The Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games have become huge hits, generating 1.6 billion USD in North American sales last year from players who love jamming along with music legends. But now customers may be singing an old blues classic: “The Thrill Is Gone.”

After surging 68 percent in 2008, sales of music games are expected to be stagnant this year. Though new versions still do well, they don’t catch fire the way they used to. It’s unclear whether the craze is winding down or simply being hurt by the recession. Either way, the slowdown is disappointing some of the huge corporations that have made big bets on the genre. Viacom Inc., whose MTV division owns the rights to the Rock Band franchise, said last month that sales of Rock Band 2 were lower than it had hoped and cut into the company’s profit.

In the meantime, Viacom and Activision Blizzard, which publishes Guitar Hero, have unveiled separate plans to keep the party going. Activision intends to release twice as many Guitar Hero games this year as in 2008, starting with a version due out March 29 that features music from heavy metal band Metallica. The Santa Monica game juggernaut also plans to release DJ Hero at the end of the year, tapping into a new slice of music fans that are into electronica, rap and hip-hop. Source: LA Times