NPD: Guitar Hero 3 is this generation's highest-grossing game

@PR0F3TA the only people who swear that are people who visit game sites. which probably amount to less than 5% of the gaming public

@PR0F3TA

You wouldn't judge the list of top grossing movies in a year and say that it was a terrible year, would you? This is no different. People like blockbusters, (and Wii Fit, apparently).

@PR0F3TA; This is probably the most insightful/truthful comment on this site.

By the way, the only Activision games I own are Guitar Hero 3 and Modern Warefare 2. Swore I wouldn't buy any more games from the two franchises and still haven't.

@PR0F3TA
Totally agree. The games on this list are some of the most derivative, unoriginal, and bland games this generation, aside of the Nintendo third-party shovelware.

@jozanovic
It's to be expected that the list would be mostly derivative and unoriginal games. Since this is a list of games with the highest gross revenue, the games that top the list will have the lowest production costs and the highest sales. These are mostly simple to produce games that have mass appeal. Makes sense, really. I wouldn't really say this is a good reflection of this generations games as a whole due to the nature of the list itself.

@koehler83

GH earn $830.9 million (not counting additional income from digital add-on sales)...Still think Blops ($787.4 million) is top dog?

@Uncle Jesse
Im still disappointed that this was never a DLC song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBx6MbZngEY

Perhaps if there is ever a rivival this will be included.

@Uncle Jesse
Well, as ironic as it sounds and despite the recent "failure" of the rhythm genre, I only recently bought my first one.
I kind of went all out and bought Rock Band 3 and then hunted down all the instruments I could from various sources.

Here's to hoping the genre doesn't die out completely.

@Uncle Jesse The thing is, once you own a really good one, with all the DLc, you don't really need to buy another unless something massively improves.

@Uncle Jesse

It's not really a fad - never was. Musical expression by it's very nature is too universal to be a fad. What we have here is simply what happens when over-exploitive marketing strategies are applied to music; or to anything else for that matter (just ask Tony Hawk . . . and Call of Duty's days at the top, are already seriously numbered).

As the sole purveyor of over half of the music games to hit store shelves since the genre took off back in 1995 with the release of Guitar Hero, had Activision shown a bit more restraint and creativity in it's development policy, instead of over saturating the market with expensive peripherals and me-too updates, the music genre would still be going strong now. They are doing the same thing currently to Call of Duty, where along with Modern Warfare 3, they have plans to release almost a half dozen more Call of Duty games to major consoles over the next 18 to 24 months. Just like Tony Hawk and all the rest, Activision will ride this franchise into the ground, and then ride it a little more, before finally tossing it aside like a $2 hooker. They won't care they have ruined another IP. They won't care they will have to layoff all the people responsible for making the games. And they don't care that the downfall of Call of Duty, is likely going to negatively impact sales of every other shooter coming to the marketplace.

Even sadder is that after Call of Duty is dead as a door nail, the only IP that Activision can fall back on is the Blizzard IPs and whatever new IP Bungie is bringing to them. If Bungie's IP is another shooter (extremely likely), like most other shooters, it is going to suffer sales once Call of Duty falls off the wagaon - which leaves Activision with nothing exploitable except for Blizzard. Up until now, Activision has been pretty kosher about allowing Blizzard to run itself, but make no mistake about it, Activision owns Blizzard; not the other way around. And an Activision without any exploitable IP, is going to make some swift and brutal changes at Blizzard, not too unlike the swift and brutal changes they made last year at Infinity Ward - and then the exploitation of Blizzard's IPs will begin in earnest.

@aarontuyet

Wow, you're so indie.

@aarontuyet
You're what's wrong with this world.

@aarontuyet i hate Lady Gaga, Harry Potter and Jurassic Park can I join your club now?

@baby sea tuna

I wouldn't consider myself indie... just don't like overpriced peripheral games, nor ADD twitch FPS. I DO like most of the games everyone here likes with the exception of those.

@Vee Sure buddy- you keep giving your money buying reiterations of the same games or overpriced pieces of plastic instead of supporting great new IPs (Uncharted, ME, anything PixelJunk, Portal, Braid, etc...)

And lol at the downvote... as obviously the majority of people perturbed by my post obviously purchased some of those games.

@Jack Kevorkian

Absolutely, as long as you put me out of my misery before natural causes take me!

@Jack Kevorkian

WTF IS WRONG WITH HARRY POTTER??????

@Jack Kevorkian

whoa whoa whoa Jurassic Park is amazing

@Jack Kevorkian Wait, you mean JP 1, or the sequels?

Because if you hate 1, you're inhuman. the others? I can forgive you for those.

