Beatle's Rock Band a Dud??

[RocknRoll]

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/33401172#

Consumers Buried Paul: 'Beatles Rock Band' a Sales Dud
Published: Tuesday, 20 Oct 2009 | 6:10 PM ET Text Size By: Chris Morris, Special to CNBC.com
The 2009 version of Beatlemania appears to have nothing on the 60s.

Despite an extensive marketing campaign, positive reviews and some of the most widespread media attention ever given to a video game, “The Beatles: Rock Band” had a relatively lackluster first month on store shelves.
Source: Harmonix
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The game did beat its chief competition —Activision’s [ATVI 12.46 -0.07 (-0.56%) ] “Guitar Hero 5” — by nearly a 2:1 margin in September. And, as developer Harmonix [VIA 30.90 0.52 (+1.71%) ] and Electronic Arts [ERTS 19.97 -0.86 (-4.13%) ] were quick to point out, that victory was achieved despite Activision offering a free copy of the upcoming “Guitar Hero: Van Halen” to buyers of “GH5.”

That’s fine on the surface, but analysts were expecting the appeal of the Fab Four to move more than 1 million copies of the game last month. Instead, it sold just 583,000, according to numbers from the NPD Group.

Microsoft’s [MSFT 26.37 0.01 (+0.04%) ] Xbox led the pack, with 254,000 copies sold for the system. The Nintendo [NTDOY 33.09 -0.19 (-0.57%) ] Wii moved 208,600 copies. And Sony (SNE) saw nearly 121,000 copies sold for the PS3.

MTV Games, which owns Harmonix, says it was anything but disappointed with the September sales—and that the game is selling on track with its internal expectations.

The less than stellar performance of “The Beatles: Rock Band” is tied, in part, to the ongoing woes of the music/dance genre. While September showed a 72 percent dollar sales increase over the 2008 numbers, the category as a whole is still down markedly year-over-year.

“This was a genre that had done very well,” says Billy Pidgeon of Game Changer Research. “I think Activision and Harmonix and various karaoke games have been slamming new content into the stores so fast that it has caused some consumer fatigue.”

Some players, meanwhile, say the game itself was too similar to previous “Rock Band” titles.

Dr. Whit Anderson bought an early copy of the game, but one month later is planning to trade it in at Gamestop to supplement the cost of a newer title. “[It] felt like an expansion to me, not a full release,” he says. “[It was] cool, but not quite enough to be a stand alone game ($60) purchase.”

The crossover potential of The Beatles with today’s core gamers, who are more likely to be listening to Blink 182 and Jay-Z, isn’t exactly ideal. The group might be timeless, but they’re still a Baby Boomer band at their core.


Source: Harmonix
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There is an upside to that, though. The mainstream appeal could give “The Beatles: Rock Band” a long tail at retail. With the holiday season about to arrive, shoppers could view it as a good gift item — especially for older gamers.

And, as console prices continue to drop over the coming years, the typical buyer will be more mainstream than hardcore. That could bode well for the game.

The financial performance of “The Beatles: Rock Band” doesn’t end at the retail register, either. Like other “Rock Band” games, players can purchase downloadable content to expand the game experience. So far, they seem eager to do so.

The game itself shipped with 45 songs. A 46th — “All You Need is Love” — was downloadable via Xbox Live for $2. Harmonix reports that over 100,000 people downloaded the song in September.

On Wednesday, the company released the “Abbey Road” album as downloadable content for players, letting them play songs from the album that were not included with the original game, including “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” and “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.” Individual songs again cost $2 and the complete album will cost $17 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.

That doesn’t mute the disappointment in the initial numbers, given the hype for the game. Pidgeon, however, notes that regardless of its initial sales, “The Beatles: Rock Band” succeeded on other, less tangible levels.

“I’d say it’s a bit of a disappointment, but I’m not that surprised,” he says. “I think this was more a vanity deal that gave publicity to [MTV’s games unit] and to the Beatles reissues on CD.”

According to EMI, notes sales of those digitally remastered CDs in North America, Japan and the U.K. topped 2.25 million copies in the first five days – meaning maybe Beatlemania is still alive — but it’s not a phenomenon that translates well to more modern forms of entertainment.

