Posts Tagged ‘Rock Band 3’

Mad Catz recently announced their latest financial quarter results. Sales and profits were down, and the finger is being pointed at Rock Band 3. Has the rhythm gaming genre “softened” over the last few years? Without a doubt. But I’m going to highlight a number of facts that Mad Catz is presenting in their latest quarterly financial statement, and before I put together the pieces as to why their explanation doesn’t sit well with me, see if you can first figure out why this doesn’t make sense.

• Revenues for the latest quarter ended September 30, 2011 were reported at $25.8 million, a 31 percent decrease from the $37.4 million reported during the same period one year ago.
• Profits decreased 29 percent during the period, from $10.5 million to $7.4 million.
• Mad Catz claimed that “In the United States, the decrease in net sales is primarily attributable to sales of our Rock Band 3 products in the second fiscal quarter of 2011, which was released in September 2010.“
• They also claimed that “The decrease in games as a percentage of total gross sales primarily related to lower sales of bundled products of the Rock Band 3 game. The decrease in controllers was primarily related to products compatible with the Wii and PlayStation 3.“
• Finally, in their press release, they noted that “Although we improved sales of our increasingly important audio and PC products, these gains were more than offset by weakness in our video game products, as the revenue from Rock Band 3 product sales fell sharply.“

First, the bad news. This doesn’t bode well for the re-release of Rock Band 3 this year, but does help to explain why the re-release is only planned for the Xbox 360. They note that Wii and PS3 players aren’t buying instruments at the same rate as the Xbox 360. This is corroborated by unofficial and anecdotal figures we have seen on DLC sales between the three consoles, and doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise.

What puzzles me is that based on what I’ve seen and heard here, the forums, and on social media, demand for Rock Band 3 peripherals appeared to be higher than supply. Even now, it’s extremely difficult to get your hands on many different Rock Band 3 peripherals, so I’m somewhat confused as to why demand isn’t being satisfied when claims that “sales are down” are being listed as excuse. As an outsider, it seems like Mad Catz is being reluctant to commit to the franchise at the risk of generating excess supply which, to be fair, is a legitimate business reason, but may not paint them in the best light in terms of the fans.

But that’s not what bothers me. What I’m about to illuminate some will write off as “spin,” but there are some facts here that definitely need to be highlighted. Mad Catz’s financial statement for the quarter ended September 30, 2011 was compared against the same quarter last year, ended September 30, 2010. Mad Catz specifically lists that Rock Band 3 was released in September 2010, when it was actually released on October 26, 2010, a full month AFTER the comparative quarter ended. This presents a serious issue in the validity of their variance analysis.

Excuse me while I get technical for a moment, but generally accepted accounting principals state that revenue is recognized when the following four conditions are met: 1. Persuasive evidence of an arrangement exists. 2. Delivery has occurred or services have been rendered, 3. The seller’s price to the buyer is fixed or determinable and, 4. Collectibility is reasonably assured. While I don’t doubt that three of these are easily met, I’m questioning whether delivery has occurred in quantities large enough for Mad Catz to justify on their own financials that Rock Band 3 “was released in September 2010.” While Mad Catz was releasing some peripherals prior to Rock Band 3′s release date, I find it hard to believe that the majority of peripheral sales occurred prior to the release of Rock Band 3. In fact, it doesn’t make sense at all, as they specifically reference “lower sales of bundled products of the Rock Band 3 game,” which could NOT have happened prior to October 26, 2010 (with a few lucky exceptions).

What do you think? Is Mad Catz throwing Rock Band 3 under the bus unfairly? Or is there something bigger that I’m missing?

