Guitar Hero 5 and Rock Band Disappointed in September

The overall NPD Group figures for September were sort of positive, with video-game revenue growing robustly and with sales of the major gaming consoles rebounding after several months of slumps and a dismal August. But it seems that the video-game industry is not out of the woods yet, with October set to be another rough patch before settling into a pattern of growth for the following months until August 2010.

Michael Pachter, who is an analyst of the video-game market for Wedbush Morgan, told GameSpot that, “We think that very solid hardware sales will continue in October, but expect the month to show a slight year-over-year decline, meaning that investors will likely have to be patient until the November sales data is released to see a substantial rebound in growth. From November forward, we think that double-digit gains will be the norm, at least through August 2010.”

For the analyst, the biggest problem in September was the relative lack of stamina displayed by the music-simulation genre, which got two big releases during the month in Guitar Hero 5 and in The Beatles Rock Band. Pachter initially said that the two games would bring in together no less than 220 million dollars, but they only mustered less than 100 million. The future is not looking too bright for the two titles, as consumers often lack the money to get the pricey packages and with saturation settling in.

November will, of course, be marked by the launch of Modern Warfare 2, the Infinity Ward- and Activision-made shooter, which is set to boost sales of the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 and to probably break through the one-million sales barrier in its first month. Growth through the early part of 2010 will probably be fueled by the release of video games like Mass Effect 2 or Starcraft II, which have been delayed from this fall to next year.