Guitar Hero 5 goes straight to the top of the UK charts
by Alexander Sliwinski 
{ Sep 14th 2009 at 9:00AM } 
The Beatles: Rock Band premiered at the number four spot, which some are sure to find disappointing. Both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have previously debuted at the fourth and sixth spot, respectively, with previous iterations. Music games may be on a sales decline, but they apparently still know how to make an entrance.
Source -- Guitar Hero 5 hits the right notes (Chart Track)
Source -- All formats chart (Chart Track)
Gallery: Guitar Hero 5
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Sep 14th 2009 9:09AM
:/ I was thinking about buying it... but remembered that I already spent over 100 pounds on Guitar Hero titles THIS YEAR and there's so many other games coming out... I'll just rent it and then buy it for 10 quid when guitar hero 15 comes out later this year.
It's quite surprising that The Beatles are lower on that list with them being, you know, from the UK. But I can understand why, as Harmonix's Marketing in UK is, as always, horrible.
Ghen @ Sep 14th 2009 10:59AM
For the casual audience though, The Beatles will sell for a longer period of time and at a higher price point than gh5 going forward. I think #4 is respectable given the audience will be more casual.
Tiptup300 @ Sep 14th 2009 2:00PM
Guitar Hero 5 is a solid game. It's fun and all has an okay setlist....
I'm just bored of the whole rock band "thing".
sam @ Sep 14th 2009 7:14PM
The Beatles game certainly has marketing:
1) It was timed to tie in with new remastered boxsets of the music, which meant it achieved one-sentence mentions on mainstream news. (That's one sentence more than any other video game has got for the last six months or so.)
2) There's a big stand of the game right near the entrance of my local supermarket, presumably that isn't a one-off. I don't recall seeing that done very often for video games either, usually it's just DVDs that get that treatment.
I've seen no advertising or media mentions whatsoever for Guitar Hero 5 (I don't have a TV so there were probably TV ads - but that's just standard).
I wonder if the problem is, frankly, the Beatles. At very least, it's kind of amusing that not only is the Beatles brand no longer 'bigger than Jesus' but it's not even bigger than Guitar Hero...
The Baron @ Sep 14th 2009 9:13AM
Hmm, didn't really think there was much buzz about this one. I suppose there's a shitload of people here who haven't heard of RB though. I thought Beatles RB must have done quite poorly - I played through the story mode with two other people, getting about four stars on average and found that I was 427th on the PS3 band leaderboard.
Defract @ Sep 14th 2009 9:16AM
Top of the UK charts but still Neversoft neglect the fact that both the DLC update patch and World Tour import features are MIA.... Bravo guys... Bravo.
Bennyishere @ Sep 14th 2009 10:43AM
Is that a UK thing? I've imported both my DLC and WT songs, but I live in Norway.
Bought Guitar Hero 5 and DiRT 2 last friday and have been enjoying both very much.
jarhead906 @ Sep 14th 2009 9:15AM
Can you guys just stop buying this stuff please? It has become another Madden/NCAA.
Ben Gilbert @ Sep 14th 2009 9:51AM
I hate to tell you, but people buy Madden every single year. Millions of people. Just because it's annualized doesn't mean there isn't any interest in it.
Woz @ Sep 14th 2009 10:45AM
The difference between Madden and Guitar Hero is that there is only one Madden every year. But when they release a new Guitar Hero every 90 days, then it becomes ridiculous and needs to be stopped.
Ghen @ Sep 14th 2009 11:02AM
Consumers asked for 2 things last year and the year before. GH:M and to play gh1,2,3 songs in a full band. Why would activision deny that? Going forward though, who knows what they'll do. The fans are content with Metallica still and have just been asking for disparate bands to make the next game. There's no cohesive voice like the one that called out for Metallica.
jarhead906 @ Sep 14th 2009 11:33AM
I don't know what you're talking about, but my comment was referring to quality versus quantity.
Madden and quality are practically opposites.
HighFiveJesus @ Sep 14th 2009 2:12PM
They could always do a promo like.. buy Madden 10 and get Madden 11 for free...hahaha NEVER.
