Green Day might do better

May 24, 2010 09:33 GMT  ·  By

The Beatles: Rock Band secured quite a bit of media hype around videogames and their ability to bring entertainment experiences that can revive long lost content, like the songs of the quintessential rocn'n'roll bands that are no longer playing together.

But in the long running battle with the Guitar Hero franchise from Activision, it seems The Beatles: Rock Band did not do as well as MTV Games, which is working with Harmonix on its development, expected, especially on the European market. Worldwide, the game moved more than 1 million units to Beatles fans.

Scott Guthrie, who is the general manager for MTV Games, told British outlet MCV, “We were expecting higher sales. We got caught in a few things that happened last year. It was a tough economy; there was a lot of competitive products out there, and I think Beatles probably had softer sales than it would have if some of those things weren’t in play.”

Guthrie admitted one of the problems was that MTV Games and its parent company Viacom underestimated the power of Activision-backed advertising, something which will not be happening in the future, as those involved try to get as big a possible a slice of the declining music simulation market.

On June 8, Harmonix and MTV Games are launching, with Electronic Arts working as the distributor, Green Day: Rock Band, a title that depicts the punk rock band’s evolution from their breakout with “Dookie” to “21st Century Breakdown.” The three stated that the game might sell more than The Beatles: Rock Band. The game is coming to the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii.

Harmonix and MTV Games are also working on Rock Band 3, with the launch date expected to come close to Christmas. The title will offer songs from a variety of bands but there are limited details linked to it at the moment.