Posts Tagged ‘Beatles’

Just my PS3 instruments... before I bought the Beatles bundle!

I recently saw an article in the Chicago Tribune titled “‘Beatles: Rock Band’ sales slow over holidays as music video game genre bombs.”  Ouch.  Personally, I’m still as excited about the genre as I was when I first played Guitar Hero, and as long as Harmonix keeps making games, I’ll be happy.  Plus, that’s not even including the forthcoming RBN Music Store launch!  With that being said, I still wanted to check out the piece to see what was being reported on with the genre.

The article explains that global sales of the Beatles: Rock Band were 1.7 million units sold, compared to only 996,000 units moved of Guitar Hero 5.  So first of all, kudos to the Beatles: Rock Band for beating it’s rival!  (I haven’t seen any good quotes regarding Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band from the Cocky Kotick lately!)  According to the article, that’s where the good news ends for Rock Band.  To put the Beatles: Rock Band sales in perspective, Rock Band 2 sold the same amount in a smaller time frame in the US alone.  Also, 2009 music gaming revenue was $1.06 billion, down 46% from prior year, versus a total industry decrease of only 8%.

That doesn’t look good.  But after thinking about it for a few minutes, I realized that there are a number of things that are not touched upon in the article that I wish were explained in much greater detail, so I guess that’s my job…

The piece does not even mention digital downloads, which based on an interview with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, and Brian Brights, Project Director of the Guitar Hero franchise, the next step in the evolution of the genre will be in user-generated content, which is virtually impossible to do incorporate in traditional industry reporting methods, and skewing reported results against music gaming.  Just prior to the end of 2009, the Rock Band DLC library reached 1,000 songs; a very impressive feat.  There are no official statistics on how much revenue the DLC has generated for Rock Band, but I used a quick and dirty method to make a rough guess.  Using Keldon’s Rock Band Scores site, I was able to figure out roughly how many tracks have been sold.  (His site only pulls back tracks that have scores with them, so this total is actually slightly understating the total sales, as there are surely tracks out there for one reason or another have not been played and had a score recorded.)  If you back out the free tracks, and multiply by $2 each (I understand some were priced at $.99, but this is just a ballpark estimate), you can reasonably estimate that DLC has generated between $90-$100 million in revenue.  If you compare this figure to sales thus far of Guitar Hero 5 (which has sold just south of 1 million copies), even at $60 each, the Rock Band DLC has outsold one of it’s major disc-based competitors (granted the DLC has been selling since late 2007 and Guitar Hero 5 has only been available since September).  It appears that disc-based content is still the dominant way to generate revenue, digital distribution should not be ignored.

The other thing that I didn’t think was emphasized enough is the fact that revenue sales for the genre were always budgeted to drop at some point once the market became saturated with the related hardware.  I’ve bought each bundle for all three major Rock Band games, but I’m the exception.  I think it’s safe to assume that the average customer who purchased the Rock Band 1 bundle did not purchase the Rock Band 2 or Beatles bundle, but would have rather purchased the game only.  All things being equal (Rock Band 2 vs. Rock Band 1 instrument quality, Beatles limited edition bundle pricing, Track Packs/LEGO Rock Band/Guitar Hero games), if you purchased the Rock Band 2 bundle near full retail (~$170), and then purchased the Beatles: Rock Band game only (~$60) the following year, even though you have purchased both of the major franchise games in consecutive years, this represents a 65% drop in revenue for the franchise.  (And just FYI, do not confuse revenue with profit.  Profit is the money you have AFTER expenses; revenue is strictly how much money you bring in.)  It’s safe to assume that Harmonix was well aware of this, and attempted to offset this disparity by releasing additional games (Classic Rock, Country, and Metal Track Packs, LEGO Rock Band, even Rock Band: Unplugged).  That is why sales dollars metrics used when discussing the music gaming genre paints the wrong picture.  The units sold metric represents a much better barometer of the music gaming genre.

Finally, I was shocked at the 46% revenue drop in the genre referenced in the article, and wanted to take a look at the NPD report, but I was having trouble finding the original source as it relates to full year 2009.  What I did find, was the EXACT SAME statistic being referenced back in September about the genre.  I don’t want to sound all “conspiracy theory” here, but I’m wondering if the statistic referenced in the latest article is a good number, or just sloppy reporting.  I mean, both major franchises released TWO games this fall, instead of only one per franchise in 2008.  I find it hard to believe that the year-to-date decline in August 2009 perfectly matched the revenue decline at the end of the year.  And even for the sake of the argument, if the 46% at the end of the year is a good number, that means the drop in revenue for the genre leveled out around the time that the Beatles: Rock Band came out.  Q1 and Q2 were clearly bad for the genre, but the bleeding stopped in Q3, so anyone saying that the genre is dying doesn’t know what they are talking about.

