MTV Games Exec VP Talks Green Day, Rock Band 3, European Markets
Roy Campbell... may not be the same person...
MTV Games recently acknowledged their historically subpar dedication and distribution to the European markets. (Sorry, Australia, no specific mention of you guys.) According to MTV Games executive VP Scott Guthrie:
“The reality is we have underperformed in Europe, certainly versus our competitor. We had decent growth with the release of The Beatles: Rock Band, but we absolutely believe there is much more to come from us for Europe. Within that space our objective is to be the number one player. It is a fairly straightforward game plan – to have more feet on the ground so that we’ve got dedicated resources that will be able to collaborate and work with our friends at EA. We believe bringing in someone with Roy’s experience and skill set will allow us to be much more nimble.”
“This is a very competitive marketplace, particularly here in the UK. I would say the UK is the toughest territory that any of us in the gaming business is operating in right now. There is a lot of price compression, there’s a lot of profit compression and it is a very savvy experience.”
Looking to shake up their market share with Activision, MTV Games has hired former THQ executive (and possibly FOXHOUND commanding officer?) Roy Campbell to spearhead the effort. Utilizing the launch of Rock Band 3, Campbell and his European team (possibly FOXHOUND?) based in London, MTV Games hopes to unseat Activision as the largest music games publisher in Europe. Guthrie acknowledge not only Guitar Hero as a competitor, but also the SingStar franchise, which has a bigger market share overseas than in the US. Guthrie went out to tease us with new features in Rock Band 3.
“Unlike the other guy, we haven’t been bringing a new game out every year. What you will find with Rock Band 3 is that first of all the music is great – and it is new music, and lots of it – but there are some new consumer features that you will find exciting.”
Guthrie also recently commented that he believes Green Day: Rock Band to be a a better fit for the franchise’s audience than The Beatles: Rock Band title.
“We were pleased with the performance of Beatles: Rock Band but we were expecting higher sales. Our core audience of 16 to 34-year-old males are much more familiar with Green Day music than The Beatles. This isn’t a band that has been around for a short period – they’ve been going 21 years. They have a great history. It is in fact a much wider audience than some people might give them credit for. Green Day probably has a much higher awareness than perhaps The Beatles did.
[MCVUK.com, MCVUK.com via @PlasticAxe]
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What are these new consumer features he speaks of? Will I finally be able to plug in my real guitar, or perhaps unplug my plastic microphone in exchange for a real one? Whats up with double bass? The questions slay me.
And as much as I hate to admit it, I think I agree with him that Green Day has a much higher awareness than the Beatles, if you look at the ages of the core audience of Rock Band players. Its almost as if they expected our grandparents to buy an Xbox for The Beatles: Rock Band (at least that’s the impression I got before the game came out) but Green Day is relevant now and has been for quite a while. I am expecting big numbers.
RockBandAide Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I think he made a polarizing statement, and I can definitely see both sides of the coin. Granted the Beatles are the more iconic band, ultimately what MTV Games cares about is making more money, so I can definitely see Green Day moving more units as it’s target demo is much more inclined to already have a gaming console.
Spidermaniac Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
Personal taste aside, I would be absolutely shocked if Green Day Rock Band sells anywhere near what The Beatles Rock Band did. There isn’t anywhere near the same kind of buzz surrounding the project and many of the die-hard Rock Banders I know have said they are going to skip it or, at best, wait for it to drop in price in six months to a year.
For the sake of HMX’s continued ability to produce games, I hope I’m wrong, but I keep getting the feeling the executives are misreading the reality of the rhythm game market (and the gaming market in general).
I guess we’ll find out in a few more weeks. . .
RockBandAide Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 11:36 pm
The thing that I think alot of people are missing in the Rock Band community is that the majority of people who buy Rock Band games are NOT in the community, so saying a majority of the community is not going to buy the game is not a reasonable assumption. You cannot extrapolate the percentage of the community buying the game across the entire customer base.
Think of it in the opposite… if there was a Muse, Coheed & Cambria, or Dream Theater standalone game, a vast majority of the community would purchase it, but I don’t think any of those titles would sell large quantities to the general gaming public.
At the Rock Band panel at PAX East, it was interesting to note that for every gamer playing Rock Band, a small percentage ever play on Expert, which is obviously not representative of the greater Rock Band community.
Spidermaniac Reply:
May 14th, 2010 at 2:25 am
Good points. However it plays out, I hope the business side is keeping reasonable expectations and this proves a great launching board into Rock Band 3 which cannot come out soon enough for me
I hate to say it but, Green Day:Rock Band is not going to sell well. I saw a list posted last night of sales of individual band games, GH Aerosmith is #1, TBRB is #2, Metallica is #3 and GH Van Halen is #4. Those bands were huge, massively popular and a name in almost every household. I have nothing against Green Day, I like their old stuff, but its just not big enough for people to get crazy over to buy.
RockBandAide Reply:
May 13th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
I think it’s going to have an easy time beating Van Halen… their numbers were shockingly abysmal. I’m optimistic, but cautious, as to how many younger people actually go out and pick this game up.
Glad the VP is giving GD:RB some love and high praises. I am really surprised he kind of put down TB:RB but I think he is right. If the older generation could play RB it might of sold a little bit better. I myself picked up the game only one time and then sold it. Myself being a HUGE Green Day can’t wait to play this game. Will probably get me into playing RB again since I haven’t played it in months.
I like how people are predicting the sales of Green Day Rock Band like they’re some kind of market annalists when really it comes down to their preference on Green Day which we can probably guess they don’t have a fond taste for. The statement made by the Exec VP is right on the money of true. It’s all about the age. Also, why is it that people think the older the band is the more it will sell? Guitar Hero really made a lasting imprint on them by only giving band specific games to older more vintage bands. and we all know how those sold. These are just my opinions to the article and some of the previous comments.
Since no-one seemed to comment on it, I will
It’s nice to see they have finally admited that they’ve dropped the ball big time in Europe and they’re hopefully going to do something about it.
Here’s hoping that they can push the game in Europe and the UK more.
I hope they will promote more in the Europe, Guitar Hero is way too popular here, simply because not a lot of people know about Rock Band and a portion of those who do think it’s a lame rip-off (how much more could they be off?), there’s a lot of money to be earned here for EA/MTV/Harmonix.
They should also release the new (MadCatz) instruments all over the world, possibly the official RB2 instruments too. RB1 instruments don’t hold a candle to RB2 instruments, especially the guitar.