Guitar Hero III first game to reach $1 billion in sales

Publisher Activision has made over $1 billion with a single title, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, becoming the first video game ever to reach that mark in sales. A year after Activision announced that the entire franchise Guitar Hero had surpassed $1 billion, yet another record is set by the video-game industry.

Mike Griffith, Activision Publishing CEO, said in his keynote speech at CES that musicians whose music is featured in the game have seen a rise in music sales between 15 and 843 percent. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith sold three times as many copies as the band’s latest album.

Mike Griffith quoted to the BBC:

“Music has a history of evolving through technology and we are at the beginning of the latest chapter in that story.”

Griffith said that over a four year period, video game sales had risen 40%. And with a franchise like Guitar Hero, Activision has certainly hit the sweet spot, with thirteen releases and more on the way.

“Video games are poised to eclipse all other forms of entertainment in the decade ahead,” Griffith said, “The one thing that is for sure is entertainment is changed forever with gaming.”

Record breaking sales for a music video game is good for the music industry too, right?

Photo via playfuls.com
Source: ars technica, BBC, Gamedaily