Guitar Hero franchise passes the $1B mark

26 Comments by Christopher Grant Jan 21st 2008 8:15PM
Filed under: Business

Activision wants everyone to know that, in just a little over two years since the series debuted, the Guitar Hero franchise has sold an incredible 14 million units in North America racking up an even more incredible $1 billion in sales. Of course, Activision didn't earn every dollar of that revenue – remember, they didn't purchase Red Octane until about six months after Guitar Hero I debuted – but that $100 million must seem like a rather prudent investment.

That figure doesn't include download revenue, but they did reveal they've sold five million tracks for Guitar Hero III. Let's figure, conservatively, they go for $2 a pop, that's an additional $10 million in revenue in just ten weeks. No wonder they're not putting much effort into the DLC rock rivalry.

[Via Wii Fanboy]

Tags: Activision, BreakingNews, Guitar-Hero

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Nick the Hero of Canton: Jan 21st 2008; 8:24PM

Surprsing this is not.

tim: Jan 22nd 2008; 10:46AM

It'd be nice to see more DLC though.
Reading the weekly Rock Band DLC updates makes me jealous.

DeltaP42: Jan 21st 2008; 8:27PM

The BIGGEST loser in this whole deal is Konami, who had the original guitar franchise, Guitar Freaks, back in 1998, and failed to do anything good with it. They could have had this WHOLE market in the bag years ago, but fumbled the ball.

Tiptup300: Jan 21st 2008; 11:22PM

Yes, but they made the stupid choice in having only THREE FREAKING BUTTONS doing the full solos, which means that its a lot less fun to play and a WHOOOLE lot more difficult.

ThornedVenom: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:01AM

The stupid choice wasn't the number of buttons, but the screen interface.

whymog: Jan 22nd 2008; 3:43AM

How long until the bubble bursts?

Then again, maybe Neversoft's got some ingenuity in them after all and they'll pull out something compelling in the next iteration of Guitar Hero.

But if the Tony Hawk series is any indication, we're looking at a barren (American) wasteland.

whymog: Jan 22nd 2008; 3:46AM

Well, that was awesome. Forgot I clicked reply above.

In regard to Delta's comment, Konami misunderstood the US market and failed to market existing titles skillfully. The fact that Dance Dance Revolution became such a success in the US home market owes little thanks to any promotions or Western-oriented original content that Konami put out.

Although I'll admit I've had a ton of fun with the Guitar Freaks series, it never had all that much going for it when games like Beatmania, Drum Mania and Pop'n Music offered much better interfaces and greater depth of challenge.

Ratfoot: Jan 21st 2008; 8:29PM

Whatever they can have this brand Rock Band will surpass it after the next two sequels.

eldee: Jan 21st 2008; 11:36PM

only if they make it so a 3 year old can't 5-star guitar parts on expert.

seriously.. the guitar in that game is way too easy. when I want to play a guitar-based game I'll be playing guitar hero. Rock band is just Drum Hero to me.

Lone Starr: Jan 21st 2008; 8:42PM

EA is salivating.

mantis23: Jan 21st 2008; 8:51PM

I'm willing to bet a good chunk of that 5 million number are the free halo and christmas downloads. Thats why they are using the umber of downloads to brag rather than the amount of money like EA and rock band.

Dr.: Jan 21st 2008; 10:01PM

I'd also note that they said "five million songs." They sell the songs in packs of three, so one purchase = three songs. So it's quite probable they've had much less than 2 million packs purchased.

DCBlack: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:34AM

Not to mention they gave away the 3 free song downloads of the Slash and Morello battles and "Devil Went Down to Georgia." I'm sure everyone with an internet connection downloaded that pack.

I wonder if the extra tracks for the 360 that come with the soundtrack counts here?

Rob Accomando: Jan 21st 2008; 9:01PM

with barely any DLC, I feel like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/rokcrusher/guitarzero.jpg

Britboyj27: Jan 21st 2008; 10:20PM

Why, oh why, do I have WEEKLY songs for Rock Band and almost NONE for Guitar Hero? EA is dropping the ball here. All Rock Band has to do it sell itself with Guitar-only (with the option for more) for the same price or cheaper than GHIII and you have the downslide of the GHIII franchise on DL content alone.

Nick the Hero of Canton: Jan 21st 2008; 10:54PM

I like Guitar Hero III.

Yeah, I said it. I like it. No. I love it. And I have it for the Wii.

I dared to say it.

Anticrawl: Jan 21st 2008; 11:19PM

I'm with you buddy. Not much on these music games but I'll be damned if I buy into the MTV crap that is Rock Band, plus I quite like my working Guitar Hero III guitar. Plus all I'm interested in is the guitar aspect and it gets my girlfriend to pick up the controller. Plus she isn't a huge fan of the whole MTV+EA deal, sounds like the anti-christ publisher to me.

ill trooper: Jan 22nd 2008; 1:06AM

Anticrawl - you guys are missing out.

Anticrawl: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:25PM

Eh, well I have no interest in the mic and drum aspect of it. If I want to explore other music instruments I'll just pick them up, already play soprano, alto sax and piano. Played a little guitar but my thumbs are all fucked up from sports when I was a kid so whenever I stum my thumb pops out of socket.. yum. In any case that's 169.99 plus tax that's in my pocket. I have a karaoke machine if I wanna sing (and I don't) and I'll leave drumming to my black friends (no seriously, they must have something in their DNA that makes them better at percussion instruments, naturally so).

calvin: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:03AM

if only guitar hero 3 for ps2 was good. it's supposed to be an upgrade, not a downgrade.

DCBlack: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:37AM

The game is available on its own and the peripherals will be out separately in a few weeks.

DCBlack: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:38AM

that was directed at britboyj27, damn reply system.

Crazy Vincent: Jan 22nd 2008; 2:33AM

I hope they fix the issue that prevents the Rock Band guitar from working in GH3. I never play GH3 because of that... therefore I don't buy any DLC. Hear that Activision/Neversoft? Fix your shit and I will start buying extra songs.

VampireHunter Z: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:16PM

Too many Americans want to be stars. They should have thought of this game 2 generations ago. Look at the success of American Idol. At least now they can be "rock stars" in their own living rooms.

Anticrawl: Jan 22nd 2008; 12:26PM

Heh yeah and the great thing about being a Rock star is it doesn't always require being a good singer or dancer, just being good with your hands. I guess gamers got that covered.

sumboxcar182: Jan 22nd 2008; 1:23PM

i don't think that the money is 10 mil for the dlc. i'm assuming that the 5 million downloads includes the free stuff because they'll say that they have more downloads then rock band i'm guessing

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