Neversoft Ripping Up Guitar Hero

Has Activision handed development duties on the series to the Tony Hawk creator? It seems so. Bonus screens from Harmonix' Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II inside.

Earlier this week reports had it that Activision was working on a third instalment in its first-cult-now-mainstream hit Guitar Hero series. It was presumed that series developer Harmonix would be back on deck but that's now in question.

Neversoft, the developer of Activision's recent Spider-Man games and the Tony Hawk series, has listed job postings on its site looking for people to work on a new Guitar Hero game. This follows rumours reported by GameDaily that Neversoft was taking over the series.

Activision got the rights to the Guitar Hero name when it bought publisher RedOctane last year. Harmonix, however, is an independent developer with no rights to the Guitar Hero name, making it dependent on Activision for anything related to the series.

An earlier report said Guitar Hero: '80s Edition would be coming only to PlayStation 2, so it stands to reason that Activision could have brought Neversoft in to develop the PlayStation 2 game, leaving Harmonix to develop a true next-generation instalment to follow Guitar Hero II's release on Xbox 360 later this year.

It's unlikely that Activision would mess with a formula that is working so well. Guitar Hero II got a running start at its release in the UK, and it did even better in the US, selling 1.3 million copies to make it the fifth-bestselling game of 2006.

None of the companies involved has issued a statement on the matter.

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo