Neversoft: Music game sales ARE down

Sales of music games ARE falling – regardless of what MTV Games might think, says Guitar Hero developer Neversoft.

MTV told MCV in May that, despite widespread reports, music game sales increased last year and it was just the peripherals that suffered year-on-year declines.

But Neversoft says this isn’t true and revealed that all the Guitar Hero games released last year – Metallica, Smash Hits and 5 – couldn’t match the sales of its 2008 hit, World Tour.

Sales across the board were lower last year,” admitted Neversoft project director Brian Bright.

Our rival might sugercoat it but I won’t. Sales are down for software and for peripherals. We put out a load of games last year, and even when you add them all together they didn’t do better than World Tour.”

The developer says the problem with recent Guitar Hero titles is that they’ve tried to appeal to too many people, something the firm said it has fixed with its rock-centric sequel, Warriors of Rock.

I think it did lose its identity," continues Bright. "The first three Guitar Hero games had very strong ties to rock ‘n’ roll, but I think with World Tour and 5 we just tried to please everybody. And in the end I think we ended up not pleasing anybody. We put more into this game to give Guitar Hero its life back.

There are 16 million Guitar Hero players and nine million that are enthusiasts. We are aiming Warriors of Rock at them. We are making a game that Guitar Hero fans will like.”