@aarontuyet
Sorry you got downvoted, buddy. I know what you're talking about. It's just that people get super-defensive when they buy garbage and try to convince themselves that it's actually good, because everybody they know bought the same garbage.

@VeeDeeVee
It's very hurtful and a real dick move telling somebody they are what's wrong with this world.

@aarontuyet

Wrong. Look at the comment right below yours: it also says the games on the list suck and it got upvoted. People just on't like the way you said it because you're acting like avoiding mainstream games is some kind of badge of honor.

@aarontuyet
Well bully for you.

The fact is that absolutely none of the games on that list actually suck. Well, Wii Play kind of sucks but assuming that you were buying it for the controller, I think the minigames are amusing enough to be worth the difference in price (actually played it for an hour round somebody's house the other week, it was entertaining).

Wii Fit is not great as a game but it's pretty good as a 'fitness game'. And yep, even so, we got an hour's entertainment out of that too.

In other words all those games are at least decent or have a reasonable reason to buy them - getting them isn't stupid. So I see this list as (partly) a vindication of game buyers; they're not quite as dumb as we think.

For instance, there are no licensed movie-based games on that list. Cause for celebration, imo...

Personally I only got one of the games on the list; Mario Kart. Bloody awesome game, especially for the online play - at least initially, albeit that it started to suck a bit when the hacks came out. IMO everyone with a Wii who doesn't actually hate the whole idea of Mario Kart should own this game.

And I'm not hating on anyone who got Guitar Hero / Rock Band either. Those were good games, I'd have bought one or other personally except I don't want to clutter the house with plastic crap. (at least the Wii wheel is pretty small...) Same with the FPS games, not my bag but come on, those games didn't suck either.

@VeeDeeVee

Yeah. Someone who is violently homophobic certainly isn't as bad or worse for the world.

And hey! I'd never pay for any of those games on the list either.

@Acosta02

Yeah, I can see that the way I posted came accross as douchey and arrogant. My bust. I guess I dislike the fact that mass-market games drain the coffers of the purchasing power of the people when they could be rewarding innovative studios coming up with new stuff... not newer ways of doing what was good new stuff.

@xxxsam

They ARE garbage for the cost of a new game. And yes, that is an opinion and we are all entitled to one. How much effort went into Gutiar Hero 3 in comparison to 2, or Black Ops from MW2? The monetary reward for their relatively little efforts is ASTOUNDING (or disgusting if you are jealous like me).

@darthdavid
Gee, the games that made the most money are mainstream? Next you'lll tell me that the top grossing songs were mainstream music!

And here I thought the games that casual gamers have never heard of would make the cut.

@darthdavid

if Braid was on the list than that would make Braid mainstream

also this list isn't what gamers play. this list is what everyone else plays

@darthdavid

Aren't high sales what makes something mainstream?

@Captain Slender

whats the EA title, cause i could have sworn it was a Harmonix game. Its like saying GTA is made by Capcom in Japan.

@Captain Slender Im surprised that GTA4 isn't on the list.

@baby sea tuna 4 for me. I only still own Rock Band...which is pretty much RB2 at this point.

@Jack Kevorkian

It definitely was. Same with Rock Band. The rest of them, though, not so much.

@Jack Kevorkian

It was but I don't understand why everyone expects them to reinvent the wheel year after year.

they can make easy money so they do. it's a business and they employ thousands of people. they have to pay them some how

Me & you are from different generations kid, I stated the obvious because it's very easy for developers to make cash with very little market research. Games are expensive & budgets are huge they have no choice but make mainstream games for the mainstream gamer. iOS/Android/mobile games are changing that, yeah some are simple and there's lots of copy cats but at the same time creativity is returning and smaller indie companies are getting noticed. We all need a break form FPS, EA stuff & GTA.

@darthdavid

Well said, and I pray your optimism holds some truth... although I have yet to see anything truly revolutionary from the iStrore or Android market game-wise.

@darthdavid
First of all, spare me the "older than thou" routine. I've been gaming since the 2600, so let's scrap the idea you know better because you've been around longer.

To be shocked/disappointed that easily accessible games make more money than games casual players have never heard of is silly.

I use the mom test. If my mom has heard of it and can play it, its probably a casual friendly game. Out of this list, only call of duty fails the second part.

Sure, there are better games, but ignoring the casual market is just absurd.

@Prince David

Wii fit isn't really a game. I wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic seeing as you throw Mario Kart in there. Though the wii game seemed a bit lacking compared to previous iterations. Maybe it is just showing age.

@C1 i say if it is on a game machine it is a game. Wii Fit was imo the most influential game this gen. While music games are pretty much dead fitness games are still being cranked out constantly. All because of Wii Fit.

@Jack Kevorkian

Is netflix a game?

there are more than games now. training programs, applications, editing tools...