14 DAY TRIAL // The rhythm game market has been shrinking this year and game developers find themselves forced to come out with something new to keep the industry alive. Both Activision and MTV Games hope to use the holyday spirit to rake in some profit and big titles have already been released. In direct competition with one another, the companies tried to find that extra something to give them an edge over the rival and secure a nice Christmas bonus for the head of each.
Activision decided to use quantity to their advantage while MTV opted for quality. Guitar Hero 5 comes with the extra forthcoming Guitar Hero: Van Halen while the music gurus decided to make use of one of the biggest names in rock history. The Fab Four's personal appearance in their Beatles: Rock Band seems to have swayed the hearts of gamers away from Guitar Hero 5. Electronic Entertainment Design and Research's Jesse Divnich Wedbush and Morgan Securities' Michael Pachter had high expectations for both games back in September when they evaluated the two products.
Speculation has started to pop up as the industry-tracking NPD Group will reveal the September US retail sales figures next week. Pachter predicts that Guitar Hero 5 will have sold close to 700,000 copies while The Beatles: Rock Band is said to have recorded 1.3 million sales across all versions. Wedbush also gives Rock Band the upper hand, but in a closer matched battle. By his expectations The Beatles: Rock Band will land 1 million copies sold while Guitar Hero 5 will register 800,000 copies.
Such predictions could induce Dan Rosensweig a heart attack as the president and CEO of Activision's Guitar Hero division, RedOctane, had completely opposite expectations. Halfway through September, the former Yahoo! COO told the Financial Times that Guitar Hero 5 was no match for The Beatles: Rock Band and outsold it by a 4:1 ratio in the US and as much as 9:1 in other markets.