Rock band 3 sales thread

[bgbruce]

I bought RB3 only after I learned about the upcoming Squier. I read about it in a engadget.com article, otherwise I'm not sure I ever would have heard of it though. I got the pro drums for my daughter so we could play together and she seems to be enjoying that. But I never would have bought any of this type of game before I heard about the Squier.

[Dyslexic]

I was unsure whether I should put priority to buying RB3 or not. But after learning that the squire can be plugged into an amp, I'm suddenly very interested in this sequel. You can't just paint a broadstroke and say that everyone who was interested in the game has already bought it.

The main complaint about the genre was that people who were normally ok with the idea of replicating sports, gunmanship, camping, hunting, fishing, hiking, and any other thing that video games do, were laughing at the idea of pretending to play a guitar.

"You know that's not a real instrument right?" Was synonymous with the genre. Well, that's changed. There might be a bit of a buzz about that. That buzz might sell more units. Those units sold might include the fender.

[Stol-FA-Lin]

I'd guess that demand for the RB3 Squier will be a tad higher than some think it will. If they promote it too, even more than a tad higher. Maybe even something approaching a problem keeping up with. Sort of like the recent past, when it seems demand for the MPA might have been a slight bit underestimated.

[lvmathemagician]

The Squier removes the whole "Go play a real guitar" stigma. It makes the buzz about RB3 a bit less negative. As far as actual sales, while Fender should make some profit it off it, it won't be much. Of course all bets are off if RB is actually considered an acceptable way to learn to play guitar.

[SamStone]

Harmonix has 200 employees. They can't survive on a million sales. Their payroll is at least $10 million per year, and that's only a part of their cost structure. Maybe Dance Central can help keep them afloat, or they've got something else they're working on.

It's telling that most of the people laid off are QA, however. That suggests there's nothing imminent in development - or rather that the pace of development has slowed. It could also mean that they're going to cut back on DLC, since I'm sure that's a QA intensive process.

[lvmathemagician]

It's telling that most of the people laid off are QA, however. That suggests there's nothing imminent in development - or rather that the pace of development has slowed. It could also mean that they're going to cut back on DLC, since I'm sure that's a QA intensive process.

It does not suggest there's nothing imminet in development. It merely suggests that people were laid off. QA can be outsourced and frequently is.

[SamStone]

Harmonix still has a large QA staff. I don't think they're going to outsource some of it. I suspect that they needed a big QA staff for Rock Band 3, and that they don't have plans for a Rock Band 4 for quite some time, and therefore don't need as many QA's.

And if you outsource QA, you don't do it just before a product starts the QA phase - it takes a long time to get a QA department up and running and trained on the product.

In any event, this is all speculation. I know nothing about Harmonix's internal dev process. But the raw numbers for staff still indicate a company size that cannot survive on a game only sells a million copies.

I just found a quote from Harmonix that said they didn't downsize the QA team for DLC, so at least that should keep coming.

[Bront20]

Harmonix has 200 employees. They can't survive on a million sales. Their payroll is at least $10 million per year, and that's only a part of their cost structure. Maybe Dance Central can help keep them afloat, or they've got something else they're working on.

It's telling that most of the people laid off are QA, however. That suggests there's nothing imminent in development - or rather that the pace of development has slowed. It could also mean that they're going to cut back on DLC, since I'm sure that's a QA intensive process.

HMX has money coming in from DLC, RB1-3, Instrument sales (They likely get a bit from that), possibly still from some GH residuals, as well as Dance Central and any DLC/extras off of that.

As for how many folks work at HMX, I'm guessing that's an estimate, and that might also include some part time/intern help, which will make significantly less.

[A New Pyro Fool]

Has anyone realized that Rock Band 3 near the top (only behind the Rock Band Music Store) of the Best Selling Games of All-Time on Xbox.com?

Perhaps the digital sales of the game have been doing wonders for HMX. Pair that with a lesser amount of songs released each week, and HMX could be making quite a profit off of the platform.

EDIT: I apologize for the necro.

[PoundedLemon]

Still no instruments in non U.S. stores. Business as usual.