With Activision's Guitar Hero World Tour having launched this past week and MTV's Rock Band 2 on store shelves since September (for Xbox 360), the "battle of the bands" this holiday is starting to heat up. According to UBS analyst Ben Schachter, however, sales for Rock Band have already slowed.
Weighing in on EA following the publisher's Q2 report, Schachter noted that EA's comments on Rock Band's market performance don't seem to match up with his own retail channel checks. "While ERTS stated that Rock Band continues to perform above expectations, our channel checks indicate that there is quite a bit of somewhat stagnant Rock Band inventory already in the channel," he said.
Moreover, regarding the newest Rock Band, Schachter said "our own internal checks [indicate] that Rock Band 2 sales have slowed significantly [and] make us wonder how/why the company did not take the opportunity to lower its revenue forecast." Rock Band 2 shipped more recently (Oct. 19) for PS3 and it won't hit Wii and PS2 until December.
Schachter also called into question the music genre's sales momentum given the weak economic environment. "As for the music genre, ERTS indicated that Rock Band is performing well, but we have our doubts. We will continue to track Rock Band and Guitar Hero closely in the coming weeks, but our initial take is that the genre is doing okay, but that it needs to pick up in order to not disappoint.," he said.
Overall, Schachter is not expecting much from EA's stock this year: "...we remain concerned that the company may have put itself at risk for missing its forecast for the all-important holiday quarter. We remain cautious on the stock in the near-to-intermediate term, as investors are likely to be disappointed with the EPS guidance and concerned about management's ability to deliver against plan."
Rock band 2
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 1 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 2 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 3 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 4 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 5 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 6 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 7 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 8 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 9 of 22)
Rock Band is back and better than ever! EA and Harmonix team up again to bring you the latest Rock Band experience, complete with new musical instrument peripherals, new downloads, and new party modes! The game will also support original downloadable content from the first Rock Band, along with the original instruements. Get ready to rock all over again in late 2008! (Screenshot 10 of 22)
Reader Comments (2)
The PS2 has sold like 140 million units worldwide. It has a vast, vast installed base and continues to sell well today. There are tons of consumers still hungry for software, especially since the PS2 offers cheaper software prices, which is quite relevant in this economy. Bottom line, PS2 is very viable and it makes perfect sense to support it. As for the PS3, it's not "taken off" because of its insanely high pricing and lack of compelling software. Both of those have been improving, however.
The probable reason is that they are having to support so many SKUs and versions of the software from the 360 to the venerable ps2 is the reason their profit margins are not as high as they could be. Why they still support an ancient console like the ps2 is a mystery. This is one reason that the ps3 has not taken off as it should.