http://kotaku.com/gaming/i-used-to-bullseye-womprats-in-my-t_16-back-home/activision-becomes-1-third+party-publisher-281646.php

"According to the latest batch of NPD data, for the first time this decade, EA are not the #1 third-party publisher in the United States. Activision are. Driven primarily by sales of Guitar Hero II, as well as licensed properties like Transformers, between January and June they racked up USD$397.8 million in sales, compared to EA's $365.7 million. Sure, their victory may be short-lived (Madden and Rock Band should see to that), but that won't stop the free peoples of the world from enjoying the brief, sweet taste of freedom."

That's a pretty impressive run by EA, good to see someone's finally taken them down a notch (temporarily)

Behold the power of Guitar Hero!

This is actually pretty big news, even if I agree that EA will almost certainly reclaim the title of top-selling third party this fall. Still, how many copies do you think Guitar Hero 3 will sell across all platform? 2 million seems like a bare minimum; Guitar Hero 2 will hit 4 million pretty soon, and continues to sell strongly on both PS2 and 360. The third game in the series will be on even more platforms (Wii + PS3), with even more hype associated with it.

Here's a thought: can Guitar Hero 3 approach the range of Madden sales? Both games will be on all major platforms, and have a similar demographic. I don't think it will, but the numbers will be closer than most people expect.