Be thankful it isn't, Buy madden 10 and get Madden 10 and a half for 50 percent off.
AUS_JD @ Oct 7th 2009 8:48PM
jarhead906 whined a question "Can you guys just stop buying this stuff please? It has become another Madden/NCAA."
Answer to jarhead906: No. I like it better than Rock Band.
Woz cried "The difference between Madden and Guitar Hero is that there is only one Madden every year. But when they release a new Guitar Hero every 90 days, then it becomes ridiculous and needs to be stopped."
........or you could organise a boycott! Just get all your like minded friends to never buy a Guitar Hero game again. That should make a difference to their sales and teach 'em what for....or not.
To all you Guitar Hero hating Rock Band snobs. It may be difficult to believe, but more people like Guitar Hero than Rock Band. This is proved by the sales figures, Rock Band as a brand is just as well known as guitar hero, but people just don't like it as much. FACT.
I for one like Rock Band, it's a solid game, and I do prefer Harmonix's direction with downloadable songs, and the song list on both RB and RB2 (not that we'd know about RB2 in AUS EA you CU%TS) is better, in my opinion.
Game play is where it is at. Guitar Hero is better to me. Hammer ons in RB have never worked very well (the timiming seems to float about, never quite sure when to hit the damn things) something that made me play more Guitar Hero. I know I was right, they just patched the feature.
In my opinion the note charts are better in Guitar Hero especially on Expert.
I know 95% of Rock Band Fanbois just choked on there own bile, but yes I believe Guitar Hero has better note charts than Rock Band.
All in all just play the one you like (or both, I do), pull your dick out of you fanboi mates ear and let go of the hate, unless you redirect it at fanbois, that's allowed.
Flo @ Sep 14th 2009 9:16AM
Name Recognition...
Ghen @ Sep 14th 2009 11:02AM
The Beatles vs. Guitar Hero
hmmm....
SkullRobot @ Sep 14th 2009 9:20AM
I think this has to do more with the fact that Rock Band titles take a long time to make it overseas. I have yet to see ads for Beatles: Rock Band around here (Switzerland), and the only choice for instruments are Rock Band 1 packs or Guitar Hero World tour packs. Rock Band 1 packs are everywhere but it's still hard to find World Tour packs.
The Baron @ Sep 14th 2009 9:38AM
Nope, Beatles RB has been very heavily pushed here in the UK. There's a poster for it in the bus stop at the end of my street..
WINterfang @ Sep 14th 2009 10:16AM
The Beatles Rock Band has had some of the best Advertising I have ever seen, there's posters everywhere, it came out in a easy to learn date, they where actual videos of the game on VH1 ( like music videos), it was one the point of that new/old album release of the Beatles, and between the new return of beatlemania, basically perfect.
Guitar Hero 5 on the other hand, came out like BANG!, I had only saw the commercial on TV 2 times and didn't even knew it came out, till I took a look at the boards.
JoeTheBlow @ Sep 14th 2009 9:24AM
EA didn't do SHIT for the Rock Band brand over here.
We got RB a year late(in which time about 3 GH games had come out, along with GHWT), massively overpriced and the old instruments at the time when RB2 had come out in the US.
No denying that RB is better than GH, but the original RB launch was an absolute fucking disgrace that they're now paying for.
Most people are probably utterly unaware that they can use their GHWT instruments to play RB:Beatles.
Hafkie @ Sep 14th 2009 12:12PM
Hey, atleast you guys have RB2 on the Wi....oh.
Well, atleast the game is out in Austra...oh
You can always buy RB2 instrum...oh.
EA fucking sucks.
As an American, I feel bad for you guys. If I was in change of EA, I'd make the releases worldwide. It's pure bullshit how poorly they treat everyone outside of North America. They only did a worldwide release of The Beatles: Rock Band because Apple Corps. pressured them into it. If they had the opprotunity, they wouldn't have made it a worldwide release. Why? I don't know. Apparently EA hates money. Rock Band would probably have a bigger market share in rhythm games if PAL regions didn't have to wait so long for new regions.
