Activision: Guitar Hero Better Serves Consumers Than Rock Band

As part of a larger in-depth interview with IndustryGamers, Activision Publishing chief executive Mike Griffith provided us with his viewpoint on the battle between Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We specifically raised the point that Activision has been flooding the market with SKU after SKU in the Guitar Hero franchise, whereas MTV and Harmonix seem to be more focused on expanding Rock Band with downloadable content.

Griffith defended his company's approach to the music space, however, asserting that Activision's SKU strategy has actually been better for the shareholders and consumers. "First of all, the consumer has voted and we've outsold Rock Band four-to-one; we're outselling Rock Band 10-to-1 in Europe.  If you listen to the analyst side of things and the Viacom earnings report, it does not look like Rock Band is very successful financially.  So, you'd have to conclude so far, our business model has served the consumer and shareholders better," he stated.

And really, as long as the consumers keep buying the numerous Guitar Hero SKUs that Activision puts on the market, there's no reason for the company to slow down. "...we've got about 15 million households in North America and Europe that are engaged with Guitar Hero and there's a thirst for more of their favorite music content and the next level in innovative gameplay surrounding that music.  So we've got 15 million consumers that are hungry for more that we want to keep satisfied, and that's the basis of the Smash Hits, of Guitar Hero: Metallica with those with a bend towards metal, and Guitar Hero 5, which is the broadest and most innovative lineup of guitar focused songs that we've ever had," Griffith said. 

He continued, noting that there's a big opportunity in Europe still as well, and he doesn't think the music genre has peaked just yet, despite certain analysts saying otherwise. "...if you just look at consumer sales of Guitar Hero, in the most recent quarter (March quarter), it out performed the entire software market.  So we don't see near term signs of fatigue for our business, and as I said, we've got the vectors of satisfying our large installed base of 15 million, expanding the number of households and international expansion where we're significantly underdeveloped relative to the rest of Activision's portfolio, but hitting the inflection point, with consumer sales nearly doubling year-over-year in Europe during the most recent quarter.  So we're really starting to hit our stride there, but it's still underdeveloped.  So I would have to say I do disagree with anyone that says that we don't have significant opportunities in front of us," he said.