Michael Sportouch is the Senior Director Guitar Hero. He may have a slightly strange grasp of the kind of healthy competition that makes for a strong market. Why? He's said this:
"One thing I do say to retailers is that they should stop selling those rival products which don’t sell through, and instead focus on the products that are selling through and generate retail value and return on investment."
To give 'those rival products' some context, Sportouch stated to MCV, "I’m not here to talk about the competition, but one of our competitors we outsell nine to one, eight to one or seven to one depending on the week. The last GfK research showed that we have a 50 per cent market share of the music category – which includes Rock Band, Wii Music, SingStar and every other music game."
So, you could say that every single other music game on the market could fall into the category... or not. Nice does of plausible deniability there. You might also consider that telling retailers to stop selling products that don't sell is tantamount to calling them idiots. You might, we couldn't possibly comment.
"One thing I do say to retailers is that they should stop selling those rival products which don’t sell through, and instead focus on the products that are selling through and generate retail value and return on investment."
To give 'those rival products' some context, Sportouch stated to MCV, "I’m not here to talk about the competition, but one of our competitors we outsell nine to one, eight to one or seven to one depending on the week. The last GfK research showed that we have a 50 per cent market share of the music category – which includes Rock Band, Wii Music, SingStar and every other music game."
So, you could say that every single other music game on the market could fall into the category... or not. Nice does of plausible deniability there. You might also consider that telling retailers to stop selling products that don't sell is tantamount to calling them idiots. You might, we couldn't possibly comment.
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Comments
Kiroziki 18 Sep 2009 11:21
1/2
Wow, you can tell whos head has inflated.. To be honest, what was the point with Guitar hero 5? its literally no difference from the previous series. They should off put the new song list as downloadable content. But atleast now they are as bigger scammers as EA and their crap.
ergo 18 Sep 2009 13:27
2/2
Uh, Michael: if they're making money on those products, what is their incentive to not carry them? If they weren't making money, after all, they likely would either buy less of them or stop carrying them--they certainly don't need clowns like you telling them how to do business, do they? (I mean sure: it'd be great if Rock Band just went away (for you, anyway), that way you could charge whatever you want being the only game in town but us consumers really do prefer to have options, if only to keep you on your pudgy toes.)