Hell, if I remember correctly, Guitar Hero: World Tour came out BEFORE Rock Band 1 in Austrailia. That's just pure bullshit.
Dr. Robotnik, Evil Genius Extraordinaire @ Sep 14th 2009 8:57PM
It's understandable for outside countries to not like Rock Band for their release dates.
Americans got RB2 before some countries got the first RB. If there's one spot the RB series needs to improve on, it's distribution.
Chris D.(PSN: Aggie_CEO | XBL:The Aggie CEO | Steam: Aggie_CEO @ Sep 14th 2009 9:33AM
The British Don't love their own!?!?
SAY IT ISNT SO!!!!
WINterfang @ Sep 14th 2009 10:17AM
But it's on 4 place.
GiggMan @ Sep 14th 2009 9:36AM
The game (GH5) is pretty good though. Something about it just feels different than the others. I haven't tried the Beatles one yet.
Hafkie @ Sep 14th 2009 10:29AM
Neversoft went into a board room after making GH:M, put a copy of GH:WT on the projector, and said "What the fuck did we did we do right?". After the 15 minutes of awkward silence, they decided to make a good game this time.
aoday91 @ Sep 14th 2009 9:39AM
Im gonna get downvoted like crazy for this but I really do like Guitar Hero its a fun game and Im happy that I bought i mean people on joystiq act like guitar hero is the worst game ever created
BxGT @ Sep 14th 2009 10:08AM
Its not that its a bad game its the fact that if they took more than four months to make it, it would be a great game.
aoday91 @ Sep 14th 2009 10:51AM
Why does that bug people so much if ur not interested in a game ignore it and let those who do enjoy it have their fun
MrSpaceCowboy @ Sep 14th 2009 11:07AM
But if people don't care about the quality of games won't that lead to a decline in the quality of games across the board?
And then we'll have another dark age in video gaming like the one that followed ET...
aoday91 @ Sep 14th 2009 11:40AM
Im not saying game quality should go down just that if u dont like a franchise dont go crazy when a new game comes out
MrSpaceCowboy @ Sep 14th 2009 11:59AM
I was just adding to BxGT's comment by saying that if developers get sloppy and churn out unpolished iterations of popular games it lowers the bar and creates a bad trend.
It's all these recent unpolished iterations of GH that have turned me off it and it's not something I'm willing to ignore (like you think I should). I'm willing to kick up a fuss because I'd actually like to see Neversoft lift their game a little.
I want to be interested in GH titles again, but they're not making it easy.
Hafkie @ Sep 14th 2009 12:01PM
As much as I have tried to defend GH games over time, I will say this. The hatred of GH:WT that so many have is what prompted Neversoft to make GH5 so much better than any other full band Guitar Hero game. And for that, I thank you all.
GH5 is actually a worthy competitor to Rock Band now. GH just needs more songs, as their 3-pack a week strategy will never catch up to Rock Band. They need more albums, more giant variety weeks, and 6 packs to catch up to RB.
aristokrat @ Sep 14th 2009 12:31PM
I think another reason people hate on GH is because its become a very apparent materialization of Bobby Kotick's infamous comment:
"With respect to the franchises that don't have the potential to be EXPLOITED every year across every platform with clear sequel potential that can meet our objectives of over time becoming $100 million plus franchises, that's a strategy that has worked very well for us."
His stance is clearly not one committed to pushing the envelope of gaming or evolving it in any way, and GH came to fulfill that prophecy for a while. I'm glad that Neversoft at least had the pride to reinvigorate the series despite the message from above to just use cruise control.
Hafkie @ Sep 14th 2009 1:01PM
Bobby Kotick is the man behind all of this mess.
