14 DAY TRIAL // An analyst watching the video game industry has suggested that the two biggest music simulation franchises, Guitar Hero from Activision and Rock Band from MTV Games and Harmonix, should join forces in order to combat the clear decline in sales the genre has been recently experiencing.
Doug Creutz, who is analyst with Cowen Capital Partners, has said that both Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2 have sold significantly below pre launch estimates.
The analysts stated, “We expect the two Hero titles to struggle to sell 1 million units combined in the U.S. during Q4 2010, versus our prior expectation of roughly 2.5 million total U.S. Hero units.”
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has revealed by the NPD Group to have sold just 86,000 units in the two days it was available in September.
Creutz suggests that consolidation could be the answer to the problems of the music simulation genre, saying “Activision's best option at this point would be to approach Viacom with idea of (re)merging the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises through a sale or joint venture agreement.”
Harmonix is the company which created both Guitar Hero and Rock Band but it's unlikely that it would be interested in combining the two, mainly because Rock Band, as a franchise, seems to have been performing better than its Activision rival.
Rock Band 3 is set to be released at the end of the month and will add keyboards to the simulation options.
The game will also include new Pro mode options, allowing the virtual experience of playing instruments to be closer than ever to the real thing.
Rock Band 3 has been getting good reviews and could manage big sales in the run up to Christmas.
Analysts believe that even if Guitar Hero slows down Activision will be strong over the holidays, mainly on the strength of Call of Duty: Black Ops, the first person shooter from Treyarch.