[Found via Gamasutra]

Following last week’s “controversy” surrounding the Country Track Pack 2 DLC/export, I noticed some interesting language being used by @HMXHenry on some of his comments both on the forums and on Twitter. My spidey-sense was tingling, and I had an odd feeling that a “surprise” announcement may be coming today. I didn’t think much of it, as actively supporting a game well over a year past launch is relatively unheard of (although Harmonix did it with Rock Band 2). I’ve had these feelings before, and typically nothing ever comes to pass, but this time was different. Just a few moments ago, @RockBand announced that a title update (AKA a “patch”) will be arriving TOMORROW for Xbox 360 and PS3 players that enables the following features/enhancements:

• Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Dani California will now be available in Rock Band 3 to anyone that previously imported Rock Band 1.
• New filter added allowing players to hide songs rated “One Lighter.”
• Setlist crashes surrounding combinations of the songs Surfing with the Alien, Satch Boogie, The Hockey Theme, and Caprici di Diablo have been fixed.
• Other legal/security tweaks.

Last week, I read an interesting interview with Brian Chan, senior designer at Harmonix, where Gamasutra picked his brain about casual gamers’ view of the “gimmick” of plastic guitars. This question aside, Brian is pretty dead on with what’s “hot” with the current gaming industry: motion-gaming, microtransactions, mobile titles, etc. I’ve chatted with him before, and this interview reinforces the fact that Brian clearly knows what he’s talking about. His response about gimmicks and an increased immersion in music games stuck with me. Here’s what he had to say.

“Gimmicks, so-called, are really just risky moves taken in the larger narrative of innovation. They are bold and sometimes stupid, but we should applaud such risk-taking. And sometimes they are thin at the start, but many good ideas mature over time and with iteration. They [plastic guitar peripherals] seem like pretty obvious steps in a larger project of immersion, of forgetting yourself in an experience. Immersion is a difficult thing to grow across successive games because of the tendency towards increasingly deeper immersion, which is often similar to a move towards the hardcore. Maintaining accessibility for the newcomer while deepening the experience for the veteran is incredibly tough, and it only gets more difficult as a franchise develops.”

In essence, for a franchise like Rock Band, he touches on an increasing gap between a casual player who simulates a musical experience for a handful of songs, and a “hardcore” gamer who wishes to maximizes their experience by actually learning a real instrument across hundreds or thousands of songs. What originally started out with Guitar Hero simulating one instrument, eventually expanded into five different instruments with multiple variations of “plastic” instruments that can prepare you for playing a song on a real instrument. The difference between the two extremes this far down the franchise is pretty significant.

After the MASSIVE success of Guitar Hero 3, the franchise released sequels that saw less and less engagement, and I wanted to see the franchise go back to their core competency by just just focusing on the Guitar/Bass. Instead, they offered insane power ups and “pig warriors,” which may have been one of the factors that caused the franchise to go on their current hiatus. Coming out this month is RockSmith, which will offer a focused direction of just teaching players to learn real guitar. No drums. No keyboard. No vocals. Not even bass (as far as I’m aware). Gameplay-wise (and yes, I’m over-simplifying it), it is Rock Band 3′s Pro-Guitar, and nothing else. As Rock Band attempts to offer all things to all players, are they spreading themselves too thin? Are they trying too hard to be everything to everybody? By offering the option of playing a real instrument, is Rock Band potentially alienating or confusing the casual player, and essentially becoming too “hardcore?”

Add your thoughts in the comments below!

[via Gamasutra]

In early August, we heard that MadCatz would be re-releasing Rock Band 3 and select peripherals this coming holiday season. And thanks to Joystiq, not only did we learn that the relaunch was initiated by MadCatz themselves, but it also appears that at this point, the relaunch appears to be Xbox 360 only.

When Harmonix left Viacom, they luckily were able to retain the rights to the franchise, and through the efforts of MadCatz, they will be the sole financier of the relaunch, and this will be the first retail game that MadCatz will publish.

While news of the relaunch being Xbox 360 only may make some of the Rock Band die-hards on the other two consoles nervous, a single-platform launch of an established franchise by a new publisher is a good way for them to “test the waters.” I wouldn’t read in to this potential console-exclusivity as a harbinger of things to come for the franchise.

Through Joystiq, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos commented, ”They’re actually doing the retail distribution as well as marketing support, etc. They’re acting as de facto publisher for the title.” He continued on that the marketing push will be aimed at a wide audience, including ”people who are still playing Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero players who haven’t even entered the genre yet.”

