Last year may have been bad for videogames overall -- and nothing pulled it under quite like the music-themed side of the gaming business.
The reason may simply be that the genre got too big, too fast.
Despite expansions in play, instruments and superstars -- including the Beatles -- sales for the “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” franchises and other games in the genre were down 36 percent in 2009 from 2008, according to the NPD Group, an industry watcher.
"It was a challenging year in 2009 for the videogame industry in general,” Philippe Dauman CEO of Viacom, which owns MTV Games, said recently, “and certainly for the 'Rock Band' franchise."
“Challenging” is a polite term when sales of music videogames went from over 25 million units to less than 16 million in just one year.
Sales, which cranked up to over $1.6 billion in 2008 -- when ”Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,” “Guitar Hero IV” (first in that franchise with drum and vocal controllers) and “Rock Band 2” came out -- slid to under $900 million in 2009.
It’s not like “Guitar Hero” or “Rock Band” were out of sight or out of mind.
Activision’s “Guitar Hero V,” which came out in early September, had a pivotal brand cameo in Vaughn’s hit comedy “Couples Retreat." The actor, who plays a videogames salesman in the movie, jammed out to Billy Squier’s “Lonely Is the Night” on his guitar controller for a top score against his on-screen nemesis.
More importantly, published by MTV Games, produced by Harmonix and partially developed by Beatles progeny Dhani Harrison, the heavily promoted “Beatles: Rock Band” also came out in September to coincide with the release of the Fab Four’s entire remastered catalogue.
“There were high expectations surrounding “Beatles: Rock Band,” says NPD analyst Anita Frazier, “and the game performed, selling over 1.2 million units.”
In this economy, sales of 1.2 million of anything is nothing to scoff at – especially when plateauing console sales for the Wii, Xbox and PS3 and a sudden drop off of softcore gamers are taken into account.
It is, however, far less than the almost 2 million units that 2008’s “Rock Band 2” sold in its first six months; and it didn't have to send millions to the Beatles estates and publishers.
Though MTV Games said it was a part of planned “restructuring,” dozens of Harmonix employees were laid off in December. In a recent SEC filing, Viacom seeks back millions paid out to Harmonix, which MTV Games bought back in a much brighter 2007, based on financial targets that have not been met.
It wasn’t any better for other new entries into the field.
“Guitar Hero V” has sold just over 1 million units since it came out in September 2009, nowhere near the chart-topping 3.4 million unit sales of “Guitar Hero IV: World Tour” from 2008.
