Copies of "Guitar Hero" are selling faster than you can sing the chorus to Black Sabbath's "Iron Man." That's certainly great news for Activision, whose Red Octane division manufacturers the three-game series. In fact, CNBC reported Activision is on track to have its most profitable year ever. "We didn't expect this demand," said Activision CEO Robert Kotick on the Nov. 27 edition of the CNBC program Fast Money. "'Guitar Hero' was even featured on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Even my mom sees 'Guitar Hero' on TV."
The news got even better for the "Guitar Hero" manufacturer when French media company Vivendi announced on Dec. 2 it would purchase Activision for $27.50 a share, and merge its video games unit with Activision's. The $9.85 billion deal will give Vivendi a 52 percent stake in the new company, which will be called Activision Blizzard.
Massive "Guitar Hero" sales are also good news for the music industry. After all, the more people involved in music, the better, right? But the key question is, is this good news for MI? The answer is "yes."
Before we explain, let's get rid of the legal-style mumbo jumbo. In no way are our findings scientific or statistically significant. We only interviewed eight people. In addition, we spoke to people who visit "Guitar Hero" forums on the game's Web site. Hence, we only interviewed avid players. Results could be different if we interviewed passive "Guitar Hero" participants.
But, on the plus side, we only interviewed people who played no musical instrument whatsoever before purchasing any of the three "Guitar Hero" games (or a fourth title in the series, "Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s"). That whittled a long list of potential interviewees down to only eight. However, this allows us to truly find out if non-musicians will go to stores to buy gear solely based on playing the video games, which is truly what we wanted to find out and what is most important to MI. We interviewed a random group of people who responded to a Web site forum posting and they are not related to each other nor are involved in our industry.
Out of the eight people we spoke to across North America, all eight said they are heavily considering buying musical instruments or have already done so because of "Guitar Hero." All said playing the video game was the ONLY reason they plan to purchase MI products, perhaps at your store. Also fascinating is the fact that not all of the people we interviewed are pimply-faced teenagers. Ages run a wide gamut.
The paramount reason why these respondents want to purchase MI products: confidence. Previously, they thought it was too hard to play an instrument. But thanks to their success playing "Guitar Hero," they think they can become at least adequate players. And because each of the respondents was so adamant about at least strongly considering purchasing MI products, we believe the results would translate favorably if a much larger study were conducted. Also, on the positive side, our results are objective. Unlike some studies funded by companies or organizations, ours was not. In fact, we decided to write this story completely on our own and nobody even recommended we do so. Only after compiling the results did we contact other parties for comment.
OK, enough of the legal-ese. Let's get to our interviewees. All eight people said they liked "Guitar Hero" the most because of the music. All said they thought the music selections were tremendous and the ability to rock out in their living room like their rock idols sure doesn't hurt either.
Let's Get Rocking
Our first respondent was Jonathan Gan, 30, of New Britain, Conn. He has played all three versions of "Guitar Hero." "Not being terribly musically talented, it's great to pretend for a couple of hours a day that I'm up on stage rocking out," Gan said.
Although he doesn't plan to buy a guitar, he said the only reasons are because his father always played guitar and wanted him to follow in his footsteps. "I want to be different, so I plan to get a piano. I really like classical music in addition to [rock]. There's just something about the piano I like.
"The [game] has encouraged that," he added. "Even though I know I'm only playing a piece of plastic and pushing some buttons, it's still a feeling of satisfaction when the song's over."
Kevin Myers, 22, from Smyrna, Ga., has played the video games since "Guitar Hero 2" became available for Xbox 360. He has all three versions, and even the "Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the '80s" version. The reason why Myers originally bought the game was because, "I love music. It's probably my favorite hobby. But I didn't have the patience to play a [real] guitar. A lot of my friends play the guitar and the learning curve on the actual guitar is out of control. With my personality, I couldn't sit around playing a guitar for six years with the first three being awful at it. With 'Guitar Hero,' you can be really good within three weeks."
But surprisingly, despite the previous comment, Myers is now seriously contemplating buying an instrument. "In the past, I said, 'OK, I'll never be good at it,'" said Myers. "But now it's something I'm really looking into. My friends who play guitar say 'Guitar Hero' actually helps them with their finger work. They say playing the crazy solos [on the game] improves their finger strength.
"When I played the game, I thought, this is really fun," continued Myers. "Now how cool would it be if this were a real instrument? When you play a real instrument, the sky's the limit. I'm considering buying a bass because it has four strings compared to six on an [electric] guitar. I want to start out with the least number of strings. I plan to go into a store in the very near future."
Bossier City, La.'s, Kevin Warren, 20, was next to sing "Guitar Hero's" praises. Warren has played versions one, two, and three of the game for a year. "My friend plays guitar and I asked to borrow one of his since I've been playing the game," said Warren. "It's inspired me to delve into playing the real guitar. It's hard to learn how to play guitar, but I'm interested in trying. Actually, I'm not only interested in getting a guitar. Another one of my friends owns a drum set and I'm interested in playing the drums also.
"I always thought guitars were cool before," he said. "But after playing the game, it makes me want to play the real guitar and the actual songs [featured] in the game."
Jeffrey Hill is such a huge fan of "Guitar Hero" that he pre-ordered two of the games directly from Red Octane. The 44 year old serves in the U.S. Navy and is stationed in San Diego. Hill first learned about "Guitar Hero" when watching VH1. He has played all three versions, as well as the '80s game. "We have 'Guitar Hero' parties at my house," said Hill. "My friends come over. They're all addicted to it. We play all night long."
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