Guitar Hero World Tour bundle 'virtually' sold out, holiday demand may not be met

by Alexander Sliwinski on Nov 6th 2008 12:30PM

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick revealed in a conference call yesterday, following the company's Q2 results, that he's "been surprised" by Guitar Hero World Tour's sales. The company's publishing boss, Mike Griffith, says that GHWT's band kit is "virtually sold out across the channel" and the company is "not likely" to meet holiday demand.

Activision revealed over 24 million units have been sold in the Guitar Hero franchise to date, with the series rockin' the sales charts in '08. The company states it is outselling Rock Band 2 by a "very wide margin," but for actual data regarding the claim's validity, it appears we'll have to wait until the NPD sales numbers are released in a couple weeks.

Source

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, ghwt, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-world-tour, PS3, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (44)

I work at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Florida and we have about 80 boxes of the full World tour set and about 100 of the stand alone discs. Some demand.....lol

I'm guessing what he's saying is that they've shoved everything into the retail channel, and they don't expect to be able to replenish much before the holidays.

So that's cool. Come Black Friday, perhaps more people will discover the Rock Band franchise.

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=212

It might be sold out in a places, but there are a lot of people with buyers remorse out there. The game just isn't anywhere near the level of both fun and polish of rock band 2.

Top that off with the controller issues they've had.. I can't see the game having legs.

I'm seeing these all over the place, so I'm calling BS.

It's bullshit. GHWT is likely on recall due to the problem they have with drums. The worst thing is that you have to pay the shipping for a replacement kit! It's not like Rock Band where they do it for free and send you a new kit first, then you send them yours.

That's pretty astonishing. For all the gripes about Rock Band hardware, I got my broken pedal and my cracked pads replaced, free of charge and no shipping costs, ten freaking months after I bought the game and let all kinds of people beat on them.

And yes, my family was still enjoying this game ten months after purchase.

Gee, I guess I'd better run out and buy like 4 copies as soon as possible, right?

I went to Target and saw at least 10 guitar/game bundles for both 360 and Wii, and I saw a couple of complete band kits. BS.

Now will they please start selling the drum kit individually?

Ya have seen plenty of them

umm. yeah, we have 20 of each bundle sitting in the back of my gamestop. we can't get rid of them.

Thanks for the tip Reggie, er I mean Bobby Kotick.

I wish games companies would return to selling stuff on merit instead of cabbage patch (you'd be lucky to get one!)-type hype.

I'm up in Toronto and I haven't been to a store that does not have Guitar Hero in stock. Considering I went to just about every store in town when Guitar Hero III came out trying to find one. I have no desire to get GH World Tour and I call BS.

just because u see them now doesn't mean anything...Holiday shopping just started so please believe wen black Friday hits what he said will come into Fruition...especially for the Wii...That thing will NEVER be in stock.

In this economy? The average family aims to spend less this Christmas than the previous one, and I doubt a $189 bundle of plastic instruments would top the list of must-have goods. It's no wonder the bundles aren't selling quickly.

@Kyouryuu
Man you stay in America novelties almost always come before peoples needs here....Think about it the game market has been making a killing even in this ECONOMY, same with clothing companies and the music, and movie industry people will always pay for things they don't need in America....IDK why thats just wat we do...lol

I don't think the game industry is making a "killing." We've had hundreds of lay-offs in the past month, studios closing, jobs drying up, and publishers losing hundreds of millions. We're weathering it better than I thought we would, but we're not immune.

Consumer confidence is at a record low heading into the Christmas season. That means the majority of people are scared and retailers know it, which is why we've seen efforts to move "Black Friday" deals to this weekend to jump start sales.

They had like a million of them at Best Buy when I was there yesterday.

I returned my guitar + game bundle 3 days after I bought it when I read about the lame GHTunes limits, quality and rules. There's +1 to the mix.

I'm renting the game now and after I beat it I'm back to Rock Band 2 and their DLC. Playing GH:WT is strangely similar to playing RB2 since there's like 16 songs that overlap!

I hate the direction GH is going- they shouldn't have tried to copy Rock Band and just stick to what the instrument in the title seems to suggest, the GUITAR!!!!!
Seriously though, I wouldn't pay more than £50/$100 (I'm english,guys)for one game which I know won't last me for more than several months.

Couldn't find it at Bestbuy myself but I think I may be showing up too late

My girlfriend picked up disc only for our Wii, and I must say I'm looking forward to picking up Rock Band 2 for our 360. It has some gems to be sure, but overall I just do not dig the song catalog.

....riiiight. virtually sold out? the game crazy i'm about to start work at didn't even get PS3 bundles until the following tuesday. and as far as i'm concerned, everyone's buying the guitar + game. I haven't seen or heard anyone pick up the full set....but I might. some demand.

I was at a Best Buy and overheard a clerk discussing the differences between GHWT and RB with a customer.

One of the first things out of his mouth: "There have been a lot of hardware issues with Rock Band, but the Guitar Hero instruments are much more reliable."

I wanted to punch him in the mouth.