I think GH didn't improve until GH5 solely because Neversoft never had any time to make it right. They went straight from GH3 to Aerosmith, Aerosmith to GH:WT, and WT to Metallica. All they could really do was add things ontop of the GH3 engine which was broken enough (as it was their first rhythm game)
The decision to give Smash Hits to Beenox was probably the best decision that could have been made for the GH Franchise. Neversoft had a good amount of time to really iron out the details on GH5, and put as much effort into is as they could, without worrying about any other projects. The side releases will hinder the main releases if Neversoft has to keep making them.
Given the recent decline in intrest, Activision needs to stop asking for more GH titles every year. At this point, I just want a maximum of two releases a year, not four plus a handheld game.
The On Tour franchise is pretty much dead, since Nintendo killed it.
There aren't many more epic bands left to make a game on (and the ones that are left don't give out their music...Led Zeppelin.).
Really, they can either make another Smash Hits game, or a decade/genre based game. That's all they have left in their sidegame catalog. I think we will see a decline in the number of GH games next year.
Kdiggy @ Sep 14th 2009 9:43AM
Depressing. Batman is such a better game.
IDUNNOLOL @ Sep 14th 2009 9:43AM
I purchase all the Guitar Hero iterations, no matter what joystiquers say. I will continue to buy music games as I enjoy them. There's nothing I enjoy more than starting my morning with a coffee and playing Nickelback on GH.
Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Sep 14th 2009 9:46AM
You almost got me. Should have used something else then Nickelback. "Hannah Montana" wouldn't give you away.
robotoid @ Sep 18th 2009 4:07PM
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....haha..ha..ha..... oh shit you're serious :|
Woz @ Sep 14th 2009 9:47AM
Can someone explain to me the difference between this chart Joystiq one, and the other one the other guys used which has GH number two.
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/9/2009/09/500x_britsep.jpg
Markusdragon @ Sep 14th 2009 10:01AM
One is the combined all-format charts, whilst the one you linked to splits the different formats of each game into separate entries.
Whilst Dirt 2 on 360 outsold everything, the Sales of Guitar Hero 5 on all formats combined outsold the sales of Dirt 2 on all formats combined.
Woz @ Sep 14th 2009 10:03AM
Ah, that makes sense, thanks. I prefer the other one because it doesn't list Guitar Hero on top. Anything but Guitar Hero.
WINterfang @ Sep 14th 2009 9:48AM
Better game is selling better.
POETIC JUSTICE!!!
say what you want but GH5 is the best Guitar Hero game so far. ( it's not Rock Band 2 but it's better than RB:TB.)
billop @ Sep 14th 2009 10:17AM
You sir...are a fucking idiot. Good day!
Hafkie @ Sep 14th 2009 10:20AM
Well, for the most part.
If you like/love The Beatles, then you will love TB:RB. Then again, this is no suprise.
Metallica fans love GH: Metallica
Aerosmith fans love GH: Aerosmith.
I think gameplay wise, GH5 is a bit better. Simply because they shouldn't have made the fret highways transparent. The dreamscapes look drop dead gorgeous, but they are often very bright and make the notes harder to see, especially with 4/6x and beatlemania activated. Aside from that, the game looks stunning.
I'm more impartial to The Beatles, so I bought GH5 before it. I really have to say, Neversoft got their act together on this one. This isn't "Guitar Hero: World Tour 2" like alot of people were expecting. It's actually a fantastic game.
MrSpaceCowboy @ Sep 14th 2009 11:02AM
WRONG.
Guitar Hero 2.
[End of discussion about the best GH ever.]
aristokrat @ Sep 14th 2009 12:33PM
I think even Aerosmith fans were disappointed with GH:Aerosmith.
deaftly @ Sep 14th 2009 12:40PM
I picked up GH5 over the weekend and its just damn good fun and GH VH for free? whats not to like. Screw the haters.
Hafkie @ Sep 14th 2009 12:41PM
Actually... you are probably right with Aerosmith.
I don't think I know anyone that likes that game.
korwyn @ Sep 14th 2009 2:07PM
GH2 and GH5 are the best in the series?
that's why I hate GH series so much.
My first GH was GH3 (also the first time playing this kind of game), then GH Aerosmith, then GH WT then realized that I have 3 GH too many. So I stop supporting this brand.