With all the advancements Harmonix, MTV Games and Electronic Arts have made in the music and rhythm genre — taking it from the singular instrument setup to the full band standard we’ve gotten to now — one would think the folks at the helm of the Guitar Hero franchise might be at the very least looking over its shoulder, checking for its nearest rival, Rock Band.
Not so, said Activision CEO Bobby Kotick at the recent Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference.
“We’re outselling [Rock Band] 6:1. When you think about the access we have to 30% of the world’s music at Universal, we have a unique advantage there. I would also say when you look at resources, you know, our next-nearest competitor has a couple of hundred people working on these projects, we have close to 2000 people just dedicated to the Guitar Hero note tracking, introduction of new hardware, introduction of new software, and so we just have a lot more in the way of resources available to us to continue to dominate the category.” — Bobby Kotick at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVII Conference, via Kotaku
Kotick doesn’t mention how the 6:1 ratio was determined. The numbers could be comparing copies of Guitar Hero III to Rock Band 1, or the Guitar Hero franchise as a whole to the Rock Band one. I’d venture a guess that it’s the latter. Not necessarily a fair comparison, but it may very well be true.
At least Kotick makes it clear that Activision is committed to bettering Guitar Hero, what with 2000 people dedicated to that franchise alone.
