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The Beatles: Rock Band Sells 1.7 Million Copies
The Los Angeles Times has published a detailed analysis of the sales numbers on the most recent Harmonix music game.
Their report reveals that The Beatles' music game sold 1.7 million units through the end of December, most of which (1.18 million) came from U.S. sales. A year earlier, Rock Band 2 sold 1.7 million in the same time period just in the United States.
Guitar Hero 5 saw a similar decrease in sales, selling 996,000 copies. The last major installment of that franchise, Guitar Hero: World Tour, sold 3.4 million.
Though the numbers at first glance reveal the falling prominence of the music genre, a few additional details are worth noting. Though retail numbers for the these two biggest games in the field have fallen, downloadable tracks continue to be a major force for profit, both for MTV Games (Rock Band) and Activision (Guitar Hero). As the L.A. Times article notes, The Beatles: Rock Band has seen over 1 million song downloads since launch. In addition, several recent genre entries were not included in the recent report on sales numbers, including DJ Hero and Band Hero – two titles that likely diluted the sales of other music game products during the 2009 holiday season. There's no doubt that music games aren't racking up the phenomenally high sales they once enjoyed, but the genre seems far from complete collapse. A wider selection of existing games, the expanding number of consumers with full peripheral collections, and continually new ideas within the gameplay space all point to some significant advantages for the music genre moving into 2010.
Where do you fall on the music game scene these days? Are you still excited about the prospects of another Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or DJ Hero in 2010?
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