Guitar Hero and Rock Band sales down 49% YoY

By Stephany Nunneley

The videogame market’s not only suffering from price fatigue, but music game fatigue as well, according to a report from Gamasutra.

Michael Pachter has issued a report which shows combined revenue from both Rock Band and Guitar Hero during February – June 2009 and it shows a 49 percent decrease in sales year on year, with Guitar Hero down 34 percent and Rock Band down 67 percent.

With discounted hardware and over 20 SKUs on the market, both have plenty of merchandise available to gamers, with the Guitar Hero franchise leading in that area.

Activision Blizzard has released over a dozen Guitar Hero titles from including the handheld version along with themed expansions. Guitar Hero 5 is currently scheduled for release in Fall 2009 and a Van Halen-centric one later in the year and of course, loads of new DLC through console services.

Currently, with different packaging and offerings, there are seven Rock Band titles on consoles or handhelds with The Beatles: Rock Band due September 2009. Harmoix tends to focus on DLC more so than new SKUs entering the market.

That’s loads of plastic peripherals folks.

More through Gamasutra.