Activision's announcement lays to rest nearly two months of rumors on if and when the series would be rebooted. In February, gaming site Kotaku detailed unconfirmed reports about the game, with an Activision spokesperson telling the site, "We don't comment on rumor or speculation, but have previously said, that as one of the most beloved entertainment franchises, we would only bring Guitar Hero back if we developed the right innovations to usher the franchise into the new generation of gaming."

Harmonix and RedOctane released the original game cheap runescape gold in 2005, with Guitar Hero becoming both a critical darling and commercial success. Aside from winning numerous gaming awards, it quickly sailed past "popular" into "phenomenon," with bars hosting Guitar Hero tournaments, fans watching perfect games on YouTube and non-gamers strapping on a piece of plastic to live out their rock star fantasies. In 2009, the franchise, now under the eye of Activision, was one of only a handful to boast annual revenue of more than $2 billion.

Activision would go on to release different versions of the game, including Guitar Hero: Metallica, DJ Hero and Band Hero. But the collapse of the U.S. economy, coupled with waning interest in the series and increasing costs of licensing music, forced the company to release its last game, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, in 2010. "There was nothing that Activision or anybody could have done to save Guitar Hero," Jesse Divnich, vice president of analyst services for Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, told Wired in 2011.

The game will be entering a vastly different landscape than when it first premiered. With album sales continuing to decline year-over-year, record conglomerates will presumably play nicer with video game companies than in 2009, when Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman told analysts (via Wired), "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though [these] games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small."

As the music industry looks for alternative sources of revenue and consumers face more distractions than ever before, www.rsfarmer.com the two sides will need to work out a more amenable arrangement to avoid a war of attrition. It remains to be seen whether Guitar Hero will be able to rekindle its massive popularity and find a new generation of fans.