© 2009 CNBC.com

[S2M]

Yeah, cause its way funner to play songs by those classic artists as:

Smashing Pumpkins
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Children of Bodom
Kaiser Chiefs
Jimmy Eat World
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thrice
TV on the Radio



Kids today wouldn't know good music if it were giving them oral sex.....

[larryfromnextdoor]

Yeah, cause its way funner to play songs by those classic artists as:

Smashing Pumpkins
John Mayer
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Children of Bodom
Kaiser Chiefs
Jimmy Eat World
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thrice
TV on the Radio



Kids today wouldn't know good music if it were giving them oral sex.....

wow.. you nailed this.. the genius of the Beatles are just in another world to most youngsters..

[Ehwmatt]

Yeah, cause its way funner to play songs by those classic artists as:

Smashing Pumpkins
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Children of Bodom
Kaiser Chiefs
Jimmy Eat World
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thrice
TV on the Radio



Kids today wouldn't know good music if it were giving them oral sex.....

I think it has a lot less to do with this than the fact that they have oversaturated the video game market with these music games. Between the Rock Bands and the Guitar Heroes, there have been well over 10 releases of these types of games in the last 2 or 3 years alone. The Beatles is one of the most recent releases and thus will be hit the hardest by the oversaturation. I think people, myself included, are just done shelling out $60 for one of these games any more, I've already got both Rock Band 1 and 2 and Guitar Hero II and III and the concept has been played out for me.

[bluejeangirl76]

Does this mean I can buy one hyper cheap? $5 bin? I'd be a fan of that!

[G.I.Jim]

I'm a gamer, and when I heard they were coming out with a game about... The Beatles I thought "What person in the gaming demographic of 16-40 year olds are going to give a rats ass about the Beatles???". I'm 37 and wasn't born when the Beatles were hot. I know they were HUGE and changed the music industry, but I don't give a shit about them!

[Triple S]

Yeah, cause its way funner to play songs by those classic artists as:

Smashing Pumpkins
John Mayer
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Children of Bodom
Kaiser Chiefs
Jimmy Eat World
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thrice
TV on the Radio



Kids today wouldn't know good music if it were giving them oral sex.....

wow.. you nailed this.. the genius of the Beatles are just in another world to most youngsters..

I love it - at least I can sing to this one as well as play the instruments - can't say I know the words to too many Nirvana songs

[Rick]

Does this mean I can buy one hyper cheap? $5 bin? I'd be a fan of that!

[Sarah]

I think it was too expensive. Too expensive for the game itself, plus the fact that great songs like Hey Jude, Strawberry Fields, and Let It Be aren't even available, not even as DLC. I consider the track list a ripoff, personally.

However, I do love the harmony vocals.

[The Sushi Hunter]

Yeah, cause its way funner to play songs by those classic artists as:

Smashing Pumpkins
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Children of Bodom
Kaiser Chiefs
Jimmy Eat World
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thrice
TV on the Radio



Kids today wouldn't know good music if it were giving them oral sex.....

In Japan (recently) the more popular songs for this game are by Aerosmith and Guns & Roses. We have a family friend who's got two daughers who love this game. While in Japan (because the US version software won't work in the Japanese game units) I bought them the newest software for it while visiting. Their mother told us the next day that they had stayed up half the night playing what I had bought for them.

[brywool]

wow.. you nailed this.. the genius of the Beatles are just in another world to most youngsters..

You know, I only know a few kids that DON'T love The Beatles. Most of the ones I know totally love them.
Guess that means I need to have a bigger social circle.

[ProgRocker53]

Yeah, cause its way funner to play songs by those classic artists as:

Smashing Pumpkins
A Perfect Circle
AFI
Arctic Monkeys
Children of Bodom
Kaiser Chiefs
Jimmy Eat World
Sunny Day Real Estate
Thrice
TV on the Radio



Kids today wouldn't know good music if it were giving them oral sex.....

Smashing Pumpkins and A Perfect Circle are legit bands.

The others the world could do without but those two are very, very good.

[ProgRocker53]

I think it was too expensive. Too expensive for the game itself, plus the fact that great songs like Hey Jude, Strawberry Fields, and Let It Be aren't even available, not even as DLC. I consider the track list a ripoff, personally.

However, I do love the harmony vocals.

I hate it when someone posts my exact thoughts before I get to the thread. She stole the words right out of my head.