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Guitar Hero III the First Game to $1 Billion In Sales
The Opposable Thumbs blog reports that Guitar Hero III has reached a financial milestone, becoming the first individual video game to reach $1 billion in total sales. The number is even higher if you consider the rest of the franchise. In addition to helping drive the video game industry during tough economic times (much like the Wii), it's helping other industries as well: "... aside from the fact that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith had sold three times as many copies as the band's last album during their respective first weeks, musicians whose music is featured in the game has seen a rise in music sales to the tune of 15-843 percent." And CVG notes, "... two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games plan to start playing a real instrument in the next couple of years." Also, Rock Band creator Harmonix may be looking into a partnership with the record labels to sell music for use outside of the games.
"Guitar Hero III the First Game to $1 Billion In Sales"
from the this-sentence-no-verb dept.
I just traded it in for another game cause I thought it sucked compared to GH 1 & 2.
"Klaatu, verada, necktie!" -Ash
But it's not really just a game, is it? People are paying a premium price because they need the controllers for it as well. And where's Halo 3 on that list? After all, it sold for 300 million in just one week.
Full Tilt
This record is hard to believe. They give the monetary value of the sales like in the film industry whereas in the game industry companies are more inclined to provide the number of units sold, making it difficult to figure their actual revenue per title. Oblivious of the exact numbers of the competition, it's easy then to claim they broke a record.
According to Wikipedia, which links to a Reuters article, the worldwide number of sales would be of above 8 million. Some games have sold much more than this (Pokemon Red/Blue, Super Mario Bros, The Sims...). Even if Guitar Hero III is more expensive, it is highly unlikely to be the first video game to pass the billion mark.
GH3 has also the advantage of being a multi-platform game.
Could we perhaps see an amount of UNITS SOLD, with comparisons to other best selling titles?
Impressive because I thought Guitar Hero 2 was actually the worst of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band games that I've played, although I'd imagine Metallica/Aerosmith etc. could be worse but I haven't played them.
Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band had far better track lists imo, and Rock Band specifically had more interesting and fun features. Guitar Hero 3 felt like it was just released to profit off the success of 2 until they'd had time to build a new version that actually did have new features (i.e. World Tour), it didn't bring anything new and it's tracks might as well have been released as DLC with a lot of them just being crap although there were of course some gems in there.
I'm quite surprised then of all of them that it's 3 that has come out on top. It did have one redeeming feature, I really liked the Guitar, although the buttons on mine become stuck and stop working if you don't play for a couple of months and you have to press them lots to ease them up and make them sensitive enough to actually stand a chance on harder difficulties again.
One thing's for sure though, there's just too many of them now to keep up with what's what, and the fact the Guitar Hero World Tour drumset was different to the Rock Band one seemed annoying- no way in hell I'd pay that much to change for example! For reference, I believe we now have for the current gen. consoles:
Guitar Hero 2
Guitar Hero 3
Guitar Hero Aerosmith
Guitar Hero Metallica
Guitar Hero World Tour
Rock Band
Rock Band 2
and that's all in a release space of about 2 years. One every 3 - 4 months all with DLC that sometimes overlaps but can't be used between versions (although they are rectifying that somewhat in newer versions)? Seems a bit much, but then I guess with these kind of profits, who can blame them?
I find it very tasteless and absolutely revolting that you think a wonderful person's life and legacy should be spoiled by a grim, remorseful after death.
Please, when I die, make jokes and remember the good times, that's how *I* want to be remembered.
I can definitely speak to Guitar Hero inspiring musicianship and boosting sales of real guitar equipment. Since playing Guitar Hero for the first time, less than a year ago, I have purchased 2 guitars, 2 amps, a plethora of accessories and quite a bit in instruction. I've been playing now for about 6 months and love every minute of it, even practice. Not as easy as Guitar Hero is (obviously), but so much more rewarding when you learn a new lick on a real guitar than when you perfect a song on GH, IMHO.
I was quoted out of context in my autobiography...
8 million people paying who knows how much a month for how many years might = a bit more.
Smoke crack much? GH3 on PS2 was $69.99 with the guitar included, and either 50-60 bucks new with no guitar, depending on the system. You may be thinking of GHWT instead (with drums and microphone). So the average cost of the game is probably more like $70 bucks, I know a lot of people who already had guitars so only needed to buy the disk.
My first thought was WoW as well. How the hell could any game beat WoW with so many people paying every single month. I don't believe for a second that GH has beaten it. Then again, if we are talking just console games... I don't think WoW is avail on console is it? I've never played it so I dunno... just know that I'm in the minority as it seems to be the most popular game there is.
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
Someone correct my numbers if I'm wrong but Wii Fit has roughly 13.9m sales total at a cost of about $90 per game plus balance board so $1.2b. I'll ignore Wii Sports as it comes with every Wii. If Guitar Hero is being measured to include the hardware addons, I'm only seeing roughly 4.2m across the Wii, 360, and PS3 total. That means $238 per sale of Guitar Hero. These numbers are based off of vgchartz's website for total sales (seen on the expanded weekly chart).
If they want to include hardware with a game then maybe all Wii purchases were actually to purchase Wii Sports to a tune of 40.9m sales at $250 a sale so $10.2b.
I remember awhile back there was a guitar game coming that was set to use a real guitar (pitch/tone matching?) rather than a plastic "air guitar." I'm wondering when that will come out, and how it will compare to Guitar Hero or Rock Band sales-wise. I've heard before that being able to play the drums in RB expert mode is nearly the same as being able to do so with the real thing, and it would be cool to see a game that sells well while at the same time being educational and entertaining.
