Rock Band 3’s release figures a bit disappointing

It feels like it was only yesterday when Rock Band was originally released to the public and it left all other music genre titles in the dust on its way to selling millions of copies. When Rock Band 2 released, it felt like the genre was on the fast track to being one of the most profitable genres to be releasing titles within. After all, you could release weekly updates at $1.99 a pop and make a killing, right? Unfortunately for Harmonix, it looks like that time has ran its course.

Last week, Rock Band 3 released and it has attracted as much attention to gamers as diabetic to Trick-or-Treating — which isn’t much at all. According to early sales figures, Rock Band 3 has only managed to push out roughly 7,500 sales in the United Kingdom, resulting in a 26th place opening on the weekly sales charts.

Comparatively, Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock released at #6 and then fell to 14th, 22nd, 21st and now 27th. Originally, Harmonix’s Project Director, Daniel Sussmen, believed the poor sales of Guitar Hero was a result of gamers waiting for Rock Band 3, but that doesn’t look like it’s the case at all.

“I’m not an analyst,” RB3 project director Daniel Sussman added. “I know that as a game player I’m the type of gamer that would wait and spend my money on Rock Band 3.

“It’s possible that sales of other games in the category are down because people are waiting to spend their money on Rock Band 3. That’s what I hope anyway!”

Were you one of the people who picked this up in the UK? What about in North America? It’s starting to look as though this massively profitable genre is taking a turn for the worst. It’s quite possible that gamers are just burnt on due to the weekly releases on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. It’s tough to say for sure, but if this isn’t the case of a marathon of sales rather than a 100m dash, EA has to be quite disappointed with this showing.

Readers Comments (4)

  1. Harmonix has been too nice to gamers. They release weekly DLC which is compatible with all three Rock Band games. By doing so, they are discouraging people from buying the newer Rock Band games. Instead of buying Rock Band 3, I can just hold on to Rock Band or Rock Band 2 and keep buying new music when it comes out. They’re extending the life of their games too far, and as a result, aren’t earning profit for the new Rock Band games

    But perhaps people are just sick of music games after all. That wouldn’t surprise me.

  2. thats suprising considering how well rb3 is done and all the new features like pro mode where you can actualy learn to play a real guitar

  3. Everyone i know is holding out till Christmas so they will probably see a rise then.

  4. I fear saying this because I enjoyed the HELL out of both Rock Bands and The Beatles but…I think this genere is dying. Too many “been there, done that” games, regardless of the instrument or songs.

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