Harmonix announced today that their popular Rock Band franchise, including sales of games, accessories and downloadable content, has surpassed $1 billion in sales in North American territories alone, a feat that only took them 15 months, according to research done by NPD Group. Augmented by the sale of over 40 million downloadable songs, the original Rock Band ended up making more money than any other game in 2008. The press release also noted that artists were benefitting from high sales as well, not only from royalty fees, but from increased album sales due to the exposure.
Harmonix definitely has a good sales model going for them; they made the monthly sales charts this year a couple times, in lower positions, but they’re working with a business model that doesn’t require enormous game sales to make tons and tons of money. Hats off to them.
