Tag Archives: music games

NPD Group’s Anita Frazier has stated that music game sales are down 46 percent year-on-year, and but unit sales are “down much less because lower prices are playing into the dollar sales decline.”

However, there looks to be a possible silver-lining with The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 both having debuted this month, so sales should be up for the genre when September figures are released next month.

Still, Frazier says that “it’s the third best-selling genre for the year after General Action and Multiple/Other Sports.”

Good to know.

Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference yesterday, EA COO John Pleasants said that music games are set to become a huge segment of the industry, and one that both EA and Activision are actively pushing to innovate in.

“There are lots of other things you can do with music, and we’re working on interesting things, and we know our competition is working on interesting things”, he said.

“When we look back five years, the fantasy of being a rock star by punching the buttons that are flowing down the screen is going to be one implementation in what is going to be a very large category”.

Without admitting to anything currently in the oven or, he did say that “it’s a robust category” and in the coming years there will be “lots of things we will do in the music category.”

He also shrugged off Activision claims that Guitar Hero was a clear leader in the field.

“They’re both big behemoths,” he said. “In calendar year ’08, Rock Band 1 was, I believe the leading music SKU across all platforms and Rock Band 2 was the highest-quality product with a 92 Metacritic.”

More here.

A new Guitar Hero DS game is to be expected in 2009, along with another Guitar Hero game for consoles, which Activision said will be announced at a later date.

Guitar Hero as a franchise will receive a "major re-staging" in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company said.

Guitar Hero has an install base of 32 million worldwide, the firm said, and outsold Rock Band four-to-one in the US despite supply constraints.

GH was the number one selling franchise in Europe with a 122 percent increase in holiday sales.

Activison said the genre is generally robust, and consumers will be accommodated by the release of different music genres to its games.

The company expects the music kit game install base to grow by 53 million units in the coming year, and new users to franchise have broadened the demographic and want more variety.

To help the company accomplish their growth in the Guitar Hero franchise, in Europe it will include more Euro bands.

The company said the release of DJ Hero will be innovative and take franchise in new direction.

In addition, a greatest hits compilation will be released, and with Metallica being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this will help the sales of the upcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica, which is set for a March release. The PS2 version will arrive a bit later on.