Activision: Guitar Hero III is first title to generate sales of $1 billion

by Alexander Sliwinski { Jan 12th 2009 at 12:40PM }

Activision recently announced that Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock has become the first game ever to reach $1 billion in sales. This comes a little under a year from when the publisher announced that the Guitar Hero franchise had surpassed the billion dollar mark. Not bad for a series the company picked up for a pittance at $100 million in 2006.

The success of the franchise isn't just good news for the game industry, as Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith has cited Nielson SoundScan data, which claims that artists featured in the Guitar Hero series have seen download sales increase between 15-843%. As for the publisher's financial standing, if GameStop's top selling holiday titles are any indication, Activision should enjoy a lucrative quarter headlined by Guitar Hero World Tour, Call of Duty: World at War and that Lich King guy from the World of Warcraft.

Tags: activision, activision-blizzard, guitar-hero, guitar-hero-3, guitar-hero-iii, guitar-hero-world-tour

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

LordChimp @ Jan 12th 2009 12:44PM

So sad that it wasn't even a good game.

xFenixKnightx @ Jan 12th 2009 1:00PM

Yeah, I hate it when bad games keep selling and selling and selling and selling...

Why not? It has great songs. Is it because its not made by Harmonix?

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 12th 2009 1:07PM

@Fenix

Ding Ding Ding!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!

Seriously, GHIII isn't bad at all. In fact I kind of enjoyed it a bit more than I did Rockband. Whether or not one is better than the other is completely up for debate, however that doesn't change the fact that both games are fun to bring at parties. I just don't get the argument that BECAUSE YOU LIKE ROCKBAND/GUITAR HERO YOU HAVE TO HATE THE COMPETING PRODUCT AND ANY PERSON WHO LIKES SAID PRODUCT ARE JUST SHEEP AND STUPID MAN!!!

xGeneral DEATHx @ Jan 12th 2009 1:10PM

I'm with Fenix and Vegeta on this one...I own GHII, GHIII, GHWT, RB and RB2, and the only one I haven't enjoyed all that much was the first RB because to me the song selection kinda blew. I LOVE me some RB2 and GHWT, because now my friends and I can get hammered and have a full band comprised of stoopid. There's no point in hating on one brand or the other just because one is your favorite...it's okay to love both at once! Just remember that applying this doesn't work as well in other areas, like marriage.

LordChimp @ Jan 12th 2009 1:19PM

I have actually never played either Rock Bands. I did like the first two GH games but there was something about GHIII that I did not like. Maybe it was those battle mode things that upset me and how stupid they felt.

T @ Jan 12th 2009 1:34PM

At the risk of sounding repetitive:

1) Horrid character redesigns.
2) Terrible "Boss Battle" concept.
3) "Legends of Rock" despite only having Slash as an actual legend.
4) Artificially pumped up difficulty level.
5) Mediocre DLC support.

GHII is the best GH title to date. If you were to take GHII and remake it as a full band game...it'd probably be the best music game to date period.

xFenixKnightx @ Jan 12th 2009 1:35PM

I have GHIII on PS3, GHWT and RB2 on 360. I like all 3 games BUT, I'm a n00b and can only play on medium. RB2 on medium is too easy and slooooooowwwwww unlike GH3/WT. I have to put Breakneck Speed on RB2 so it can be fun. I'm getting the hang of it on Hard but I just dont put enough time or care that much to be that good to put the time in. In summary I like all of them but GH3/WT is a slightly more fun to me. Note layouts are just a little more fun to play. I like RB2's graphics and presentation over GH though.

Sidenote, I suck on drums and never play them. That might be another argument as to which is better in said games.

oolz @ Jan 12th 2009 1:36PM

GH3 wasn't a bad game, it just wasn't as good as GH2.

