14 DAY TRIAL // One of the big questions about gaming in 2009 is how music games will evolve, after 2008 seemed to signal a slow down in the interest players have for them. If the market is shrinking, then the most important intellectual properties, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, will have to fight for every customer they can get. And, in this fight, the game developed by Neversoft and Activision Blizzard appears to be winning over that created by Harmonix and MTV Games.
The data from the NPD Group, which tracks sales of games in the United States across all platforms, is saying that overall, for 2008, Guitar Hero: World Tour sold 3.4 million copies, while Rock Band 2 only sold 1.7 million units. The 2 to 1 ratio is likely to be a result of the overall better brand recognition that the long running Guitar Hero series enjoys over its newer Rock band rival. Another reason for the significant gap between the two rather similar games is the fact that Guitar Hero was released at the same time for all platforms (the Nintendo Wii, the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 2 and the PlayStation 3), while Rock Band 2 was initially launched for the Xbox 360 and arrived on the Wii and PS2 three months later.
Whatever the causes, Harmonix is likely to be disappointed by the figures, mainly because critics seem to have proffered Rock Band 2 over Guitar Hero: World Tour. Rock Band was the first game to introduce a full band line up for players to enjoy, while Guitar Hero has pushed a feature in its latest game allowing players to create their own tracks that could then be shared online with other people.
One of the big sources of revenue for both music games are downloadable tracks, which are released almost every week and often feature important artists. In this area, Harmonix claims that its tracks are more popular and sell in bigger numbers than those for Guitar Hero: World Tour.