[via Joystiq]

Yes, you read that correctly. I also had to double check the date of the source when I originally read this, as well.

We learned last year that peripheral maker MadCatz would be Rock Band 3′s official peripheral maker, and that outside of the Squier Pro-Guitar, production of all instruments for Rock Band 3 would be managed them. Unlike previous Rock Band core titles, Rock Band 3 did not come in a version bundled with all instruments, rather a single bundle was produced existing of only the game and the new Keys peripheral.

According to Gamasutra, MadCatz has entered into an agreement with Harmonix that allows them to re-release Rock Band 3 this coming holiday season. It also appears that MadCatz will be creating a few new bundles to satisfy customers who didn’t get on board last year. The first is a bundle that will include the game and both the Keys and Guitar peripherals. The second bundle will include the game and a Mustang Pro-Guitar.

If you remember, the price of the Rock Band 3 software was discounted to $19.99 earlier this year, and there is as of yet no word on the bundle pricing.

MadCatz president Darren Richardson commented on the agreement:

“We are pleased to assume publishing responsibilities for Rock Band 3 this holiday season. Rock Band is the ultimate interactive experience for any music fan, whether they’re looking for a great party game to share with friends, playing through Rock Band’s 3000 plus song library, or seeking out a fun way to learn guitar, drum or keyboard skills using Rock Band 3’s Pro Mode.”

While Rock Band 3 was a critical success, many sources note that the volume of sales was far less than expected. Does MadCatz believe they can capitalize on something that was missed the first time around?

[via Gamasutra]

Well that was quick. After nearly a year to the day that this revolutionary peripheral was unveiled, it is now being discontinued.

I had a few people overseas send me a heads up a few weeks ago that according to their local retailers, the Rock Band 3 Squier was unavailable to order as it was discontinued. I made a note to follow up on this, but it looks like someone on the RockBand.com forums did the heavy lifting for me. Forum user “Zubazz” contacted Fender directly to inquire about the Squier availability after running in to a similar situation, and was told that the hybrid guitar is being discontinued.

I contacted Fender first thing this morning to corroborate this, and unfortunately was indeed told the same thing. Basically, what that means is that when the current stock of Squiers out there is exhausted, that’s it. So if you have one already, consider yourself lucky, because it seems like if you didn’t get in on the pre-sale, many people never even got a chance to snag one.

Obviously the abandonment of the marquis instrument of Rock Band 3′s Pro mode is not good news. As far as I know, the Mustang Pro Guitar is still available, but after playing on a Squier, it’s tough to go back to the Mustang. Feel free to vent in the comments…

UPDATED: Apparently Harmonix is hearing reports to the contrary from Fender. Here is what @HMXHenry posted over in the RockBand.com forums (bold added for emphasis):

Hey gang. Thanks to everyone for your patience while all the Community / PR folks were out in LA for E3. We’re all back in the office now so we’ll be able to devote a lot more attention to discussions on the forums.

As HMXcj mentioned in an earlier post, this is the first we’ve heard of any plans to discontinue the Squier. We’ve reached out to Fender (who is handling all the production and distribution of this hardware) for more info and we’ll follow up here as soon as we get the full scoop from them.

Initial responses from our contacts at Fender indicate that the Squier has not been discontinued at this time, so there may be some confusion at the retail level. There are still Squiers in the retail channel and MadCatz is still producing Mustangs, so there is still plenty of support for Pro Guitar and Pro mode as a whole. We don’t have any plans to discontinue support for Pro Guitar DLC, and there are still charts being authored months out for upcoming releases.

Since there hasn’t been any official announcement regarding the status of the Squier, we’re looking for any and all details regarding where this info is coming from. It appears to to be coming from the retail side, so if anyone has been told that the Squier is being discontinued please PM me the name of the retailer, the location, the name of the agent you spoke with, the date, etc. Any info would be helpful to forward along to Fender so we can get some clarity as soon as possible.

Thanks again to everyone for sitting tight while we wrapped E3. We’ll post more info as soon as we have it.