Guitar Hero is a franchise that was once at the peak of the gaming landscape but has slowly faded into obscurity, but Activation’s upcoming merger with Microsoft could be just the thing fans needed to see this franchise come back to life.
Microsoft’s wide-reaching capabilities could lead to the resurgence of Guitar Hero, former Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick said in a town hall meeting this week.
“A big part of what I’ve seen in Microsoft is research. And they do development in areas that are extraordinary. And so being able to tap into their AI and machine learning capability, the data analytics, new ways of thinking about graphics—I just see unlimited potential for what we do,” Kotick said, as reported by Windows Central.
“The re-emergence of Guitar Hero and other things would not be possible without the different types of resources. And so, you know, just the endless possibilities for the future that are just incredibly exciting.”
Of course, this is far from confirmation a new Guitar Hero is in development, but it would seem to suggest the idea of a revival has been floated before.
There hasn’t been a Guitar Hero game since 2015 when Guitar Hero Live launched. That release attempted to bring a new advanced controller into the mix; a big change from the five-button colored guitar longtime players were familiar with.
Perhaps with Microsoft’s resources, a Guitar Hero revival could see another new controller enter the mix. While that would be interesting, a lot of fans would be happy just to get the original controller back with some new songs and upgrades.
With the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard set to close in the near future the wait to find out about Guitar Hero’s potential return may not be that long after all.
