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Kotick: Guitar Hero Outselling Rock Band 6:1
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says the company is crushing its competition in the music genre, claiming the publisher’s Guitar Hero franchise is outselling competitor Rock Band by six units to one.
"We’re outselling [Rock Band] 6:1,” Kotick said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference, reports Kotaku. “When you think about the access we have to 30 percent of the world’s music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there.
“I would also say when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software, and so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category."
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Forget the sales numbers...I'm trying to figure out what the advantage is of having 2000 people working on GH versus a couple of hundred people working on RB?
I think the idea behind the 2k team is that they have as has been pointed out by someone in this thread that GH is on more platforms than rock band, and they have more GH projects in the works. They had of course GH3, DLC for GH3, GH:A, GHWT (with a music creator no less), GH: Metallica, possible the rumored GH:Beetles (source EGM rumor mill, which has a great track record for being correct). The DS title, cell phone GH (and who knows what else). So they have a lot more going on than Harmonix (nothing against RB2, I own it) than just a large expansion pack in RB2 and DLC. Activision is whoring out their lucrative franchise similar to how MS is Halo, it seems EA and Harmonix are focusing on one game and their music creator game they hinted they're making. Will the GH franchise get stretched too thin though???
This comment was made to the investor community not the gaming community, still even under that context a little truth bending.
You do have to commend Activision they have become a powerhouse!
Hell yeah they have become a powerhouse. Activision Blizzard is the largest developer/publisher, bigger than EA since they merged. Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, WoW, Diablo, StarCraft all under the same roof? It appears as though Vivendi owns 52% of Activision Blizzard, but each company still operates as its own entity. But you're right, Activision is a beast.
the entire GH series is probably what his misleading comments meant, what matters is that Rock Band has outsold GH3 on the PS3 & 360
Could you provide some proof? If Rock Band on 360 and PS3 outsold GH3 on PS3 and 360 that would have meant that the PS3 and 360 versions of GH3 only mustered 2.9 million copies combined. And the other 5.3 million copies of GH3 were sold between the PS2 and Wii. But that would mean Rock Band at only 3.5 million copies sold (not counting Wii) the PS2 could have only sold 500k copies in order for the versions of Rock Band on the 360 and PS3 to sell more than 2.9 million copies between the two besting their GH3 counterpart's 2.9 million. Sorry, not buying it. Provide some proof next time.
Surely he means the GH ip... what is it now 7, 8 SKU across 5 platforms vs 1 ip across barely 3.
Apples to oranges?
Guitar Hero 3 sales: 8.2 million (not sure how up do date that number is) and that's on 4 platforms http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/NPD_Best_selling_video_games
Rock Band 1 sales: 3.5 million (as of august 28 2008) (site notes numbers only on 360, PS2, and PS3 though...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Band
Either way, not 6:1. That's 2.3:1. Factoring in the Wii sales, its probably a solid 2:1. So maybe they are talking about the entire IP.
If he IS talking about the entire IP, then I doubt anyone is surprised by this "news." There's more GH games then there are flavours of Jell-O. Personally, if you think about the versions of GH, I would think they'd have outsold them by much more then 6:1. This might actually be showing Rock Band's strength, being able to close that gap, that much, with only 1 game.
@Ozzman
Well, they are somewhat closing a gap. But when comparing apple to apples, GH3 on 4 platforms is still outselling Rock Band on those same platforms 2:1 (or so-ish). What SHOULD be factored in is how many copies of rock band sold were band kits and not just the game, same for GH3. You could also factor in DLC for Rock Band as well, I would imagine DLC on Rock Band is doing better than GH3's DLC (I don't have any numbers to back that up though). Still impressive for an IP to take on the GH juggernaut and do as well as it has.
Oh, I have no doubt that GH3 outsold RB1, and will probably continue to do so. Price point and name brand recognition will most certainly ensure that. I completly agree with you there. My point was that, versus all the GH games over the years (not just GH3, but 1, 2, Rock the 80s, Areosmith, etc...) you would think they'd have a higher ratio then 6:1. That's a LOT of GH games versus only 1 RB game. Or, at least, I personally would expect a higher ratio.
You bring up a good point with the instruments vs. solo game sales. I think now that more people have Rock Band instruments already, it'll probably increase the sales of RB2, as people don't have to shell out hundreds of dollars for the whole sha-bang again, and people that were wary of spending the cash for just RB1 can now see the instruments working for 2 games, adding more "value". I know if I had to buy a new GH guitar everytime, there's no way i'd buy any other GH games, thus affecting my buying of future GH games, and in turn, their sales.