MTV Games Unhappy With Beatles: Rock Band Euro Sales

Despite all of the hype and the high-profile licensing agreement surrounding the Fab Four's video game appearance in Harmonix's The Beatles: Rock Band, MTV Games has conceded that the title didn't meet commercial expectations. Asked if he was happy with the music game's performance, MTV Games general manager Scott Guthrie replied in a Euro-centric MCV interview, "The honest answer is no. We were expecting higher sales." He added, "We got caught in a few things that happened last year. It was a tough economy; there was a lot of competitive products out there, and I think Beatles probably had softer sales than it would have if some of those things weren’t in play." He said that Viacom-owned MTV Games was "pleased" with the game's sales, however, but admitted that the Rock Band publisher "underestimated the competition and they took mind share away from us." During The Beatles: Rock Band UK debut week in September 2009, it secured the fourth-place spot in unit sales, according to Chart-Track -- Activision's competing Guitar Hero 5 debuted the same week at number one on the all-platforms charts. Beatles was only in the top 10 for its first two weeks in the UK. Harmonix said in December that worldwide, The Beatles: Rock Band, sold 1 million units. Guthrie added, "We really believe that with the launch of Rock Band 3 -- which is a significant upgrade to what we had before -- we believe we can take market share away from [Activision]."