Rhythm game debut strikes sour note, underscores slide for both franchise and genre.
In September, gamers answered the age-old question of "Are you ready to rock?" Judging by US sales figures from the month, the answer was an apathetic shrug of the shoulders.
The industry-tracking NPD Group yesterday released sales data for the month of September, revealing that the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 versions of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock sold fewer than 100,000 copies combined. Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter had projected the game to sell 100,000 copies earlier this week.
"September music genre sales declined to $16 million from $116 million a year ago, facing tough comps from the launch of Beatles Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 last September," Pachter said in a note to investors today. "Year-to-date music genre sales are only $158 million, compared to $506 million for the first nine months of 2009, accounting for over three-quarters of the total industry decline so far this year."
Last year, Guitar Hero 5 sold 499,000 copies in its debut month, despite being part of a saturated slate of seven Guitar Hero games to hit stores that year; Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 are the only games in the franchise hitting shelves this year.
In 2008, the US rhythm game genre pulled in $1.66 billion in retail sales. Last year, it plummeted to $876 million. That $780 million shortfall accounted for the majority of the overall industry's slide for the year. Combined PC, console, and handheld software sales for 2009 were down roughly $1.2 billion for the year to $10.5 billion, according to NPD figures.
Fortunately, the flagging genre's hopes aren't entirely hinging on the performance of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Activision's DJ Hero 2 will be released next week, with MTV Games' Rock Band 3 hitting shelves the week after that.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
i loved the guitar heros better than rock band cause the graphics were better and the storyline was better and the songs were bettter. as for guitar hero 3 it was cool cause of the battles but the lack of songs didnt interest me. i love most songs on world tour and 5. but the setlist on warriors of rock was the best. and i love almost all the songs. because of this im boycotting every game now.
Good, this franchise has been terrible since Guitar Hero 3, which in my opinion is the best in thee franchise and always will be. They need to stop milking this...how about release DLCs with good songs....or I don't know, how about release the game with good songs, that would be good too.
I think the main reasons Guitar Hero has been failing are: 1. GH relies heavily on gimmicks i.e. the guitar duel with the devil, celebrity avatars, etc. 2. Poor download support. The biggest factor in Rockband dominating is, I think, the continued downloadable track support. Instead of constantly trying to develop whole new games with only a few decent songs, Harmonix focused on continually providing new tracks and saving the "brand new games" for when they actually wanted to change something, like the career mode, or the quickplay modes. Just my take...
I'm not surprised. Guitar Hero is not only milked a lot but Rock Band has 2000 songs you can download. Not that I care which one sales the best but I mean Rock Band is the better deal imo. It's has come to my attention that Call of duty has become the new madden. Milked every year and with minimal changes.
dude, are they seriously blaming rock band? How about the fact that they whore'd their game to just about any band or music genre just to cash in on the game genre that is fake guitar. Seriously...a guitar hero game ever 6 months? Make the people want it for crying out loud.
Peeps are finally wising up to Activision's crap? Thank you humanity. Hopefully Call of Duty will join it shortly.
I remember Guitar Hero when it first came out, it didn't have a huge fan base in Canada, but as soon as 2 and 3 came out it was huge, it's like "Ohhhh yeah! I never played GH1 but, I know everything about it, so I'll just be a suck to trends and play it because everyone else is". The first three were enough, I'd rather play Rock Band with the family or girlfriend once in a while than play the Christmas present Guitar Hero 5.
I hope they all fail, i'm tired of these stupid games, seeing grown men pushing buttons on a toy guitar pretending to rock is wrong in so many ways :P
Good maybe this retarded fad will finally die out. Hopefully gaming dies out all together so real companies can make real games instead of worrying about profit all the time. The gaming industry died shortly after the "next" gen games consoles came out.