With all that being said, it does not surprise me that the genre would cool down to some extent.  Stocking up on plastic instruments on top of a pricey console in a tough economy is not a welcoming proposition to many gamers and many families.  And since the trend in the gaming genre is to have an ever increasing amount of players (from 1 to 2 early on, to 4 with Rock Band, and then even to 6 with the Beatles: Rock Band), there’s less of an incentive for the casual player to invest in a full bundle, when their best friend next door has it.  It’s clear that the market for peripherals has been saturated.  But has music gaming reached it’s peak?  Rigopulos doesn’t seem to think so.  While Activision has been primarily concentrating on a disc-based distribution method, Harmonix has invested more in digital distribution while concurrently releasing disc-based games.  They are also committing user-generated content to digital distribution via the Rock Band Network, with the RBN Music Store launching in only a few weeks time, and I couldn’t be more excited!

So what about you? Has your interest for music gaming cooled?  What impact is the RBN going to have on your interest level?  Let’s hear you sound off in the comments!

Sir Paul McCartney presented at last night’s Golden Globe awards for Best Animated Feature, and right after taking the stage, he made a nice little reference to Rock Band! Check it out above (reference is at the beginning, so no need to watch the whole thing).

Sorry for the quality. If you know of a better source, let me know and I can replace.

Ringo Starr was on the Jimmy Fallon show last night, and was cool enough to answer fan submitted questions. The final question of the clip above is from a fan asking Ringo how good he is at the Beatles: Rock Band. Check out the video to see his full hilarious response!

Don’t worry, Ringo, at least you have a fall back career!

I knew that a major pop culture outlet would eventually pit the two largest rhythm gaming franchises’ biggest releases against each other before the end of year, and here we have it!

But now that it’s here, I’m starting to think that it’s an unfair fight.  I mean, the only thing the two games have in common is that they are both rhythm games.  The music couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, they share none of the same peripherals, and the developers are completely different.

With all that being said, it still makes me happy that they chose the Beatles: Rock Band, though!

[Entertainment Weekly]

Bleep Bloop, an offshoot of College Humor that reviews and discusses video games, sat down with Andy Battaglia from the A.V. Club, to talk a little about their winner for game of the year, the Beatles: Rock Band.  They made an excellent point that I really never thought that much about until now, is that sure Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2 are amazing games now, but only a few years down the road, they’ll be surpassed by the next iteration of their genre.  The Beatles: Rock Band is based on the music of the Beatles, who haven’t had a new album since the end of the ’60s!  This game isn’t going anywhere for a long time, and despite a few initial reservations they had when the game was first announced, once they were able to play it, their nerves were immediately put at ease, based on the intense amount of detail put into the game by Harmonix.

Check out the full video from them below, which intersperses their discussion with clips of the College Humor staff playing the game (with the sound removed).

Wow, they just keep on coming!  I promised earlier that I was going to be giving away a copy of the Beatles: Rock Band for the PS3 once I hit 4,000 followers on Twitter, but I decided to give up on that, and instead would rather brighten someone’s holiday by sending out the prize to the winner before Christmas.  FYI, this is my gently used copy.  I bought this at midnight on release day, played it through once, and then received my Beatles: Rock Band Limited Edition bundle for the 360, so I no longer need this.  The case, manual, and game are still in excellent condition.

So, here’s what you have to do to win:

1. Make sure you’re following @RockBandAide on Twitter.
2. Tweet out the following: “I want to win the Beatles: Rock Band on the PS3 from @RockBandAide today! http://bit.ly/TBRBGiveaway #TBRBGiveaway“  Make sure you include all that in your tweet.  I’ll be selecting the winner using Twitrand.com searching for that exact text string.
3. Come back to this post here and enter a comment posting your Twitter name.
4. Only one entry per person, per prize, please.
5. Unlike previous Twitter contests, anyone is eligible (not just those in the US this time)!  PS3 games I don’t believe are region coded, but I’m not sure how DLC works if you receive this overseas (people who enter outside of the US may want to double check that before entering).  And shipping is at my expense, so if you are overseas and win, don’t expect it overnighted!
6. I will do a random drawing tonight after 8:00 p.m. EST and notify the winners.

That’s it!  Good luck!