http://vgchartz.com/weekly.php?date=39768&console=&maker=Electronic+Arts&boxartz=2

Rock Band sales (combined across all platforms): 47,083

Rock Band 2 sales (combined across all platforms): 44,104

Now obviously, Rock Band has the advantage of selling on two extra platforms (the Wii and PS2, whereas Rock Band 2 is yet to release on those two consoles). Still, this is a testament to the legs of the first Rock Band, and as it seems, the competition Rock Band 2 is facing (Guitar Hero World Tour, along with many other games). Rock Band 2 is even selling more slowly than the last version worldwide (at least on the 360).

I'm not sure what the reason, but Rock Band 2 is not doing well on either of the HD consoles. Hopefully the Wii can lend a hand towards increasing the total sales.

I think there are 2 factors:

First - Credit crunch and all, people aren't willing to spend all that money on a single videogame product anymore.

Second - People are slowly getting tired of the genre, and it's happening much sooner than predicted.

I think it's because it doesn't add much. Some online functionality and a bunch of songs. Why get that when you can just keep playing the old one and buy whatever songs you want online?

World Tour's also underperforming, relative to Legends of Rock. Perhaps there are just too many games in the genre coming out too close together?

Legends of Rock was about a hundred dollars less expensive, though.

I wouldn't expect the Wii version of Rock Band 2 to kick things up another notch, Montana. Being six months later to fight Guitar Hero is going to hurt it a lot.

That's what a lot of people said about the Wii version of Rock Band, and now it's steadily crawling to a million.

A fair point, but it did not have World Tour to contend with, and World Tour on the Wii is selling rather handily, isn't it?

Thsi is unexpected.

I'm not sure I buy that argument, though. There are plenty of SKU's that are still just the game and guitar, which I would imagine is what most people are looking for. Add in the fact that you can use your old guitars with this one, making it fifty dollars cheaper for millions of people, and sales should be closer to those of Legends of Rock, if price is the only argument.

I actually think it's the fatigue factor. Legends and Rock Band (for most consoles) last year, Aerosmith and Rock Band (for Wii) less than six months ago, On Tour a few months back, Decades coming up soon, Rock Band 2 in the same month...that just strikes me as overkill, especially since Rock Band's been handing out DLC consistently throughout the year.

Oh, and Rock Revolution. *Snort*

Well, yes, it is almost certainly overkill too (or at least saturation for rhythm games), though I imagine that will reflect less on the Wii version of World Tour than the others - I expect it to pass up the 360 version within a month, actually. Should be interesting to watch.