Following the news that Tony Hawk: Ride sold a paltry 114K units during November, we've now learned that another big plastic peripheral-based game from Activision has also put up less than stellar numbers. DJ Hero sold just 211K units in November, according to NPD. This compares to 122K units sold in October, when it just had five days in NPD's reporting period as opposed to a full month.
Much like Tony Hawk: Ride, the $120 price tag for DJ Hero is probably scaring consumers away. Unlike Ride, DJ Hero is actually a very solid game, however, with a Metacritic in the upper 80s (depending on platform). And this editor has certainly enjoyed playing the game, despite having a preference for rock music over hip-hop.
The bottom line is that the music genre continues to suffer. NPD's Anita Frazier pointed out that DJ Hero was #1 in the genre for the month, but when a game that sells 211K units is #1 during a holiday shopping month, something's not right. Even so, Activision is coming out ahead of EA in the music space.
Although Beatles: Rock Band recently passed 1 million sold, Jeetil Patel of Deutsche Bank noted that, "EA’s distribution music titles (Rock Band) have been consistently ceding ground to titles from competitors, most importantly Activision (Guitar Hero, Band Hero and DJ Hero). During 2009, revenue growth at music titles from Activision has outperformed that at Electronic Arts. On a YTD basis, sales of music titles at EA have declined 52% while those for Activision have come in at -39%, better than an industry wide decline of 45% for the music/dance genre," he explained.
Update: We initially reported that the November number for DJ Hero was 123K. The number was erroneous and we have now corrected this story. We apologize for the confusion this may have caused.
19 Comments
December 11, 2009
I'd figure you for more of an adult contemporary kind of guy.
December 11, 2009
That was an awesome music preference, James.
December 11, 2009
211K units across 4 platforms (360, PS3, Wii, and PS2)? Ouch! And since DJ Hero was the #1 game in the sector, that means Band Hero, Lego Rock Band, Guitar Hero 5, and Rock band: The Beatles did even worse than that! Double ouch!
Well, I'm sure it will all be made up with Guitar Hero: Van Halen. Those kids are gonna snap up a poorly executed Guitar hero game of an 80's band. Woo-hoo!
December 12, 2009
I'm still waiting on a price drop. Not as big into the plastic toy games as I once was. I'm not sure exactly how it plays either. It's something I'd rather use on a solid surface, and re-arranging my setup to play at a desk wouldn't be very fun.
December 12, 2009
Yeah, considering it had a full month (and it's a holiday shopping month), 211K is not good at all. Similar to Tony Hawk Ride, I'm betting this will get a price drop within a couple months (possibly retail deals, not an official drop from ATVI).
@Brian Young: You can play the game with the turntable controller in your lap. That's what I do (don't use any table setup) and it works just fine. The turntable is only slightly wider than a large laptop computer. It looks deceptively large in pictures.
December 14, 2009
Prediction: DJ Hero sales will be decent in the long run and Activision will try and make a good of it as a franchise. Tony Hawk: Ride, however, has combined bad sales will terrible reviews - I don't think you overcome that at a $120 price point.
December 14, 2009
By the way, I noticed that Target had some sale for DJ Hero, Tony Hawk Ride, Rock Band 2, and GH World Tour - any one of those for just $88. So the discounting has already begun.
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