10 Popular Video Games Developers Abandoned

The noughties were crammed with rhythm action games - Guitar Hero, Band Hero, DJ Hero, Piccolo Hero... okay, maybe not the last one. The greatest couch co-op experience was pioneered by Harmonix, who after developing the first few Hero games gave us Rock Band, which expanded the repertoire beyond single-instrument jamming to provide the opportunity to form a four-piece band in our living rooms, both offline and online.

Cue the caterwauling associated with karaoke games transposed onto harder rock tracks, making for a much more irritating experience for neighbours everywhere as Michael Bublé's crooning made way for Marilyn Manson's screaming. By Rock Band 3, up to three singers could perform at once - although the offered term "vocal harmonies" was misleading.

By the end of 2012 Rock Band's catalogue of songs exceeded 4000 official releases; this is not including the extensive modding community which still exists today. Yet Harmonix would eventually move on, having provided nearly three years of weekly DLC, ending this run in March 2013 and leaving hundreds of thousands of wannabe rockstars in the lurch.

Admittedly, Harmonix would release Rock Band 4 several years later, but it failed to achieve the critical or commercial success of its predecessor, with a more obscure setlist and fewer features, including no online mode and the removal of the keyboard, a disappointment to wannabe John Lennons everywhere. The developer's abandonment of Rock Band 3 signalled the beginning of the decline of the rhythm action genre, never again to reach such lofty highs.