Due to a saturation of the market, we haven’t seen any new Guitar Hero or Rock Band games since 2011. According to Kotaku’s sources, however, a Guitar Hero 7 was in development at Activision’s Vicarious Visions studio until it was cancelled in early ’11. Though it does seem, even to a hardcore GH fan like myself, that that may have been a good thing.

For one thing, Guitar Hero 7 planned to ditch the drums and singing parts of the game. That’s neither here nor there, really. Some players may lament the lack of that ‘party game’ feel, while others might feel that it is a return to Guitar Hero‘s purest form. That’s pretty much as subjective as it gets. It does seem, though, like their plans for the guitar were a little… well, I don’t want to say bad. Let’s just stick with ‘not good’.

“This amazing thing was a six stringed guitar,” Kotaku’s source said, sarcastically. “Not a real guitar, or even full six-stringed. It had the classic Guitar Hero buttons on the neck with one extra new button, and six strings where the strum bar used to be. YAY! Now they have an extra button and five more strum bars!”

“The strings were unresponsive and loose, and the guitars cost a fortune to make. No one could figure out a way to make it so your average Joe could buy one.”

That’s the bare bones of the story, so for more information check out the full story over here. As Kotaku points out, a lot of games have troubled development cycles, so there’s no way of knowing whether the plans for Guitar Hero 7 would have made it the best selling GH to date. But it looks unlikely. Let us know what you think.

Source: Kotaku AU

Brendan may only be able to pluck out a clumsy version of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” on a guitar, but when it comes to music in games, he knows exactly what he’s talking about. Join us for a discussion of why the bridge between music and gaming is so important.