Last year was the return of the rhythm games, with both Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live releasing at the tail end of 2015. While yours truly gave both games a 7/10, it appears that the outings didn't sell as well as their respective companies had hoped.
First came the news that Rock Band 4 publisher and plastic guitar manufacturer Mad Catz had some "executive and board leadership changes" with multiple board members and executives resigning from the company, including CEO Darren Richardson and Chairman of the Board John Nyholt, leading many to assume that the company had taken a hit in terms of revenue.
Sure enough, on the next day, Mad Catz announced its third quarter financial results, which were pretty mixed. While it did make a 114 per cent improvement in sales, new boss Karen McGinnis said that "Rock Band sell-through was lower than official forecast" before announcing a 37 per cent staff cut to save money. Our thoughts go out to those affected.
Not only that, but Rock Band 4's competitor Guitar Hero Live didn't do so well either, with Activision's fourth quarter financial results and an investor call last night revealing that the game suffered "lower than expected performance" before confirming that there wouldn't be another Guitar Hero game for quite a while, with the title staying as a platform rather than a sequel.
So why did 2015's rhythm game revival not go well?
Generally, it's safe to say that many people didn't want to fork out for new guitars, thanks to the rising costs of games. This affects Guitar Hero Live a little more than Rock Band, since it didn't have backward compatibility with guitars, but it's still a very big reason for both of the games' disappointing sales. With both titles not having strong tracklists and Guitar Hero Live featuring microtransactions, many people probably weren't convinced enough to stump up for them.
Rock Band 4 also had quite a few problems in Europe thanks to its failure to bring older Rock Band songs to the new game. One of the headline features for Rock Band's revival was the ability to bring songs from older games forward to the newest instalment, but SCEE's fumbling around – business as usual, there – delayed this feature for quite a while.
Guitar Hero and Rock Band owners: did you find your chosen game disappointing? If you haven't got either, what was the main reason you didn't buy it? Break your fingers playing Through the Fire and the Flames in the comments below.
[source phx.corporate-ir.net, via phx.corporate-ir.net, investor.activision.com]
Comments 32
Not massively surprising. I think, more than anything, times have just moved on. I'm sure there were a few clamouring to play a guitar game again, but it always seemed like it was going to be a niche thing this time around.
It seems people still have GH/RB fatigue, or times have changed and these kind of games are not as appealing anymore.
In my case, I love rhythm games but not the peripheral mandatory kind like this. Getting Project Mirai DX on 3DS was a revelation to me, and I got Diva F 2nd later. I don't want overpriced controllers to play my rhythm games.
Ya I like rhythm games, but not into plastic guitars.
Probs is this generation of musicians don't usually 'rock'. The kids are use to tablets and chilled out music. Another thing is it looks like little effort has been put into the game just to reuse video footage in background. Guitar Heroes of 90s-00s had cool characters and creative backdrops. That's right game devs we like to pay for proper creativity and animation - not cheap stock video!!
Good news for me, I don't have to buy a new game, guitar hero is okay, I've hardly played it though, I think probably I'll get stuck in over the summer.
When South Park parodies something, it means that its relevance and popularity will decline.
To me, it was part of that trend of getting non-gamers into gaming alongside the Wii and motion devices.
Well it's not 2008 anymore. Is anybody surprised by this?
While I like a few rhythm, I don't want to pay a full price + special plastic device to play. To me Harmoknight on 3ds was a great rhythm game that was cheap enough.
Surprise, surprise...this is exactly what I said when they announced these bullsh*t games.
It had a few mis-steps in the beginning but I really love Rock Band 4. And being its a platform that is just going to keep getting better a la Driveclub, it has the chance to catch back up. The price for the full band is a little crazy though.
Mildly dissapointing, but I still love Rock Band 4. They just need to patch in practice mode now so I can get good at the really hard tracks and get all the previous DLC songs working and I'll be happy again.
I didn't buy Guitar Hero because I didn't like the whole microtransactions thing, plus I wasn't going to buy another guitar when I have 2 really expensive wooden ones from last gen. I will buy Rock Band 4 when it's like $20.
Time to make EDM hero.
Eh I moved on to miku, and I don't have room for the peripherals these days.
it was to soon to try to bring the plastic instruments fad back
That's cool, I will be able to pick them up cheap then. I would assume that the boat had sailed on these kinda games years ago.
Not surprising those types of games were a fad and meant more for casual gamers. Now they have Rock Band like rythem gamed on phones a tablets that don't require buying any paraphernalia to play them and even cost less then a PS4 game to begin with.
This will be happening to VR here soon mark my words.
I didn't buy into the franchise the first time - My son enjoyed it but got tired of it very quickly and ended up with all the gear cluttering up everywhere. The rising costs of this,, the peripherals and additional tracks is ridiculous so I am not surprised. I think its more of a 'Party' game anyway and those seem out of fashion at the moment...
Unfortunately they ran the series into the ground long ago. It was a nice attempt for those still interested but yeah, this ship sailed long ago. Hopefully those effected by the staff cuts will find work again quickly.
Meanwhile, Just Dance 2016 still sold well enough that Ubisoft got 6 % of their whole Q3 revenue from Wii. Not nearly as high as PS4 with 41 % and Box One with 27 %, but those got more games from Ubisoft. That Wii percentage is mostly Just Dance 2016, which also did the rounds on other platforms of course.
Figures here (Venturebeat)
Do i want to learn how to play real guitar or plastic guitar. What a hard decision...
I do feel bad for the people that where let go thoughts with them and their families.
@Mahe That is insane!
This is good news as far as I'm concerned, especially if it means publishers will invest in other genres instead. I was never interested in such games (especially since I do own a number of actual musical instruments), and I'm glad the industry doesn't seem to be going back to obsessing over them anytime soon.
EDIT: I meant good news that the genre is flopping, not that people lost their jobs. That obviously sucks.
@ricklongo maybe another donkey kong jungle beat game would do better.
@Pink_Floyd Plus there is an option that lets you play with a real guitar - Rocksmith. I'd much rather plug in my actual guitar and play a music game instead of playing a game with an expensive "clack, clack, clack" plastic controller shaped like a guitar.
I used to love Guitar Hero. Great fun and one up on air guitar.
But now the technology can let me plug my real guitar in and use Rocksmith there's no going back for me
I wouldn't mind trying Guitar Hero, but it's going to have to come down in price a bit as I'm not really sure if I'd be into this genre.
@goonow No, thanks. I'd take a sequel to Donkey Kong 64, though.
These games were never fun for me. I do love DDR though. I still play that on PS2 and GCN. I wish that would have a revival. Preferably with home metal pads that don't cost $200. I know it won't happen but...
I loved DJ Hero for the ps3. Mainly due to some of the remixes....Eminem mashed up with Gorillaz? Superb. Wish the was a music making game/learning software. Something like the app caustic but for the ps4
I never played Rock Band but I did love Guitar Hero. When they just kept releasing sequels and spin offs for them I kinda lost interest in them. So yeah, I didn't bother with these new versions.
I was interested in Guitar Hero Live until word got out about its microtransactions. And I think it was a mixture of fatigue from the previous generation, and both games coming out literally within a couple weeks of each other in many regions.
@wbh1138 Same here. Maybe more of those hardcore GH fans who were inspired by the plastic peripheral games have moved on to real instruments?
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