"Over saturation. If I was Activision, I would seriously consider putting rhythm games on a hiatus for about a year or two before they completely tank the entire genre." The problem is that Activision doesn't give a crap about the long term, the genre, the game industry, or anything else that isn't instant profit in their slimy corporate pockets.
Over saturation. If I was Activision, I would seriously consider putting rhythm games on a hiatus for about a year or two before they completely tank the entire genre.
I bought warriors of rock, and me and my family love it. It's a Guitar Hero game, good enough for me.
GH: Metallica was the last GH game I bought (I freaking love Metallica). No big surprise that GH is dying, and it's a damn shame that surely CoD is next, because Call of Duty can be a lot of fun. That's what happens when you give something great to KoDICK. SAD BUT TRUE!
@ CapmJim Are you comparing the one or two Rock Band games a year that Harmonix released to the five or six Guitar Hero games Activision released in a year?
"I hope this changes that idiot Bobby Kotick's mind about milking games every year." They really should've just added music and updates to the store, would've saved them money and kept the fans happy.
Was going to get this until the demo showed me how awful the charting was. So in this case it was their fault and their fault only.
Sounds like GH has gone the way of its predecessor Guitar Freaks. It's only fitting, really
its been a while that I did not even took a look at those type of game. I have like 200 songs from RB2 to GH and that way to much lol.
Rock Band 3. Why would you buy anything else? I can play a real electric six-string or a keyboard. Guitar Hero hasn't been innovative since the 4th game. And that was following the rampant success of Rock Band. Sorry to say it, but I just don't care about Guitar Hero anymore. Rock Band stole my heart.
With Guitar Hero 5 and 6, Metallica and what not out already, I think Activision should've predicted that fans were getting a little burnt out on these games.
To be fair Harmonix does release a game every year 2007- Rock band 2008- Rock Band 2 2009- Lego Rock Band and The Beatles Rock Band 2010- Green Day Rock Band and Rock Band 3. People blame Guitar Hero for oversaturing the genre which they did, but Rock Band also played a part in it was well as people seem to forget. Anyway, i hope Rock Band 3 and Guitar Hero Warriors of Rock is the last for a while, i love the games and dont care if they go back to a niche genre, but lets take a break. Warriors was awesome, great setlist, and fun modes, RB3 looks awesome. If they make them i will buy them though....except Band Hero, that clashed with my musical taste way too hard.
I don't think the genre is really "dying".... The 'fad' has worn off, so developers like Activision can't just crank out the same game every fall with new cover and call it good. Now that the insane popularity has gone away (which i'm glad for, even though I play these types of games), i feel it will go back to being more of a niche genre... I'm hoping Rock Band 3 is as good as its looking out to be. I believe Harmonix has the right idea of releasing a game every once in a while, but keep a solid focus on creating good DLC. That is where the dedicated fanbase is at.
Guitar Hero 6 is way better than 5 imo. This is too bad, but I guess everyone is getting tired of it.
This game has a decent amount of songs that I think I'd enjoy. Plug In Baby was one if I remember right? But honestly I think I'm much more interested in Rock Band 3. I haven't been impressed with Guitar Hero since GH2, though I did get GHWT which was a great game. I've yet to get Rock Band 2 yet but Beatles Rock Band is my favorite game in the entire genre. They do a good job and the addition of Keytar plus THE DOORS having 10 or so tracks for RB3. That entices.
Frankly, I bought the new GH and I like it! The storyline is pretty good as it kind of ties in with the halloween season. I'll admit its gimmicky, but the transformed characters are pretty cool looking. I think people forget that GH is more arcade in the sense of music whereas Rockband3 aims to teach guitar as well as it has a keyboard too. This is all personal preference but I personally don't want to learn real guitar, I just want to have arcade fun so this game appeals to me. The soundtrack could of had more appealing songs but it does not lack with the likes of "pour some sugar on me" ," 2112", unskinny bop", "love gun" etc. As for the guitar, some one stated it was ugly. However, its customizible with adding different wings. I got the gamestop preorder and got the rock'n axe wings that look absolutely BAD attitude! Overall, the game is a good one. Will I probably get RockBand 3? Yes (since I have 1&2), but without the new/complicated guitar and keyboard. This is a good/new concept, but I think many people are going to get frustrated with the "reality" of trying to play closer to real -style instrument as it will be difficult.
