14 DAY TRIAL // It seems more and more people are noticing the decrease the market sees in the rhythm-music genre. Initially a huge hit, the games have begun to pop up from everywhere, like old friends do when you win the lottery, and, with the “new thing” not being new anymore, people have started losing interest in it and are looking for the next thing to get them high.
Just as Red Octane feared, DJ Hero's sales prediction are beginning to drop more and more. Cowen and Company analyst Doug Creutz saw a low demand for the upcoming title from the start, but now, as things have developed, he drops his numbers to less than half.
“On DJ Hero, despite some recent positive comments from company management about preorders, we remain very cautious about the title's prospects at launch.” Creutz said. “A survey of online retailers indicates a demand profile that is well below what we would have expected to see just a few days before launch for a title that was destined to be a big (or even modest) hit. As a result, we are reducing our estimate for DJ Hero Q4 U.S. unit sales from 1.6 million to 600,000, and we are reducing our first year estimate from 2.5 million to 950,000.”
So, it looks like the game won't be doing well at all, or at least it won't leave up to Guitar Hero's name. Sure, the chance that it has more to do with the title itself and not with its genre exists, but, since sales for other games in the same market are slowly beginning to shrink, it's probably a general thing.
Still, the idea of a rock star is definitely more popular and more attractive, the “rock and roll lifestyle” is a commonly chased dream. Somehow, being on stage in front of hundreds of thousands of fans, rocking out on you guitar does seem more appealing than sitting in a tiny booth, going in the same circles as your turntable.