I really hate all of the fanboys that work for Best Buy, bc what that guy said is fully incorrect. I tested thier knowledge one day and it is said how bad they do not know the products at all. I am definitly happy with RB2 bundle except my guitar had a fault strut but EA got me a replacement quickly. I tried GHWT and was not at all happy with it especially with how much you have to do just to play a single song not to mention I really hate the clicking sound from the strut.

Remember when the big battle over guitar compatibility between GH3 and RB broke out? And it was determined Activision (Red Octane) were at fault?

They said "they didn't want their game to be tainted by their competitors lousy hardware [guitars]".

Of course, this was right at the time when the issue with GH3 guitars not working because of the detachable necks not connecting right broke out.

Whomever is in charge of PR for GH at Activision is not only a liar, but he's not even smart about what to say.

I preordered mine about 4 months ago... I best get it or I will have to email Play.com and go "Hey Play! What's yer game?! I preordered this a Donk ago!' And then I'd show them the wrong side of my hand.

Yeah, I work at a department store in Oregon, in the Electronics department, and we've still got a ton of World Tour laying around...

At least 4 copies of the big bundle for each system (when we started off with about 8 for each), at least 15 copies of the guitar bundle for each system (when we started off with about 20 for each), and countless amounts of the game alone for each system, to the point where it's invading the over-stock bays in our stockroom.

So I'm not sure where this whole "virtually sold out" bollocks is coming from this guy.

And I request a recall of the Aerosmith game, seriously. They don't need to send OVER 50 copies of the game for EVERY system to a department store...No one buys them, no one likes them, and they take up too much room.

I almost tripped on the giant pyramid display that blocks the doorway at my local FutureShop here in Toronto.....yeah, real hard to find.

I am a Wii owner, and I am agonizing the fact that I am not getting RB2 till December, maybe even january if going by their online store.

And the only reason it will be sold out is if they only account for Wii version... and I am thinking that's strecthing it.

As for why I do not go and buy RB2-360 and a 360: Dude, I am saving for a real guitar that may cost 750.

you could always buy a, you know, CHEAPER guitar. im looking at a $300 jackson JS30KE kelly + $100 ibanez amp to start me off pretty soon.

It's a 7-string S7320. Plus, I have manage to develop a good ear, so it's only a good SS (meaning Randall Warhead or RG) or Tube. Unless you get a mid-gain amp (ala Blackheart) USED, a $100 amp = crap (especially marshall MG). On the note of guitar, RG370 also sucks because the Edge-III have soft steel, thus does not stay in tune THAT well.

You have plenty to learn in terms of guitar gear.

no doubt i do, im just getting into it(obviously) so im starting off with some cheap beginner gear. i have a buddy who's been playing for quite a few years now helping me out, and, from what ive read/found, this is pretty much the best stuff in the price range. doesn't help that im broke, lol.

Where do all you live? Here in Kitchener Ontario, every store has sold out, which really isn't hard to beleive, considering the local EB Games only got 2 in. Not 2 for each console, 2 total. They ordered 3 to fufill preorders, and they couldn't, which sucks, because I was 3rd.

All aboard the hype train! Woo woo!

I work for Generic Store #31 and we have... 20 boxes sitting in the back. So that means every store on the planet must have our exact same inventory and these guys are just lying and I'm not because I'm on the Internet and that makes it the truth.

/see how easy that was

My roommate bought GHWT on launch day.
Nov. 1st, the red drum pad stops registering beats. The guitar seems to have intermittent issues as well.
He called activision: short answer, replace it at the store where bought.

Long story: after playing RB2 at a friends place, he's going to exchange it for RB2. :P

I've had RB2 since day one and have been happy with it. I went out yesterday and bought GHWT and I have to say it is the first game I will have ever taken back to gamestop within the 7-day period because it feels like a big step down from RB in every way. Also, the music creator that was hyped so much, sucks. The only problem I have with RB2 is the 4-5 songs I like that are only on GH ( for now anyway).

Load of bull, we have about 10 copies in the back room at Gaystop. And theres 3 out on the floor.

I don't think massive exchanges due to faulty drums/guitars counts as "sales"...

how can this be available!!?! ive called future shop, best buy, microplay eb games, walmart, toys r us, zehrs!!! no one has the complete set with drums for the wii anywhere, i even called a bunch of places in toronto and no one had it... ill buy a broken set even, drums can't be too hard to fix myself!!! somone help Me!!! PLEASe

helpme@sircivik.ca

I'm in Edmonton and cannot find the band bundle anywhere. I have done the store availability check for Future Shop and Best Buy across Canada and they all report 0 available as well. Something doesn't add up here with all of the reports of people tripping over boxes at their stores in Canada. Hmmm........

What is the point of all of these anecdotes about seeing Guitar Hero everywhere? Even if individual stores are still stocked, nationwide they must be selling some of them in order to claim that Guitar Hero is outselling Rock Band by a "wide margin." How does your trip to the local Wal-Mart trump national-level marketing research?

I have a couple of Guitar Hero Complete Band Bundles for the Wii in Stock, contact me for the price, available for pickup/meet in the GTA (Toronto), just in time for the holiday rush!
jaysaussie@hotmail.com

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Guitar Hero World Tour bundle 'virtually' sold out, holiday demand may not be met

Reader Comments (44)

Posted: Nov 6th 2008 12:35PM (Unverified) said

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