Activision Axes Guitar Hero and True Crime

Today Activision Blizzard announced that it will "disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit" due to the declining interest in the music genre. The company has ceased development on its previously planned 2011 Guitar Hero game.Additionally, Activision has stopped production on True Crime: Hong Kong. The future of the franchise is unknown. On an earnings call today, an Activision representative said True Crime had been canceled because it "just wasn't going to be good enough."

Although the Guitar Hero business unit at Activision is being shuttered, company executives left the door open for a return in the future, saying the brand would need to be "re-assessed" going forward.The decision to scrap/halt these franchises was attributed to the "desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences."There are also rumors circulating via Twitter from a BioWare employee that Freestyle Games, the developer of DJ Hero, was also hit with layoffs. However, it's still unclear whether or not that franchise has also been dropped from Activision's lineup.

We have reached out to Activision for comment and will update this story as soon as we receive it.