Rock Band has undersold. For a game that is far and away a superior package than that of main rival Guitar Hero – better songs, better DLC, better drums, song compatibility across games - it sold half as many copies in 2008. We’re not saying the game has sold badly – far from it - just that it has failed to eat into the Guitar Hero series as much as we expected. Why?

The brand power of Guitar Hero, which had a two year head-start on Rock Band, to casual consumers is no doubt the main contributor, but mostly it came down to marketing. Guitar Hero is owned by Activision Blizzard and they reap all the rewards of its success and hence push it with all their might. EA, on the other hand, merely distribute Rock Band, and while they get a slice of the action, it’s a relatively small slice with most of the nuggets going to publisher MTV Games and developer Harmonix. Especially given that it’s through DLC rather than box copy distribution that the main profits of the game have been reaped.

In short, compared to the other products in EA’s roster, Rock Band is unlikely to deliver it a whole lot in terms of coin, and only really acts as a slight to main rival Activision Blizzard. It was no surprise then that during the marketing campaign for Rock Band 2 – or lack thereof - EA threw its weight behind its own products rather than launch a massive campaign to help the title eat into Guitar Hero’s fanbase.

This week, we got an announcement from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment that they had partnered with MTV Games to publish (not just distribute) LEGO Rock Band. By merging the blockbuster and casual friendly LEGO franchise with the underperforming Rock Band brand MTV Games has formed a partnership that will do a lot more for the series’ long-term viability than what it achieved with EA. Especially when you consider just how massive the Time Warner network is and what it can offer.

Indeed, this could be a major sign that EA has lost Rock Band for good. The upcoming spin-offs Rock Band Unplugged and Rock Band 2: Beatles could be the encore performance for EA, leaving Rock Band 3 to surface with a breath of fresh air under the hands or the up and coming Warner label.

http://www.gameplayer.com.au/gp_documents/EALoseRockBand.aspx

Perhaps, just perhaps, a simultaneous multiplatform release would help.

Just perhaps...

axumblade said: What it doesn't point out is the significant drop between Guitar Hero sales as well...   1 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock RedOctane 4.53m 2 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock RedOctane 4.22m 3 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock RedOctane 4.19m 4 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock RedOctane 1.89m   1 Guitar Hero: World Tour Activision 2.90m 2 Guitar Hero: World Tour Activision 1.95m 3 Guitar Hero: World Tour Activision 1.18m 4 Guitar Hero: World Tour Activision 1.10m

That's what you get for whoring out your franchise, it really starts to sell, less, 3 was a highpoint in sales. I think that exlusivity deal, for Rock Band 2 hurt it's sales, Xbox 360 version matched it's guitar hero counterpart, while Wii, ps3 version underperformed because of it.

The main problem was that Harmonix focused on the wrong console (360) when the game would have easily sold better on the Wii. If the Wii version of Rock Band had come out before GH WT, then its sales would be on par with the GH WT sales.

As for the GH sales decline, your comparing an $80 games to a $180 game. So the comparison is not really accurate.

good all these games need to die.
they are the same thing over and over..

i mean why cant we jsut have all these new songs in downloadable content?

why rlease rockband 4 or gh 5 or 6 or 7.. what more can they really add