earlier in the year, Activision closed down its internal music group 7 Studios and removed the safety net from DJ Hero outfit FreeStyleGames.

New York based Vicarious Visions, thought to have been working on a Guitar Hero game, had lost around 50 staff. That studio had picked up the Guitar Hero baton from Neversoft.