With that said, GHWT is a subpar game compared to RB/RB2 on the same level that GH3 was not as good as GH2. That's not to say it's a horrible game, it's just not as good as RB. The core of actually playing the songs is so similar between the two that it's impossible to honestly love one and hate the other.

xFenixKnightx @ Jan 12th 2009 1:39PM

T

That reminds me, I can find GHII on the cheap. Only thing I hear is that there are a lot of bad covers in it.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 12th 2009 1:50PM

1) "Horrid character redesigns." Completely disagree. I found the cartoony look of the avatars in GHIII much more appealing than the generic "Realistic" avatars RB had.
2) "Terrible "Boss Battle" concept." I had absolutely no problem with the boss battles.
3) "Legends of Rock" despite only having Slash as an actual legend. Oh come on, who gives a shit? It's just a name.
4) "Artificially pumped up difficulty level." If that's one of the reasons why you don't like the game, then I'm afraid I'd have to call you a pussy. Seriously this reason is the main reason why I enjoyed GHIII more than I did RB(I have no idea if this was fixed for RB2). In GHIII when you moved up to the next difficulty level, it felt like you were actually getting better at the game and that you were accomplishing something. The problem with RB is that many of the songs are just too damn easy to play. And while that doesn't mean the songs aren't fun to play, I'm just saying I had alot more fun with GHIII because of the challenge.
5) "Mediocre DLC support." This is the only one I'll give you since yeah it's disappointing that there wasn't alot of DLC for this game.

NoughtSoClever @ Jan 12th 2009 2:04PM

When getting together with friends, Rock Band / Guitar Hero WT are usually the activity we keep coming back to when we can think of nothing else to do. I enjoy both games a lot, but I have to say that Rock Band is easier to 'get into'. The immersion factor is the only reason I'd say that it was the better game.

Tiptup300 @ Jan 12th 2009 2:07PM

1) "Horrid character redesigns."

- Agree 100%, the new GH still has the freaky cliche robot people. Even the new metallica looks like it will have the same problem [from the trailer.]

2) "Terrible "Boss Battle" concept."

- I admit this was the only reason I came back to GHIII, when I found out they pretty much took em out of GH:WT i had no reason to really buy it/play it.

3) "Legends of Rock" despite only having Slash as an actual legend.

- If you have a theme, you better go with it. I especially hated how they had only one legend per instrument in GH:WT, I'd say a minimum of 3 and that's pushing it.

4) "Artificially pumped up difficulty level."

- I agree again. I'm able to beat all the songs on GH3 with few exceptions. Like through the fire and flames, but that doesn't really count since that's so overcharted it's just a joke.

5) "Mediocre DLC support."

- I hadn't payed for a single song on GH3, I now have over 350 songs on RB2.

T @ Jan 12th 2009 2:20PM

"If that's one of the reasons why you don't like the game, then I'm afraid I'd have to call you a pussy."

I'm going to have to call you out as GH fanboy then (or at least as the ever annoying "Scorehero Type"). Because (as is typical of their type), you automatically assume the person sucks if they say that GHIII was artifically difficult.

The charting in GHIII sucks. There are ways to make a game challenging without having to resort to making everything a triple chord. Look at GHII, which had an amazing song list and still managed to provide a challenge.

Those who typically argue that RB is "boring" are the same ones who typically don't care what song they're playing, as they're too busy charting overdrive/star power paths and finding optimum chances to squeeze points (or whatever the heck it is).

Nobody's saying "challenges suck", they're saying "artificial challenges suck". I liken it to a fighting game where the only thing that changes as the difficulty goes up is how much the AI blocks.

Scooter @ Jan 12th 2009 2:27PM

That's funny xGENAERAL DEATHx. I find RB1 to have the best on-disc songs. RB2 has too much filler in the Alt/Punk genres although the Prog selection is much better.

Scooter @ Jan 12th 2009 2:40PM

@ T I use Scorehero and I don't give shit about pathing. I use paths but don't plan them out.

@ Vegeta Really you like the Robo drummer? He looks like he was animated on flash by a twelve year old. Also its a good thing that Thrasher, Afterlife, Constant Motion and the Malmsteem pack are so easy.

rcf1105 @ Jan 12th 2009 3:19PM

Guitar Hero III didn't have an artificially inflated difficulty. It had an unbalanced learning curve (tiers 1-6 not that bad, tiers 7 and 8 impossible), but there wasn't anything inflated about it.

VaultICEE @ Jan 12th 2009 6:58PM

@rcf

Are you smoking something??

