Activision boasts 15 million Guitar Hero song downloads
by Xav de Matos 
{ May 12th 2008 at 10:30AM }
Not to be outdone by its more innovative brother Rock Band, Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith revealed the Guitar Hero franchise has recently surpassed 15 million individual song downloads. The announcement was made during a recent earnings call where Activision also revealed future plans of the Tony Hawk, Call of Duty and James Bond licenses.
Viacom, owner of Harmonix, recently announced Rock Band has reached the 10 million song download mark.
It's notable that the Guitar Hero announcement seems to relate to both Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360) and Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360 and PS3) downloads while the Rock Band announcement appears to be a combination of Xbox 360 and PS3 online sales. While Harmonix and Activision continue their urinating contest over numbers, we'll just assume both are doing well in the content sales department for future reference.
[via Joystiq]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cerixus @ May 12th 2008 10:53AM
Am I the only one that simply does not believe GH has had more song downloads than RB? Impossible.
jose_edwaldo @ May 12th 2008 11:00AM
If this is worldwide downloads, then yeah, I believe it.......
Saxon @ May 12th 2008 11:11AM
Note the wording of their statement. First they said individual song downloads so every bundle of three counts as much. Second they said downloads and not purchases. GH3 has had a few free downloads; the Halo theme, "We Three Kings" and the Aerosmith song come to mind. Those are sure to pad the numbers significantly. I also don't remember the numbers, but the mobile phone version of guitar hero only holds like three songs in memory and if you want to play a different one you have to download it again. Activision counted those in some press release they did a week or two ago.
On top of that: Rockband, last I checked, had sold three million copies on all systems. Guitar hero, the franchise, has easily sold double that on consoles that allow for downloadable content.
maxdense @ May 12th 2008 1:05PM
I agree, it seems impossible. GH's packs and pricing stink.
Tony @ May 12th 2008 11:03AM
Well, over two games it makes much more sense. The ones in GHII seemed pretty successful.
I wonder if this is including free songs, however. GHIII has had a few free releases now (a pack and single songs). Not to mention the songs you could download if you bought the soundtrack.
murph @ May 12th 2008 11:11AM
I guarantee you that 15 million # includes all the freebies - Halo theme, boss battle pack, holiday pack, St Patty's pack, etc.
RB - 1 free song (Still Alive). I'm pulling #'s out my a**, but lets say 1 million DL's between X360/PS3. Equals 9 million SALES.
GH - with all the free content they've had, I'd be really surprised if they had more than 4-5 million in SALES....and I bet a good chunk of that was the GH2 DLC of GH1 songs.
This is just creative accounting and marketing by Activision to try and steal some RB thunder. "My DLC penis is bigger than your DLC penis". I can't wait for GH Aerosmith to crash and burn.
Cerixus @ May 12th 2008 11:16AM
I guess it surprises me because Rock Band releases 1-3 songs a WEEK whereas GHIII has released like 10 songs ever...
Granted, I never had GHII so that may be where my perspective is limited. But I know personally speaking, I've downloaded 2 GH songs and 9 million Rock Band songs.
Deezul @ May 12th 2008 11:54AM
Karaoke Revolution:American Idol holds the record for most downloadable content on the 360. 127 songs, to 100 to Rock Band. If you counted packs separately, you might pass the KR total. Unfortunately, all the KR content was available on previous versions, but no other 360 version was available...
Bryan T @ May 12th 2008 12:08PM
LOL, at first I thought this meant that this would be for GH4, since they said they were going to do something really unique.
(Insert Dr. Evil Joke Here).
KFelon @ May 12th 2008 5:56PM
I know I've bought around 40 to 50 Rock Band songs, and only about 7 GH3 songs. 4 of those were free. I bet their 15 Million includes all the free stuff or all the downloads from 2 & 3 combined, because there really isn't that much to choose from download wise for them to have such huge numbers.