Gamertell

The game that many in the industry believed would revitalize the music game genre hasn’t, at least so far. Despite an ad campaign that saw The Beatles: Rock Band promoted nearly everywhere, sales have been just so-so. The game sold 595,000 copies in September 2009, according to sales data from research firm NPD Group.

The latest Rock Band installment shared a simultaneous September 9, 2009 (or 09/09/09 as the marketing people rather enjoyed promoting), release with remastered versions of the Beatles albums on CD.  The game was marketed alongside those albums, giving it plenty of exposure. The Xbox 360 version sold 254,000 copies, while the Wii version moved 208,000 copies. Neither number is a huge return on the resources Electronic Arts put forth promoting this game, expected to be a blockbuster. In the battle of September music games, Beatles did outsell Guitar Hero 5, despite a promotion that offered those purchasing the game a free copy of Guitar Hero:Van Halen. Guitar Hero 5 sold 499,000 copies in September 2009.

Data reported from Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan indicates sales in the music game genre have been on a downward turn for a while. The combined retail revenue from Rock Band and Guitar Hero from February 2009 to June 2009 dropped almost 50 percent from the same period in 2008.  And Rock Band got hit the hardest with retail revenue for that franchise down by 67 percent. Getting Beatles songs licensed for a game was a huge coup that had the potential to turn these numbers around.

It’s safe to say the sales story for The Beatles: Rock Band isn’t over, as millions of music game fans could find it in their Christmas stockings. But it is off to a less than stellar start.

Read [New York Times] Also Read [Gamasutra]