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MCV 24/09/10 17 MCV INTERVIEW PETER ROYEA, ACTIVISION Hero Super
It may be a challenging time for the music genre, but five years after its debut Activision’s Guitar Hero brand is stronger than ever – even with a slim release slate. Christopher Dring speaks to Peter Royea who oversees the brand in Europe…
IF YOU THOUGHT you could ignore Guitar Hero this Christmas, think again. It may be tempting – after all the games do take up a lot of space in-store and the music genre is in decline. But to even infer that the Guitar Hero brand has become weak is a fallacy. Over 40m Hero games have been sold worldwide – that’s a lot of plastic instruments. It’s still often referenced on TV shows and music videos (most recently in the movie Scott Pilgrim vs The World). And if you took Activision’s Hero business in isolation, it’d still be amongst Europe’s
Focusing on one key Guitar Hero game is integral to attracting consumers who are buying fewer, higher- quality releases, says Activision’s Royea
Top Ten video game publishers. Last year, Guitar Hero 5 took the No.1 spot in the UK Chart-Track Top 40. And although DJ Hero had a slow start, it did shift 1.5m units and became the highest grossing new IP in North America and Europe last year. But there is no room for complacency. There is a need to innovate with new instruments and new music for new consumers. And there’s also a need to dial back the sheer quantity of Hero titles. This year Activision is focussing on just two, DJ Hero 2 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Here, we speak to Peter Royea, the general manager of Activision’s Owned Business Unit, which overseas the brand, to find out more about what comes next for the Hero franchise.
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The slowdown in music games sales is well documented. How do you hope to arrest that decline? We believe the music market is still a large category. This year we changed our strategy to map more closely to the market dynamics and we have worked hard with our studio partners, such as FreeStyleGames, to give our consumers what they really want. Year-to-date, the music category has been relatively quiet due in part to a lack of new releases. Warriors of Rock will be our only Guitar Hero release this year and given its game
Social media is forming a key element of our mix and opens up consumer dialogue on a previously unimaginable scale. Peter Royea, Activision
quality and our full line-up of marketing activities, it should generate a lot of consumer and retailer excitement. In addition, DJ Hero 2 expands upon the social aspect of the game and gives players the ability to play with two turntables and a microphone, and a set list of original DJ mixes that is worth buying on its own.
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What impact have you seen from releasing fewer Guitar Hero products this year than previously? Unlike in other years, this year we are focused on delivering one amazing Guitar Hero game for fans. Many Guitar Hero fans have had to rely on DLC to get their fix of new music this year and for these consumers September 24th can’t come soon enough.
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