Beatles: Rock Band not quite mopping up the sales

The game that many in the industry believed would revitalize the music game genre hasn’t, at least so far. Despite an ad campaign that saw The Beatles: Rock Band promoted nearly everywhere, sales have been just so-so. The game sold 595,000 copies in September 2009, according to sales data from research firm NPD Group.

The latest Rock Band installment shared a simultaneous September 9, 2009 (or 09/09/09 as the marketing people rather enjoyed promoting), release with remastered versions of the Beatles albums on CD. The game was marketed alongside those albums, giving it plenty of exposure. The Xbox 360 version sold 254,000 copies, while the Wii version moved 208,000 copies. Neither number is a huge return on the resources Electronic Arts put forth promoting this game, expected to be a blockbuster. In the battle of September music games, Beatles did outsell Guitar Hero 5, despite a promotion that offered those purchasing the game a free copy of Guitar Hero:Van Halen. Guitar Hero 5 sold 499,000 copies in September 2009.