Should have lightened up the tracklist a bit. Save the hardcore stuff for DLC. I almost didn't get it - my fiancee plays with me and she didn't know over half the songs.
Good to hear and not surprised either. This looked like absolute crap in every way, shape and form. Going to be picking up DJ Hero 2 instead, that looks great.
The Rush part of this game is the only thing I find interesting about it. Unfortunately for Guitar Hero, I have had fun with Rock Band 2 and have been waiting for Rock Band 3. Moral of the story is that Guitar Hero has pushed itself too much.
I find it outrageous that like NO ONE is really looking at what really matters in a game such as gameplay, variety, options ect.. they are just bashing activision and guitar hero.. dude GROW UP.. if you don't like GH because of activision or even planning on getting the game or even have a point to be here only to bash.. GTFO it's gamespot overlooks SOO much crap.. yeah the game just came out and this is actually old news that was posted late.. the game hasn't been out a month.. so stop making all these assumptions, if you don't like it then take that bashing attitude elsewhere
This was so expected, GH franchise is dead since the ppl who made it, made another game called Rock Band! Better friendly game design, no kid cartoon looking movies, first with full band play, 2000+music library, make no mistakes! When RB3 launches in a few days it will sell. I'm just curious to see how fast the ridiculous attempt of Power Gig ROT6S will be in the bargain bin.
well i looked at the set list a little closer...it still just doesn't seem like there's enough there for me to get this...that's partially my reason for dissin the game...the guitar still doesn't have the slider...they keep making the people look more barbaric (i liked the look of gh 2...epic...maybe becuz it WAS a bit cartoony...)
From here, they can only embarrass themselves, like Tony Hawk. And Call of Duty is still massively strong. I'm not sure of its fate yet.
Is anyone really all that surprised by this? I've only played GH a few times but at the rate that Activision's been releasing their titles I just got sick of hearing about them. They're pretty much bleeding out all their franchises.Tony Hawk's pretty much in the grave, GH is knocking on the door, CoD's getting there *eyes Black Ops release and MW3's development*. Only thing safe from them is Transformers because it's owned by Hasbro with that said here's a song for Activision and a very special person, you Mr. Kotick. *plays Linkin Park Bleed It Out*. I think it fits perfectly and I'll keep Three Days Grace Riot on-hand in case anything else happens because if Kotick screws with my childhood (Transformers) there will be hell!!
Not surprising all things considered. There never needed to be another Guitar Hero past 3, they could have just done DLC since GH3. Nothing changes other than the song list from iteration to iteration, nothing overly substantial anyway. It doesn't matter anyway, Frets on Fire is free and I make my own charts which again is free. All music that I like, challenge that's up to par with my abilities, free, good stuff. Look up jinzo9988 on Youtube.
future industry executives - The Empire strikes again...activision. a great example of Greed + over saturation of market = poor sales - good ex... God of War games? maybe?
I have yet to buy a guitar hero game.......does this make me weird? lol It seems to be the most popular game around after COD
The reason it sold so poorly is because they added a stupid story mode... My wife is a Huge GH fan, and even she wasn't fooled by the "story mode". She said it looked like the biggest let down to see this music game try gimmicks instead of simply making 6 with better songs, and the ability to incorporate ANY songs from the previous versions. She would rather be able to select the songs she liked from GH 1-5 than to buy a completely new game that only improvement was a sorry story mode.
Once-mighty rhythm franchise's latest installment canned; DJ Hero discontinued; United Front's open-world game also given the chop; no new skateboarding game in 2011; Activision's global workforce being culled by 7%.
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