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Despite recent boasts to the contrary made by Activision division head Dan Rosensweig, the publishing giant’s latest music rhythm game Guitar Hero 5 has not outsold Electronic Arts’ rival release The Beatles: Rock Band. In fact, new sales figures show The Fab Four tribute package holds a clear lead at this juncture.
Activision red-faced as The Beatles: Rock Band beats Guitar Hero 5 at retail. Image: EA/MTV Games.
Speaking with FT in mid-September, Rosensweig boldly claimed that Guitar Hero 5 was outselling The Beatles: Rock Band by a ratio of four-to-one in the U.S., and up to nine-to-one in other markets – suggesting anticipation for The Beatles package was not quite as high as the industry thought.
However, new September sales figures released by retail specialist NPD Group have splashed a little egg on Rosensweig’s face after The Beatles: Rock Band outsold Guitar Hero 5 by almost 100,000 units during the opening month of availability, with the former pulling in 595,000 sales and the latter falling a tad short with 499,000 units.
Rock Band co-publisher MTV Games has also been keen to point out that charity Beatles download ‘All You Need Is Love’ shifted more than 100,000 units to become the fastest-selling Rock Band track ever, raising in excess of $17,000 USD for Doctors Without Borders in the process.
And the future looks bright for game-playing fans of The Beatles, not least because the band’s hugely popular album Abbey Road will arrive as a complete download for Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii owners this October 20. PlayStation 3 players will receive access on October 22. The album download will cost $16.99 USD.
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