Guitar Hero shortage expected

By GamesIndustry International Published 28 March, 2006

Oh god not this again.

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, RedOctane CEO Kelly Sumner has admitted that the eagerly awaited Guitar Hero is likely to be in short supply when it launches in Europe next month due to manufacturing constraints on the innovative guitar controller.

In an exclusive interview with gi.biz, Sumner said that the firm has high expectations for the game in Europe following its hugely successful launch in North America late last year - but said that the company's early sales expectations are limited.

"We actually haven't got huge amounts of product," he explained. "It's an authorised game with an authorised peripheral and we have to manufacture it within the constraints of Sony's approved manufacturing guides. We can't just go to twenty different companies in China and ask them to produce as many as we'd like."

However, the firm's strategy allows for this shortage - and while Sumner predicts that there will be short supply of the game "for the first two months minimum" after its launch on April 7th, the main marketing campaign for the game isn't planned to kick off until September, when the situation should have improved.

"There's no point going into overkill when you haven't got the supply," he said. "We've got some interesting things planned which will come to light in the next couple of weeks based around concerts and festivals. But as far as TV and other ads are concerned that's really not going to start until September when we've got much more product availability."

Also in today's interview, Sumner discusses his ambitions for RedOctane, his plans to develop the firm as a specialist publisher of music videogames, and his concerns over the current state of development and the worryingly short shelf-life of many products.

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