The same conference call that said the company does not expect to release Diablo III this year also heralded the news that Activision was ditching the Guitar Hero franchise and firing 500 employees connected to the franchise.
Activision attributes its decision to disband the franchise to the decline of the music genre, which hasn't–until now–prevented the company from selling millions of plastic guitars every year. With the oversaturation of music games in the market, this really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
Despite its decision to axe its developers, Activision will continue to sell its Guitar and DJ Hero games until it runs out of stock.
With so few games left on the company's roster, it's a wonder if they'll be selling anything apart from "Call of Duty" by this time next year.
The Guitar Hero series of music video games were first published in 2005 by RedOctane and Harmonix Music Systems, and distributed by Activision.