Guitar Zero: Gamers Growing Bored Of Music Games
It's starting to look like music-based videogames -- led by titles "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" -- have started to run their course.
Viacom's (VIA) Sumner Redstone warned as much during yesterday's earnings call, saying sagging sales of Viacom-affiliated property Rock Band were dragging down earnings. And videogame stats released last night by the NPD Group confirm it: Sales of music games are down significantly from the same time last year.
UBS' Ben Schachter notes in his wrap-up of January game sales that, if you exclude "Rock Band," Electronic Arts (ERTS) was January's gaming champion with sales up 21% y/y. But include Rock Band, and EA slumped 6.2% with dollar sales of Rock Band down 52%.
Same story with the other big music game, Activision (ATVI) property Guitar Hero: Sales down 22% y/y. But Activision is particularly poorly placed because it's doubling down on music: In a CNBC interview yesterday, CEO Bobby Kotick was talking up hip-hop themed "DJ Hero" as his company's next big release. (We think Starcraft 2 and the new Diablo may prove to be bigger Activision hits this year.)
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