Activision: Guitar Hero outselling Rock Band 6-to-1

Posted Sep 18, 2008 at 10:23AM by QJ Staff Listed in: Wii, PS3, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360 Tags: Activision, Robert Kotick
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Guitar Hero World Tour - Image 1Robert Kotick of Activision is confident in Guitar Hero's success. Well, there's definitely no doubt about how it's managed to be one of the most played games out there (based on that "Teens, Video Games, and Civics" study we saw yesterday, at least). Plus, the franchise has been nothing short of a revolution in the games industry (not to mention the music industry too).

So what does Kotick think about their competition? Here's what he said during a recent conference:

WeÂ’re outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the worldÂ’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.


Which I definitely find... agreeable, considering that Guitar Hero is already on its fourth installment, with a couple of spin-offs like GH: Aerosmith, and is dispersed across more platforms. Rock Band's only on to their second release on the franchise.

So yeah, if you're speaking total sales for the enrtire franchise, a 6:1 ratio between GH and RB is agreeable.



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Comments [refresh]

by Slipstream0 - 2008-09-18 05:57
» but...

Rock Bands "couple hundred" have revolutionized more than GH's "2000 people". Not only with the whole band idea, but letting us import songs from rock band 1, new songs EVERY WEEK, and all them future-compatable with rockband 2! It should always be quality over quantity, but with rockband, you get both.

by ISOHaven - 2008-09-18 06:08
» WTF!?!?!?!?!

And now it will continue to sell more now that they copied RB in it's entirety.

by Nevers - 2008-09-18 06:50
» Um... okay

Lets skew some nonsense shall we, Activision ???



How many iterations of GH are you pitting against RB... Rock Band has 2 atm... GH has 1, 2, 3, the 80's, Aerosmith, DS-Version, and a version on mobile phones... so I must ask...



Activision .. the hell you mean?

by NarooN - 2008-09-18 09:07
» SERIOUSLY?

Really. Who do you think BEGAN the entire GH franchise? It was Harmonix. Who are they you ask? The people WHO MAKE ROCK BAND.



I could shut it all down with that one statement, but as Nevers said, since Activision got control of it, they want to put out a new GH every 2 weeks. There's even one on DS and mobile phones. That's just ridiculous, I don't care how much you love your DS or phone gaming.



Oh, and maybe if they put that Universal access to use, they'd get somewhere.



Rock Band/Rock Band 2 gets new DLC (read: songs) every single week. We get entire albums sometimes. GH3 probably got a new song every 2 months or so. Wth is that? That's why I didn't bother buying it.

by tanman37 - 2008-09-18 10:15
» no..

They didn't "copy" rock band.



They used the idea of a band, which isn't copying because anyone can "make" a band.



Guitar Hero World Tour is going to be awesome because of a few reasons.



1. They have already 4 installments PLUS the few spinoffs.



2. The drum kit will be better made than the rock band drum kit.(That is excluding the third party kit that is 300$..)



3. Guitar Hero has a bigger fan base, they know their stuff.

by LordQuas431 - 2008-09-18 10:25
» .

This guys confidence makes him sound like a *****. Without the RB creators he wouldn't even have a Guitar Hero franchise to be milking so he should show them some respect

by ISOHaven - 2008-09-18 11:01
» WTF!?!?!?!?!

What's your real name? Steve Jobs? Using the IDEA OF is the same as copying.

by platon - 2008-09-18 13:30
» guitar hero is way better!

Stop it you imbeciles that says that harmonix started it. Harmonix created almost nothing, while, right now, it's RED OCTANE that's making the GH games, and THEY have a really big history of music games.



Anyway, I've tryed both rock band and GH, and since I dislike the drum and the mic, I'm more into the major importance guitars have in GH games instead of a minor role into a group of instruments...



I will surely buy RB2 but not with the instruments, I'll buy it only if I need more musics and a different style after gh3 and ghwt

by NarooN - 2008-09-18 14:31
» are you THAT stupid?

Red Octane helped them make the instruments. Harmonix DEVELOPED the game. It was their idea, and they DEVELOPED the game.



And Harmonix actually knows how to chart a song and make it both accurate AND fun, unlike Neversoft. Neversoft even has the nerve to put notes from the bass guitar into the actual lead guitar track (like 3s + 7s), which is pretty dumb.



So don't try to correct us when you have no idea what you're talking about.

by Rental_Ninja - 2008-09-18 14:50
» Naroon is right

Harmonix developed it. Red octane is the publisher. That's the equivalent of a book publisher. The use their cash to make a boat load of copies of what someone else made so it can be sold to the masses.

by skidz - 2008-09-18 17:41
» cmon

Activision is a joke of a company that no longer make decent games. The end.

by Nevers - 2008-09-19 04:58
» platon

You just went thru the Fire and Flames and did not come out the other side okay... lmao

by Brant - 2008-09-19 05:04
» Face it

Harmonix cares more about pleasing people with the game that they polish up and send out, and Activision just doesn't.

by Mister Common Sense - 2008-09-20 09:14
» well

I'm not buying new instruments just to play the same thing with different songs.

They haven't even said how it's supposedly better.

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