The Beatles: Rock Band outsold Guitar Hero 5 in September in the US, while Sony’s PS3 console beat its rivals’ sales figures for the first time, according to the latest figures from the NPD research firm.
The “Battle of the Bands” was a key focus as the two titles were released at the same time, but both were outsold by the latest release in the Halo franchise - Halo 3: ODST - and Madden NFL 10.
However, finishing third and fourth respectively was no mean feat given the higher cost to those buyers who needed instrument controllers to play the games.
“The Beatles: Rock Band achieved this level of success with an average retail price premium of 130% to the average retail price for software overall,” said Anita Frazier, NPD analyst.
“The sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero led the music/dance genre to a 72 per cent dollar sales increase over September 2008.”
On the hardware side, Sony’s PlayStation 3 was the best-selling console for the first time in its history in the US.
Sales of the PS3 were more than double those in September 2008, at 492,000, following its $100 price cut.
The Wii and Xbox 360 also benefited from price cuts, selling 463,000 and 353,000 units respectively.
In handhelds, Sony will need a boost from the new version of its PSP – the Go – launched on October 1. In September, the PSP brand shifted just 190,000 units, compared to 524,000 for the Nintendo DS.
UPDATE: In a blog note, Jack Tretton, Sony Computer Entertainment’s US president, said the PS3 surpassed 1m sales worldwide in its first three weeks on shelves, while the PSPGo caused a 300 per cent lift in overall PSP hardware sales in its first three days, compared to the previous week.
