Activision, one of the biggest players in the plastic instrument music game market, are turning down the volume on music game releases.

In a discouraging sign that the glory days of the music game genre are coming to a close, Activision, who publish the Guitar Hero games, aren’t planning on releasing too many music games this year. The head of Activision, Mike Griffith spoke to IGN about his company’s changing direction – “In 2010, we’re anticipating further declines in the music genre overall as the casual consumer proves less robust and the business naturally continues to migrate from hardware bundles to software-only sales, Our strategy is to become more focused against fewer but bigger propositions, and to right size our investment against the opportunity to improve profitability”.

Activision will instead focus on their two core products- Guitar Hero and DJ Hero, with only a limited amount of software planned for each franchise. DJ Hero was well-regarded by critics, but was less than successful at the cash register, so fans of the game may consider themselves lucky that Activision will still be supporting the series.

Source: IGN