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Activision Blizzard recently announced its third-quarter results and, unsurprisingly, the Guitar Hero franchise is still carrying the publisher and solidifying its position as the number one third-party in the industry.
Through the first nine months of 2009, Guitar Hero World Tour was recognized as the number one best-selling third-party title in North America according to NPD Group data and with the launch of Guitar Hero 5 in September, the company stated the two Guitar Hero entries have maintained top-10 best-selling status in the U.S.
With its 2009 titles up through September, the company is reporting it has gained an additional five points over the previous year in the U.S. market share of the music/dance genre of video games, bringing the company to 51% of the market. Also from the previous year, the company noted combined franchise sales of Guitar Hero have increased on a combined basis of 20% according to NPD Group and Europe's Charttrack and Gfk.
Robert Kotick, CEO of the company noted, "Year to date through September 30, the Guitar Hero franchise was the #1 best-selling third-party franchise in North America and Europe. For the month of September, sales of music games in the U.S. increased 72% in dollars year over year, which demonstrates the sustained interest in this new and important game category."
Even though many analysts are stating the music game industry is slowing to crawl, the 72% increase from September 2008 isn't too much of a surprise, when Rock Band 2 released only on the Xbox 360, DanceDanceRevolution X and Hottest Party 2 were pitched onto the market and the only current sales from Guitar Hero stemmed from a release of Aerosmith from three months prior. This year, the releases of Guitar Hero 5 and The Beatles: Rock Band (reported as the number-one selling music game for September) alone should have launched 2009 well beyond the previous year based on sales.
As for the remainder of the year, Activision has high hopes on the performance of DJ Hero and Band Hero for its music game sector. There is still no solid word on whether or not the recent lawsuit reported by the L.A. Times against Activision filed in court by the band No Doubt over its avatar usage in Band Hero will effect the franchise, but many online accounts report Activision is firm and confident in its stance the band members were used within legal bounds. The Band Hero title released just this week so it is too early to say how the title is performing and even though DJ Hero has been on the market for a couple of weeks, it is still too soon to observe NPD Group data, although ChartTrack identified the game as the 20th best-selling title in the U.K. for the week ending Oct. 31. Surely, the holiday rush will pick up speed in the near future and once we hear those results, we'll truly be able to judge on the holding power of the rhythm game in North America.
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