Though Activision’s latest financial report reveals a tiny surge in net revenue in 2010 to $4.8bn, up from $4.78bn in 2009, the publisher’s Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk franchises performed badly. As a result, no further sequels will be made and approximately 500 jobs will be lost across the business.

The statement reveals:

"Due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011.” The discontinuation of the two other franchises was revealed during a conference call.

Furthermore, Activision has confirmed that the resurrection of its open-world True Crime series, which was due for release later this year, has now been cancelled.

Key franchises, such as Call Of Duty, World Of Warcraft and Starcraft II continue to do well for the publisher, and it also looks likely to expand its development in online arena where there appears to be low risk opportunity and high rewards up for grabs.

"Online gaming continues to broaden its appeal. Our shareholders continue to be well positioned to benefit from these trends and the focus of our incredibly talented employees around the world continues to allow us to lead our industry. We expect to continue to drive long-term growth, increase our return on invested capital and generate strong cash flow as we have over the last few years,” reads the statement.

Interestingly,Activision COO and CFO Thomas Tippl also revealed that Blizzard's Diablo III has not been included in current projections for 2011, suggesting that its release date will slip till 2012.