Activision Blizzard announced recently that their once-popular squealy-guitar-star simulator was to be taken out back and shot. But why? There are several likely possibilities: Perhaps keeping up with the wildly-popular Rock Band series of games was proving to be too much. Perhaps kids are playing outside more these days and don't have time for... bwahaha okay, okay - that's definitely not it.

Just as Activision Blizzard were setting up to announce their Q4 results, they explained that the reason they're discontinuing some of their popular games (Guitar Hero, DJ Hero) and canceling others (True Crime: Hong Kong) is because they are looking to spend more time focused on their Call of Duty titles. They also claimed that they are working to develop a "best-in-class digital community surrounding the Call of Duty franchise," and are hard at work on a new Bungie IP and some new and "innovative universe with broad appeal" that will apparently be revealed at Toy Fair.

Am I sad to see Guitar Hero go? Part of me is. It was once this magical unicorn of a game -- something I'd been waiting for my whole life and wow-here-it-is! It made me feel like a hip, cool rock superstar, but once Rock Band came into the picture, I traded in my guitar for a microphone and never looked back. (Okay, once I was curious to play one of the songs in Guitar Hero III, so I looked back... but just for an instant. It was just an experimental phase I was going through, I swear.)

Which is the better game, Guitar Hero or Rock Band?