Unfortunately he doesn't seem to realise is that the majority of that 80% are out of reach. The 20% that is their market is maybe one more franchise (considering the main 3, GH, DJH and Rock Band) from being saturdated.
The problem is that companies (like activision) keep releasing sequels to these games. The ideal thing to do would be to get the mechanics so they're good and not crappy, and then just release a bunch of DLC and keep doing that. When I heard about Guitar Hero 5 I was like "wtf why do we need another one?"
Let's analyze that 80% and see what percentage has no interest in music & rhythm games. A lot of people only play shooters or only play RPG's or only play sports games. Car buffs are only gonna want to play games like Forza and Gran Turismo. Sure their are people that are more diverse but those people are in the 20% that already own a music game.
I've been sick of glorified "Simon Says" for a long time now and haven't bought a music/rhythm game after the first Rock Band and I have no intention of buying another one. Guitar Hero is just one of the many things I hate about Activision but pretty much everything comes back to Bobby Kotick.
Got to love all the people who think they know how to run a company better than the people that actually are running a billion dollar company, and doing it quite well. Face it, rhythm games are a fad that will only last so long. Activision is doing the right thing by milking it for every penny they can while it lasts.
@cwbys21: Gotta love the CEO's that think they can run a billion dollar company and run it into the ground. We've seen a lot of those lately so excuse us peons if we are skeptical.
@cwbys21: Precisely my problem with Activision. They have no faith in their own brand. They don't see it lasting very long so they milk it rather than find ways to make it last.
And give me a break on the fad thing. People still sing karaoke, we still play fighting games, we are still playing WWII games. The genres have their peak, then they sit with their lasting audiences. Rock Band will always be fun to me as long as I have a fresh new batch of good music, a few friends to play with, and enough beers.
This year alone they're releasing Guitar Hero Metallica, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, Guitar Hero On Tour: Modern Hits, Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, Band Hero, and Guitar Hero Van Halen. That's seven games this year for one franchise. And three of those are going to have expensive $100+ big bundle boxes on retail store shelves.
@Jekku: When Circuit City closed there were literally multiple sections of the store that had stacks of hundreds of Guitar Hero guitars and bundles being sold off in clearance.
@cutmaclass: I remember that. There were huge stacks of pretty much every post-2 Guitar Hero game. The Guitar Hero 2 for 360 bundles were in two stacks, one as tall as me (I'm 5'11")
you know, theres a reason why the Tonk Hawks games stopped selling so well. And it wasn't because there was lots of other fucking skate boarding games. It was because they so many TONY HAWKS GAMES in such a short time.
Yet every Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Costco, and Gamestop Have hundreds if not thousands of pounds worth of old music game stock on the floor, or the back room.
@Curse lily:
I worked at a gamestop,and when I left in June we had dozens of guitar bundles, and at least ten of the big boxes. My local best buy had a pile against a wall, two bundles deep, and about fifteen feet high of band kits, then a 5 foot tall, twenty foot long pile of guitar bundles.
Dating back to guitar hero 2.
If I had a store, I would only stock guitar hero or rock band on order.
Nope, the market for RYTHM GAMES is not saturated. The market for PLASTIC INSTRUMENT GAMES WITH NOTES COMING ON RAILS is!
I wish we could have less Guitar Hero clones and more original and creative Rythm Games like Rhythm Heaven, EBA and Guitaroo Man. I never get tired of those.
Well hell, maybe the other 80 percent don't give a rat ass about music games. I mean after all, we are gamers....we want games in the first place that's why we bought a game console. I do not think people buy a console specifically to play music games and not play games. So that's all you're going to get 20%. Screw music games....I don't like it, I'm never getting these GH and RB games. You just have to realize that most people with a game console wants to play non music games.
09/22/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
I've been sick of glorified "Simon Says" for a long time now and haven't bought a music/rhythm game after the first Rock Band and I have no intention of buying another one. Guitar Hero is just one of the many things I hate about Activision but pretty much everything comes back to Bobby Kotick.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
And give me a break on the fad thing. People still sing karaoke, we still play fighting games, we are still playing WWII games. The genres have their peak, then they sit with their lasting audiences. Rock Band will always be fun to me as long as I have a fresh new batch of good music, a few friends to play with, and enough beers.
09/21/09
Complete
Market
Saturation
09/21/09
09/21/09
Based on their activities, I was pretty sure they all skipped the business school class on market saturation and brand dilution.
I'll bet this guy had to look it up in the dictionary before he went on CNBC.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
But is it saturated? Nah... =\
09/21/09
It is saturated but if companies would just lower the prices, then I'm sure these games would sell a lot better.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
What did anybody expect, for Rosensweig to say "yeah, we're kinda devolving the franchise into a shovelware fad. Oops!"
This is actually an indication that they ARE saturating the market. If they truly weren't they wouldn't be talking about it.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
Last week there was a pallet of them at the store where i work, we had to sent it to another store just because we were loaded with them.
09/21/09
I worked at a gamestop,and when I left in June we had dozens of guitar bundles, and at least ten of the big boxes. My local best buy had a pile against a wall, two bundles deep, and about fifteen feet high of band kits, then a 5 foot tall, twenty foot long pile of guitar bundles.
Dating back to guitar hero 2.
If I had a store, I would only stock guitar hero or rock band on order.
09/21/09
It was probably a mistake, but we had to split the pallet in to two and send one part to a store in Brooklyn and the other one to Hicksville.
09/21/09
Is there a Halo and Call of Duty CEO too? ;)
09/21/09
09/21/09
+1 awesome points for you, sir.
09/21/09
I wish we could have less Guitar Hero clones and more original and creative Rythm Games like Rhythm Heaven, EBA and Guitaroo Man. I never get tired of those.
09/21/09
09/21/09
09/21/09
The games might be fun, but I can't play anything other than easy, due to a severe lack of small digit dexterity. All those buttons scare me.