No new strings for Guitar Hero

It was just a game that made it very, very big, that’s all

Continued declined in the music games genre has led Activision Blizzard to do the unthinkable: development of its Guitar Hero games has been discontinued and the business unit disbanded.

Announcing results that fell short of expectations, the company still made a net loss for the fourth quarter but reported strong performance for Call of Duty: Black Ops and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

As well as Guitar Hero, Activision cancelled development on True Crime: Hong Kong.

The company reported a 2010 profit of $418m, but in the December quarter lost $233m. Its ongoing restructuring is expected to result in 500 job losses. ®