Nehal @ Jan 12th 2009 7:25PM

GH3 wasn't that bad of a game sure it did have its issues but all and all it did make me a lot better at rhythm. Also back to what you guys are saying first I had no problems with the boss battles I beat the first two on expert first try lou's battle took a 30 minutes not much longer than that.
Second the "legends of rock" theme, did their were actually a few that were featured in the videos and I think we are all forgetting about Tom Morello.
Third artificially pumped up levels
Well this one my opinion is kinda useless because i 5 starred every single song in the game (including dlc)
I got a lot more enjoyment out of playing that game than rb1 so I have no problem with it.

kihadat @ Jan 14th 2009 5:04PM

Well, I love GHII. Love it.

McWeen @ Jan 12th 2009 12:48PM

Is that from Wicked?

Trickob @ Jan 12th 2009 12:53PM

Correct.

You're also correct if you assume that I'm a theatre geek.

John Z @ Jan 12th 2009 1:00PM

Nada Surf would have been a better pick. Or maybe I'm just very, very old.

Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Jan 12th 2009 1:09PM

Yeah it's nada surf.

p-diddy @ Jan 12th 2009 3:36PM

@vegeta, no, it's "Popular" from Wicked - saw it this weekend (though the Nada Surf song was cool too).

-p-

Trickob @ Jan 12th 2009 7:15PM

I thought it was Nada Surf at first too. Nice to know I'm not the only person who's heard of them.

You're so novel!!

why not the LS2LS7? @ Jan 12th 2009 12:48PM

Incredibly misleading. They're talking about revenue.

Comparing revenue of a software-only product like a game to a game that derives most of its value from the plastic guitars that comes with it is not really a useful comparison.

Software has a near 100% gross profit margin, but not so when you have to start making plastic accessories. Not to mention your shipping and support (replacement) costs go through the roof.

I tell you what, if I can count hardware bundles that contain a game as games for purposes of revenue, then the Wii (which is merely Wii Sports with the hardware necessary to play it) made a lot more than $1B, and it got there a before GH3 did.

thesimplicity @ Jan 12th 2009 1:07PM

Yeah, I was about to post "I'm pretty sure Wii Sports was the first title generate $1B"...

mynk @ Jan 17th 2009 7:28PM

but i think the article is saying that its the first game to have consumers spend A LOT of MONEY, not A LOT of CONSUMERS spend money. although i thought that too when i read the article, its still a peice of news to share. the wii sports argument actually un-credited your comment for me as the hardware bundeled with it is the actual console, and not a game-spesific device.

Trickob @ Jan 12th 2009 12:49PM

I don't think Guitar Hero (or Rock Band for that matter) is all that great.

There. I said it.

StalkerB @ Jan 12th 2009 12:53PM

BLASPHEMER! Get him!!!

Nah, I get your point. I hated GHII when I first played it (mostly cos it was the first guitar game I played and didn't get it) but eventually I got all over it and then GHIII which had some good songs, but I didn't like as much and now I love RockBand.

I think it's part of the casual gaming thing, you don't have to be good at games and play regularly to step up to the easy plate. 2 or 3 songs and you should be able to get to the end of easy with the band, then you get the khakis, then you get the girls.

There's always the stupid difficult expert level for the hardcore fans too, so it bridges the gap and there-in lies the appeal.

Dr Jeckyl and Mr ESC. @ Jan 12th 2009 1:32PM

I remember when I bought GH2 for the PS2, the game was alright and it was pretty cool at first but I realized that the fun stopped after completing Medium with 5 stars. Hard was just about as fun as watching a Peanuts rerun for the 5th time.

I enjoyed the music but that is half a lie because there only were like 6 songs I wanted to play which were disperse through the whole game. I had to complete 4 songs I didn’t liked to reach the one I actually wanted to play to the point I didn’t give a crap about hard mode.

Shmil @ Jan 12th 2009 12:52PM

ah but will it blend?

Strategy_Panda (The Sandwich Poisoning Crew) @ Jan 12th 2009 1:57PM

probably

copa @ Jan 12th 2009 12:57PM

World of Warcraft says "Hi".

Jevanzz @ Jan 13th 2009 3:14PM

Product sales, not subscription sales.

(The Award-Winning) dark_inchworm @ Jan 12th 2009 2:37PM

Eh, it's just technicality bullshit.

They say Guitar Hero III is the first to generate retail sales of $1 billion, which I believe has a lot to do with the bundles costing around $90 at launch. They probably don't even consider for a second WoW subscriptions, which have made WELL over a billion in revenue, but not retail sales.

Tricky tricky.