The day the music died for guitar games — and how they’re coming back

Activision and Harmonix are giving the once rockin’ music game genre one more go on the new generation of game consoles, though they’re changing up their tunes a bit for this next gig.

After a five-year lull, both of the guitar-based music game franchises are set to return this year. The Boston, Mass.-based Harmonix surprised fans with the announcement of Rock Band 4 in early March, set to release for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this year. This week, competitor Activison responded by formally announcing a reboot of its Guitar Hero franchise, called Guitar Hero Live, also set to launch in 2015. At their height, music games overtook the sports genre to become the second most popular genre, making up about 18 percent of the market. But after the massive crash that the genre saw five years ago, these companies will need to innovate to get the band back together and succeed in the games business, a market that DFC Intelligence says will hit $100 billion by 2018.