The Beatles: Rock Band Not Yet Profitable For Viacom

11 Comments Posted November 4, 2009 - By Jake Gaskill

The Beatles: Rock Band might be besting Activision’s Guitar Hero 5 in the sales department, but the interactive love letter to the Fab Four has yet to be profitable for MTV Games’ parent company, Viacom, the GamesIndustry.biz reports.

During a conference call, Viacom chief financial officer, Tom Dooley, said, "Rock Band was a negative contributor to margins in the third quarter. We expect it to break even or be slightly profitable in the fourth quarter from a margin point of view. It really depends on how many units we sell in the holiday season."

Most rhythm-based music games are typically profit sucks for publishers because of the cost of manufacturing the instruments and accessories. In the case of The Beatles: Rock Band, those costs were heaped on top of the cash that was dished out to license the coveted tracks, a feat that the game's closing credits proves must have been nothing short of an absolute nightmare. Still, Viacom chief executive Philippe Daumann said, "the economics of our Rock Band franchise are improving," even if it’s taking a bit longer than the company would like.

Looking ahead to the end of the year, Viacom says it plans to "start putting in more marketing dollars together with our retail partners behind [Beatles: Rock Band]," in the hopes of attracting those ever-precious holiday dollars. Although, given the number of massive titles being released between now and the end of the year, bringing the Rock Band franchise into the black isn't going to be an easy task. On the other hand, the holiday season is prime family-gaming time, so that should bring in some much needed green. I'll guess we'll know for sure when the sales figures are released early next year.

Source

Tags: PlayStation 3, Videogames, Wii, Xbox 360

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BONERJAM

I would think this game will sell pretty well during the holiday season. The release price for the instrument pack was way to high and I'm sure there will be plenty of deals after Thanksgiving. The Beatles RB is a really great game and thats coming from someone who wasn't even a fan before buying the game.

Posted: November 4, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Report

+3 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
Tokiovigilante

Hopefully this wont slow the DLC for the game D:

Posted: November 4, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Report

+4 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
shoryuking

cry me a river

Posted: November 4, 2009 10:43 AM | Reply | Report

+4 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
A_Killer

This game is a disappointment. The songs could have easily been a DLC pack. There was no reason to make a band kit for it either. One pro to this game is that it has the potential to bring in a new, mainly older, group of people into the party game genre.

Posted: November 4, 2009 10:56 AM | Reply | Report

-4 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
poker909

The Beatles suck! I'm an "older" gamer - yes I remember Pong being new, and yes I did get an atari2600 in 1979 for xmas, and I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Megadeth. Beatles fans are really old - like even older than me - and I can't see the 50something crowd running to Gamestop to get their Fab Four Fix. The little success the game had even shocked me as I predicted this to flop.

Posted: November 4, 2009 10:57 AM | Reply | Report

-9 thumbs up thumbs down

1 Reply
Lalo666

this game never seemd to interesting to me i mean seriously how difficult is it to play most of their songs they wernt Crazy like through the fire and flame or any of the slayer songs ive played on other games respect to the beatles tho

Posted: November 4, 2009 11:16 AM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
DreamingDarklyRobin

Doesn't Viacom own NBC? I think that might also not give a profit.

Posted: November 4, 2009 11:42 AM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies
BertSaxby

Eh. I bought it when it came out, which is a rare thing. Normally I wait for price drops. However, the Rockband library was getting stale. I really like the video effects and it has some interesting challenges. The songs are not complex, but they do present challenges particularly on the higher difficulties. If you like to play bass, you're in for a treat. You can also have multiple mics for harmonies which is a cool feature. I wouldn't count on DLC though, it's pretty much dead for Rockband proper and I'm sure that library is far easier to get signoffs on. Music industry is pushing for 'album' sales as well, which $16.99 is just too much for a media format that is simply not portable. It's an investment in nothing. I've bought a few extra tracks, but honestly I'd rather pay for a new version of the game with new tracks already on it.

Posted: November 4, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

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gambit1023

I thought General Electric owned NBC and Viacom owns MTV,VH1 and Nickolodeon.

Posted: November 4, 2009 12:05 PM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

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Notafanboythatiknow

So what? This note sounds more like a business problem than a gaming issue. Viacom (like all large corporations) is stinking rich and would never be satisfied with their profits regardless of how small or big they are. Sales figures for The Beatles: Rock Band look healthy, and more DLC should come out.

Posted: November 4, 2009 12:06 PM | Reply | Report

+2 thumbs up thumbs down

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spence101878

Hey I have a great idea on how they could make more money on this game. Release a version of it for PS2. I am starting to get a little upset at the fact that the Rock Band games are not getting released on PS2 but yet Activision who owns the Hero games (DJ,Guitar, and Band) are still releasing them on PS2 this is why I think the Hero series if games will continue to be profitable, they know not everyone has gone over to the next gen systems and doesn't say f u to the people that helped this genre thrive in the first place.

Posted: November 9, 2009 7:39 AM | Reply | Report

+1 thumbs up thumbs down

0 Replies