The Beatles Rock Band sales "exceeding expectations"
High end $249 edition to sell out by November, says Viacom CEO
Viacom has said that sales of The Beatles Rock Band have exceeded internal expectations, with the company selling around 25 per cent of inventory within the first week.
The game was released last week, but has been kept off the top of the charts in the UK by the rival Guitar Hero franchise.
"It's been terrific, the sales exceeded out internal expectations," revealed Phillipe Dauman, president and CEO of Viacom, during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XVIII Conference in New York.
"In the first week we've sold about 25 per cent of our inventory and we've had tremendous excitement around this game. The reviews have been unbelievable.
"The special limited edition hardware sets that we have are selling really fast – that's the high-priced USD 249 [SKU], and it looks to us that we'll be selling out of that in November," added Dauman.
Despite the perceived slow start to sales, Dauman said he's confident the game will have a long tail, as it continues to benefit from DLC and marketing for the recently re-released The Beatles back catalogue.
"It really is a work of art, it's a game that delivers and we think it's got legs. We'll see how the market place performs. It's selling well across all platforms. The pricing change on the PlayStation has actually helped that," he added.
"There's a lot of built in promotion with the release of The Beatles music... so in addition to all the marketing we're putting behind it across our networks, plus the promotions that comes with The Beatles re-releasing songs there's going to be promotions for the next several months."