Activision CFO: Guitar Hero Lacked 'Nurturing, Care'

CFO Thomas Tippl said he's proud that Activision was able to turn its Guitar Hero franchise into one of the best-selling video game series of all time, turning it from a $13 million business to a $1 billion phenomenon. But after the bottom fell out of the peripheral-based music genre a few years ago, Activision decided earlier this year to dissolve its Guitar Hero business. And at New York's City's Citi 2011 Conference this morning, Tippl admitted the publisher lost its way with the former top-selling franchise. "Guitar Hero probably didn't receive the amount of nurturing and care that it needed to maintain that position," he said. "And I think there were a number of good lessons to be learned." "There were a number of elements to the franchise, as well as our relationship with the providers of the music, that didn't make it conducive to make the digital transition," he added. As the peripheral-based music genre fell precipitously, Activision was accused of oversaturating the market with too frequent Guitar Hero releases. The publisher said in April this year that the series is not finished, but simply on hiatus. "If we come back, and when we come back, with a reinvented Guitar Hero experience, I think all of that will have to be taken into account," Tippl said. "Clearly, consumers still have a lot of love for the brand."