News Flash: DJ Hero Not Living Up To Demand Expectations

By David Savage in Gaming News
Monday, October 26, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Thumbnail image for dj hero2.jpg
Activision's latest "Hero", DJ Hero, is not living up to its name according to new demand expectations data from analyst Doug Creutz of Cowan and Company. Cruetz believes the lack in music game sales are because gamers are being turned away by high priced music games during the recession and that the Guitar Hero fad has perhaps run its mile.

Cruetz claims GH3 brought too many "one-time" buyers into the franchise:
"We probably underestimated the extent to which the 2007-08 peak in Guitar Hero unit sales was driven by the extreme amount of buzz around the product. In retrospect Guitar Hero III likely attracted a lot of one-time buyers (that have not returned for subsequent franchise installments) due to its 'it-game' status at the time."

Thumbnail image for djherocase.jpg
Cowan and Company's U.S. sales expectations for 4Q 2009 were originally 1.6 million, but are now down to a mere 600,000 units with year sales expected at only 950,000 (down from 2.5 million).

Despite this, Creutz says:
"We still believe that DJ Hero will be an important part of Activision Blizzard's music franchise strategy, but we think it may take a few versions of the game for it to reach its full market potential (similar to the original Guitar Hero)."
Email Print

Join The Joystick Division!

Become part of the Joystick Division community by following us on Twitter and Digg and Liking us on Facebook.

More links from around the web!