The Rock Band franchise is incredibly important to MTV Networks, to the point of its recently decreased sales having a noticeable effect on the company's bottom line. The Beatles: Rock Band is expected to help lift the fortunes of Viacom this holiday, though EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich reiterated to Bloomberg that he thinks the game will have difficulty attracting new consumers.
“The genre has peaked,” said Divnich. “This genre has seen explosive growth over the past two years, so it would be wrong to assume that would continue.”
Divnich said that he expects The Beatles: Rock Band to sell 1.7 million copies in 2009, while he expects Guitar Hero 5 to sell over 3 million copies. That said, he acknowledges to Joystiq, "If Activision relaxes on the marketing spend, while MTV Games kicks it up a notch, there's certainly a chance that I could be wrong," adding, "The only concern I have with my Guitar Hero vs. Rock Band analysis is that Activision may focus less on marketing Guitar Hero 5 and divert funding to DJ Hero, a new brand in their Guitar Hero line-up... That would certainly change the game."
The Guitar Hero games have consistently outsold their Rock Band counterparts, though the margin has continued to narrow with each passing year – it'll be interesting to see if The Beatles manages to resonate across generations.
