Rock Band In The Red
"It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season."Published 07/11/2009 at 8:00 by Tuffcub
Rock Band 3 Announced [30]
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Despite selling 595,000 copies in the U.S. in September, Beatles Rock Band is still in the red. Viacom, parent company of MTV Games published its quarterly earnings report a few days ago,
“Rock Band was a negative contributor to margins in the third quarter,” said Chief Financial Officer Tom Dooley. “We expect it to break even or be slightly profitable in the fourth quarter from a margin point of view. It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season.”
Everyones favourite Crystal Ball gazer, Michael Pachter had estimated that The Beatles: Rock Band would sell 1.3 million units so well done Mikey, spot on as usual. Guitar Hero 5 also underperformed selling 499,000 units. Has the (fat) bottom (girl) dropped out the rhythmic rock game market?
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Lorcan | 07/11/2009 08:29
Team TSA: Writer
1248 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I’d be interested in seeing if the profit loss has anything to do with the peripherals. As more people buy the games, surely less and less buy the peripherals. And I’m guessing that the slight redesigns that come with each version won’t be cheap to design and implement.
Though to be honest, it doesn’t surprise me that The Beatles is finding it hard to make all the money back. It took a ridiculous amount of money to remaster each track and implement into the game. I can’t remember the exact figure, but I’m pretty sure it was in the tens of thousands for each track. I could be wrong though.
Doddsy | 07/11/2009 08:50
Totally Oscar Mike
731 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
What I remember was that the Beatles themselves were given something in the region of $50 million for the deal.
spooner_22 | 07/11/2009 09:28
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1167 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
They were given that up front? Rather than money per game sold?
Nice work McCartney! Legend!
skibadee | 08/11/2009 04:19
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3910 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2009
crazy money
cc_star | 07/11/2009 09:23
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7868 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Shows just how much money McCartney and Starr have made out of it, McCartney in particular could show even Activision a thing or two about making money.
JamboGT | 07/11/2009 09:33
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428 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I think the problem with the rhythm game market is that they have been (going to use a colloquialism here) ripping the arse out if it.
It is crazy the number of releases when the last big update was Rock Band, DLC would do rather than a new game.
Activision have gone crazy with the ‘hero franchise.
xdarkmagician | 07/11/2009 12:08
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498 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
It’s a good point, everybody buys the new GTA because R* stops supporting the old one with DLC, but RB and GH seem bent on selling DLC until the end of time(2012) for every game they make. That’s got to hurt the sales of new releases, or maybe the Beatles aren’t as big of a sale as the used to be.
Sympozium | 07/11/2009 15:00
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1646 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
Actually after 2012 its a new Era
bajere | 08/11/2009 17:44
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1067 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
maybe jambo…but im thinkin the reason for crap sales is the fact that the majority of people who would be into The Beatles don’t play consoles!?!?! lol
mynameisblair | 07/11/2009 10:14
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3876 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
I think lots of people will be buying this or GH5 near Christmas time and then buy some DLC.
I know I will be.
Redwink | 07/11/2009 10:45
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147 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
I do believe they milked it so hard, sooner or later the franchise will dry up and die, if it doesn’t bring something truly revolutionary into the game[s].
minerwilly | 07/11/2009 12:17
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748 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
Any Beatles fans sitting on the fence about getting the game .. dont its brilliant .
TctclMvPhase | 07/11/2009 14:57
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Perhaps Pepsi is to blame…I know of the 32 tracks I got for Rock Band this year, I only actually paid for seven because the rest I got for free from the promotion. It does make me curious what their margins on the songs are…
BadBoyBoogie | 07/11/2009 19:59
Let There Be Rock
2689 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I think maybe the whole Guitar Hero / Rock Band market has perhaps hit its saturation point.
illogicology | 08/11/2009 11:40
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857 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2009
How could it not have, they’ve been selling exactly the same game just with different songs since the PS2 now.
3shirts | 07/11/2009 22:39
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2486 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I just like that you called Michael Pachter a ball gazer
Person678 | 08/11/2009 11:42
BOOM! Headshot!
1793 TSA Points | Member since: Jan 2009
I remember reading a article saying RB3 will be in a new direction. Sounds good.