$1 Billion in sales. WoW makes its money through subscriptions, which are not sales.
"... two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games plan to start playing a real instrument in the next couple of years"
Uh, yeah, and I am planning to have a brick barbequeue, jacuzzi, fake beach and year-round soft fruit crops on my allotment in the next couple of years.
I'll be pleased if I actually get rid of all the weeds :)
Matthew @ Bytemark Hosting
And the $150 one was some exclusive bundle we sold that had 2 guitars and some other stuff; forgot to mention that.
The first sentence was supposed to read Guitar Hero 3 as my worst not Guitar Hero 2!
As a real guitar player (playing for 16 years) I think it's great that the game inspires people to pick up the instrument (or any instrument for that matter) in the real world.
However, what I've noticed is that people assume because you can play real guitar, that you should RIP at Guitar Hero. In my case, nothing could be further from the truth. As a guitar player you're used to certain things. Throw in a game controller and it's mechanics and while at face value it looks similar, it just isn't.
I think a lot of people that pick up the guitar and try to learn on it (aside from the guy above who seems like he's enjoying it), will find that there's a VERY steep learning curve. It's hard, it takes a LOT of practice and perserverence. It's an instrument that you get "out" of it, what you put "into" it. Like anything else.
All I know is that I think a lot of these people that "plan" on trying to learn the instrument for real will be wholly disappointed at their progress when they're not playing Crazy Train or Sweet Child O' Mine after day 2.
Wait, did you just admit that you paid for your userid? Wow, that would be pretty funny if it weren't so sad.
everything in moderation
If you don't think being the first game to sell a billion dollars isn't anything special, then if I start a games company I really don't want you running it.
If that was the case, they would have sold it for $100.
I'm really good at Guitar Hero - not the best, but the best of my circle of friends. Beat every song on expert on Guitar Hero III except "Through the Fire and Flames" and the Devil battle.
I also have eight years of guitar playing (mostly original compositions in a few indie rock and punk bands) and six years of violin/fiddle from when I was younger (classical ensembles and quartets).
Interestingly, I think that I use what I learned from violin playing more when I play GH. That's because you know what I realized GH really is?
Sight reading.
It's vertical sight reading instead of horizontal, but still the same thing (and better in some ways, since you don't have to flip your own pages). Being able to see a line coming and mentally prepare my fingers for the actions they're about to perform is exclusively what I did on violin (not so much on guitar).
You're right about the big difference between guitar and guitar-hero, of course - five buttons does not equate to six strings and 22 frets as far as movements your hands make. However, Guitar Hero is great for teaching two things that definitely come in handy for work - coordination of two hands (one strumming, one making movements on the fretboard), and proper timing (because I'm sure you're annoyed as I am when you're trying to jam with a guitarist that has no rhythm).
For people who are just learning the instrument and may be interested in reading tab or musical score, the sight reading aspect of GH is valuable as well.
The learning curve is definitely steep (as with all instruments), but I have personally witnessed two people pick up real guitar because of how much fun they have with GH. Seems that they're sticking with it, too.
FYI, they're at 11.5 million these days. ;)
Interestingly enough, I just ran a few numbers on the Bureau of Labor Statistics(bls.gov) inflation calculator. I assumed a $50 price point for SMB (I don't remember exactly what it was, I was only 6 years old at the time), and took 1986 as its first big year (it was released in late '85 according to wikipedia). Anyways, the BLS website says that in 1986, $50.00 had the same buying power as $96.91 in 2008.
So in an sense, it was sold for almost $100.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
As long as we're being picky, I'll point out that WoW sells subscriptions to the game. To the tune of about $150 million a month. But, if you wish, I'll meet your apple and raise you an orange.
On the other hand, at a hundred clams, the margin on those cheap-ass plastic guitars has to be nothing less than stellar.
And, obviously, being super picky, Blizzard sells the subscriptions. But let's not get crazy.
I wish that they would take the time to actually make this game a learning tool. The potential is there just not the effort on the programming side.
As a game it is lots of fun. From a guitarists stand point, it would be better it they took the time to get actual song/midi data and used it to teach the muscle memory the right things.
Prospecting Stinks. Stop Wasting Time on Cold Calling.
The Sims sold over 100,000,000 units to date so assuming they were all sold for just $10 each, The Sims broke $1 billion in sales long ago.
The claim they are making is that GH3 is the first single game to reach $1B. The 100 million number for The Sims is a total for all the games and expansions. The Sims 2 has sold over 13 million copies so it is probably approaching $1B by itself though.
There are definitely other games that have broken the $1 billion mark (Wii Fit) and simply haven't announced it. (How much of those sales are actual PROFIT?)
Yes, I suspect WiiFit has got close, if not passed the $1B. According to Wikipedia it had sold 8.76 million copies worldwide as of the 30th of September 2008. If the average price is over $115 then it has made $1B.
Okay, so maybe it's the first to make a billion in sales. But World of Warcraft has over 10 million subscribers at $15/month each. I compute that as $1.8 billion dollars a year. Even if we assume that those figures are somehow inflated, I think it's safe to figure that WoW has brought in a lot more money for its owner than Guitar Hero.
MediaWiki developer, Total War Center sysadmin
"... two-thirds of non-musicians exposed to music games plan to start playing a real instrument in the next couple of years."
Yeah and 100% of me and my friends who watched Space Camp planned to become astronauts.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere