Activision To Focus Efforts on Guitar, DJ Hero For 'Broader Audience'

As sales of high-priced music game peripheral bundles decline, Activision says in 2010 it will drill down to two main franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, to reach a "broader audience," rather than trying to specialize in many different markets with a high number of music game SKUs. The company plans to release fewer than 10 music game SKUs this year -- that's not even half of its 2009 total -- according to Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith, who discussed the company's plans during an analyst conference call today. "This year, fewer SKUs will service a broader audience," Griffith said of the new strategy. Most of those SKUs will be various platform versions of two core franchises, Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, the latter of which Activision claims is the "highest grossing new IP launched in 2009," despite some analysts' initial concerns about the game's early performance. Both Guitar Hero and DJ Hero will "launch in the back half of the year," Griffith said. Band Hero is off the table for 2010, he added, and so are further PlayStation 2 versions of Guitar Hero. After hosting versions of Guitar Hero for over four years, Sony's aging platform no longer generates the software sales necessary to support the franchise, Activision says.